In a bid to stave off allegations about manipulation of its ratings, A.C. Nielsen conducted a validation exercise today. According to TAM chief L.V. Krishnan, the validation exercise done across two points and consisting of two samples (one containing part of the list doing the rounds in media offices and one without that part) in April 2001 and 1 September 2001 highlights the fact that there has been no manipulation of ratings.
According to Krishnan, the Mumbai list which has been leaked has only 228 homes. "Our current panel strength is 312 homes and only 35 per cent of the leaked list homes exist; the rest have been done away with," he points out.

"We constituted two samples. One - set A - which has identities revealed and another which we called Total which had set A and the sample which did not have the identities not revealed," he reveals. "If the ratings were truly manipulated, then the ratings for the two sets of samples below would vary dramatically."

"But both in terms of channel share and Top shows in both April 2001 and September 2001 for both the samples, there were very marginal differences," he says. "This shows that there was no rigging." (Click here for Tam‘s presentation on the validation exercise)

"We reassure the industry that there has never been any tampering of the data," he points out. "Steps are being taken to enhance security systems. On the technology front, we are examining new options for retrieving data through telephone/radio/cellular modems - minimising manual interfaces."

Now it is over to industry to say its piece.

SET India CEO Kunal Dasgupta is in an angry mood. The reason: the overkill of the TRP for sale coverage on CNBC India. Dasgupta told indiantelevision.com that his company‘s name was unnecessarily being sucked into the picture. "No way do we have any say in all this. And we are not behind the discrediting the TRP campaign."
"There should be some editorial control on CNBC. It appears to be lacking," he says. "If it does not stop SET India will reconsider its distribution agreement with the channel. It‘s extremely irritating," he says.

SET India had earlier gone back on its agreement to invest in CNBC India. At one point it was scheduled to take a 20 per cent equity stake, but later decided against it.

Launching 24 September is a new sitcom from the Star India stable, fare somewhat different in flavour from that of the staple soap variety stock that Star has leveraged to its advantage.

However, Star has not lost track of what it has identified as the core premise of most of its serials - the politics of the family. Produced by Shrey Guleri, Hum Saat Aath Hain for a change revolves not between saas-bahu (mother-in-law daughter-in-law) sagas but revolves around the tensions between the patriarch of a Hindu united family and his well educated "modern" daughter-in-law. The half hour serial will be aired Mondays to Thursdays at 7:30 PM

Guleri‘s Tu Tu Main Main, a series on the squabbles between a woman and her daughter-in-law is the longest running show on Star Plus.

The launch of Hum Saat Aath Hain is part of Star India‘s strategy to expand by half an hour its evening prime time band from the current 8 PM to 11 PM slot. At the end of June, Sameer Nair, executive vice-president, head of content & communication, Star India, had said Star was looking to launch the new show to air at 7:30 PM sometime in the middle of August. "This is a first as far as channels go," Nair had said then, pointing to the fact that the 7-8 PM slot doesn‘t normally have fresh content as it is considered a non prime time slot.