Kantar Indian Hearing Adjourned Again

Five months on from its last adjournment and more than a year after the announcement which triggered it, Kantar Media Research's appeal against Indian government guidelines affecting its TAM TV audience measurement service has been postponed once more, this time until May 12th.

Justice Rajiv Shakdher, in the Delhi High court, this week asked the Indian Broadcasting Federation to file an affidavit in two weeks and to file a rejoinder for the same. Counsels Nisha Bhambhani and Abhishek Malhotra, representing the News Broadcasters' Association and the IBF respectively, briefly discussed the guidelines, which stipulate that no investor can hold more than 10% equity holdings in both a TV ratings agency and a broadcaster or advertising company in the country. TAM, being a 50:50 joint venture between Nielsen and Kantar, was the obvious loser by the ruling, and even without the ownership hurdle would be required by it to raise its sample size from a then total of 9,600 panel homes to a stated minimum of 20,000.

The guidelines would have left the country without audience currency for most of last year, so the delay has not been altogether inconvenient. DRNO last reported on an adjournment on the case in July.