The panel will be run by the heads of three industry bodies - the Media Specialists Association of the Philippines (MSAP), Philippine Association of National Advertisers (PANA) and the Philippine 4As - who want to prevent a repeat of the row between broadcasters ABS-CBN and GMA Network over ratings figures.
ABS-CBN and GMA became involved in a bitter dispute over alleged irregularities in viewing data recorded by AGB Nielsen Media Reseach in December.
In January, the dispute escalated to a civil lawsuit filed by ABS-CBN, which accused the research firm of releasing TV ratings from metered households that were tampered with after accepting bribes.
Lizelle Maralag, MD of Starcom Philippines, who is co-chair of the MSAP, said: “The panel is a reflection of the fact that a breach of the AGB Nielsen TV panel homes occurred. This concerns us because we have to make sure that the integrity of the data of the TV panel is strictly enforced. Media agencies and clients want to be 100 per cent reassured that the research controls are in place to negate the effect of any subsequent panel breach.”
The panel was set up a week after a Quezon City judge threw out the suit filed by ABS-CBN against AGB Nielsen. Judge Charito B Gonzales stated that ABS-CBN was “premature” in its actions, and should give the research firm one month to investigate the matter, as stipulated in AGB Nielsen’s service contract.
“It cannot be concluded that AGB Nielsen neglected its duty under the service contract to resolve and address the problem. ABS-CBN's resort to court is therefore premature,” Gonzales said.
The row broke out in December following a series of accusations and counter-arguments by ABS-CBN and GMA when ABS-CBN, the leading broadcaster, pointed out discrepancies in ratings reports released by AGB Nielsen.
AGB Nielsen was then ordered to stop releasing its rating reports for 20 days, prompting the research firm to point at GMA staff as the perpetrators behind their tampered ratings.
The latest dispute marks a long line of disagreements between the two rival networks with ratings from AGB Nielsen. In December 2006, GMA accused ABS-CBN of having an inside source at AGB Nielsen, to disrupt ratings of GMA programmes on cable networks.
