Indian High Court Gives TAM Time

An Indian court has given ratings agency TAM a lifeline, postponing some provisions of the government's recent policy guidelines which would have left the company in breach and the country without audience currency for most of the year.

Justice Manmohan of the High Court in Delhi issued a stay order on the guidelines, published in January and due to come into effect from midnight tonight, which stipulate that no investor can hold more than 10% equity holdings in both a TV ratings agency and a broadcaster or advertising company - TAM is a 50:50 joint venture between Nielsen and Kantar. The decision, which postpones implementation of the rules until another hearing on 6th March, came in response to an appeal by Kantar Media, whose counsel underlined that the guidelines were issued through an executive action without any statutory authority of law, and effectively interfered with the freedom of speech and expression.

Meanwhile TAM has been instructed to publish a complete list of its stakeholders and its major clients within two weeks.

On January 20th the country's new TV ratings regulator body, BARC, confirmed rumours that French company Médiamétrie had been chosen as its official technology partner, and would provide licences to BARC to use its TV metering system - however the new service is due to commence only in the autumn.

Web site: www.tamindia.com .

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.

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