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By Likha Cuevas-Miel Reporter
Television network GMA 7
allegedly funded bribing operations to discredit its rival ABS-CBN.
The allegation was made on
Wednesday by a reporter of a radio station owned by ABS-CBN.
It was promptly denied by GMA 7.
Junrie Hidalgo of dzMM allegedly
said, “AGB Nielsen umamin sa dayaan. GMA network tahasang
itinurong nasa likod ng dayaan. [AGB Nielsen admitted to cheating.
GMA network was pointed to as directly behind the cheating.]”
AGB Nielsen Media Research Phils.
undertakes ratings surveys for both networks. Last week, it was sued
for P81 million by ABS-CBN for allegedly manipulating such surveys.
Maya Reforma, the media research
firm’s general manager, submitted an affidavit in court that
“belied such accusation” made by Hidalgo.
In a statement, GMA 7 said dzMM
“erroneously” aired that AGB Nielsen had named it as the entity
behind the bribing operations that targeted metered homes in Bacolod
City, Negros Occidental, to sway so-called panel households’
viewing habits.
“There is no evidence that
shows any significant impact on [TV audience measurement] data as a
result of the activities purportedly launched by [GMA 7],” it
quoted Reforma’s affidavit.
ABS-CBN said in a separate
statement that it is “standing by [its] report [aired on] dzMM”
wherein Reforma supposedly identified GMA 7 as behind “certain
activities that resulted in exposing the affected panel homes”
during Hidalgo’s interview with the AGB Nielsen executive
yesterday morning.
“Please note that the civil
case ABS-CBN filed last Friday, December 14, was against AGB-Nielsen
Media Research Philippines, not against any other party,” ABS-CBN
added.
According to GMA 7, “Apart from
being improbable—the informant’s claims as bandied about by ABS-CBN—[were]
also not logical.”
On Tuesday, GMA 7 questioned the
veracity of the information divulged by its rival’s informant. It
said the 89-meter devices reportedly put up in Bacolod City are too
many since the entire Visayas region can accommodate only 400 panel
homes under AGB Nielsen’s data-gathering system.
“[GMA 7’s] ratings in the
provinces—particularly in the Visayas and Mindanao—have not had
any significant improvement since July 2007 when it started to
subscribe to the ratings of AGB. If there was any involvement in the
alleged tampering of panel homes in the area by [GMA 7], then its
ratings there should have experienced significant increases,” GMA
7 said.
In a separate statement, AGB
Nielsen said it already advised ABS-CBN that it was already
conducting an “exhaustive investigation” of the activities of
GMA 7 “and analyzing whether these activities had had an impact on
viewing data.”
GMA 7, however, denied conducting
“manipulative promo [promotion] efforts” anywhere in the country
and these legitimate promotions are geared toward the general TV
population of a certain locality as it has been spending
“considerable amounts of money” to strengthen its signal and
expand its reach. It said its rival conducts “more aggressive and
wide-scale promos” in Visayas and Mindanao.
“GMA 7 values integrity and
hard work as reflected by the credibility of its programs and its
corporate core values. It is not [its] style to play dirty. [Its]
programs are preferred and trusted by viewers in Luzon, Mega Manila
and Metro Manila as proved by the ratings. A trial by publicity is
not only unfair and damaging to [GMA 7] but also to its millions of
loyal viewers . . . [It] is determined to get at the bottom of this
allegation. [GMA 7] reserves the right to take such action as may be
warranted, to protect its interests and reputation,” the network
said.
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