Times Global Broadcasting Co. Ltd. - Times Now

Recommendation: Not Upheld | Medium: Industry Member

The ASCI had approached the advertiser for its response in addressing the grievances of the complainant and forwarded the details of the complaint, verbatim, to the advertiser with a request to respond to the same. The advertiser was offered an option to seek an Informal Resolution (IR) of the complaint by modifying or withdrawing the claims in the advertisement, or alternately to substantiate the claims with supporting data. The advertiser was also offered an opportunity for a telecon with the ASCI Secretariat, which they did not avail and submitted their response. The advertiser in their response stated that the advertisement is based on the average of 4 weeks of rolled data published by BARC for Weeks 25’25 to 28’25, which is permitted as per the Principles of Fair And Permissible Usage of BARC India Audience Estimates. They clarified that the TSV/ATS used in the mailer is a direct output from the YUMI software in HSM, 15+ years, only changed in format from HH:MM:SS to minutes using the same methodology. In support of their response, the advertiser provided communications by the complainant published in a manner inconsistent with this stated principle, and materials from other BARC members to show the commonly accepted industry practice of dissecting data for leadership claims. The advertiser’s response, along with the supporting data, was referred to an independent technical expert of ASCI for an opinion in the matter. The expert’s opinion was then shared with both the complainant and the advertiser for any additional submissions. The complainant did not respond to the technical opinion. The advertiser stated that they will not be submitting any additional documents, nor availing the option of a meeting with the technical expert and the ASCI Secretariat. They also declined the option of Informal Resolution or voluntary withdrawal of the claim/s. The Consumer Complaints Council (CCC) viewed the E-mailer advertisement, considered the complaint, the advertiser’s response along with the support data, and the expert’s opinion presented at the meeting. The CCC reviewed the complaint regarding the advertiser’s use of TSV (Time Spent per Viewer), which was claimed to be a manually calculated figure not available in the YUMI software. The CCC discussed that TSV and Average Time Spent per Viewer (ATS Viewer) refers to the same metric according to BARC’s definitions. The only difference is the format - TSV is presented in minutes, while YUMI provides it in hours, minutes, and seconds. Since both the terms represent the same data, using TSV does not violate BARC guidelines. Based on these observations, the CCC concluded that the advertisement is not in contravention of Chapter I of the ASCI Code. This complaint was NOT UPHELD.