ABS-CBN FIGHTS BACK! POINTING GMA-7 TO STAY OUT OF THE ISSUE!

As reply, ABS-CBN's corporate communications head, Bong Osorio, sent this brief text message : "Why is GMA making a comment when it is not party to this case?"

It may be recalled that the issue between ABS-CBN and AGB Nielsen started in 2007, when ABS-CBN accused GMA-7 of ratings fraud in the areas of Bacolod and Iloilo.

AGB was the ratings service provider to both stations at the time.Former employees of GMA-7's regional group, interviewed by ABS-CBN's TV Patrol, claimed that Regional GMA (RGMA) president Miguel "Mike" Enriquez was involved in the alleged ratings fraud.

Enriquez—who, with Mel Tiangco, is also the primetime news anchor of GMA-7— vehemently denied the accusations made by the former RGMA employees.

 In an official statement, he said: "I would like to reiterate GMA Network's stand that it has never conducted any special operation to manipulate TV and Radio ratings in its favor.

 "I vehemently deny presiding in any meeting regarding ratings manipulation and/or special operations in Iloilo or anywhere else."

The fallout of the controversy was that ABS-CBN dropped AGB Nielsen and turned to Kantar/TNS for its source of TV ratings.

 GMA-7, for its part, continued to use AGB Nielsen as its ratings service provider. It still does.

 AGB NIELSEN & KANTAR. AGB Nielsen is a market research firm that measures audience viewership, for TV ratings, in certain areas in the Philippines.

 According to its website, AGB Nielsen began conducting Television Audience Measurement (TAM) for the Philippine broadcast and advertising industries in 1992.

 It was then called Nielsen Media Research; in 1999, it was called AGB Philippines; and in 2006, it became AGB Nielsen, the name it carries today.

 As AGB Nielsen, it created a national television audience measurement panel that it called National Urban Television Audience Measurement (NUTAM), which it claims covered 95 percent of the country's urban areas.

Its Metro City TAM conducts reports on three metropolitan cities it does not name in its website, plus reports on the cities of Cebu, Iloilo, and Davao.

 Aside from GMA-7, AGB Nielsen also provides ratings information to TV5.

 Kantar/TNS, on the other hand, says it set up its TAM panel at the start of 2007, and claims to have released data to ABS-CBN and GMA in September 2007.

 The TNS Global Market Research website also says: "TNS Media Research Philippines officially released its national television audience measurement data on February 2009.

 "The panel, composed of 1370 representative households, covers urban Philippines and reports on 7 sectors namely NCR, Suburbs, North Luzon, Central Luzon, South Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao."

Currently, among the three television giants ABS-CBN, GMA-7, and TV5, Kantar provides ratings research to ABS-CBN.

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