International auditor finds tampering of rating in favour of Express channels

KARACHI: The Board of Directors of Pakistan Broadcasters Association (PBA) met on Saturday (September 19, 2015). The meeting was the fifth in a series of board meetings since Medialogic, the television audience measurement company, had made a complaint regarding tampering of viewership ratings by the Express channels (Television Media Network).
In previous board meetings, PBA had decided to ask a third party international auditor to independently investigate the allegations of Medialogic against Express.
The purpose of the meeting was, first, to hear the independent auditor, and to allow the board members and the accused Express News, an opportunity to ask him any questions and, second, to conduct a hearing of the showcause proceedings and reach a decision regarding the tampering allegation.
Mr Robert Ruud, the international auditor, told the board that over eight months of data of all the channels was audited including Express, representing 6,000 individuals in the TAM (Television Audience Measurement) panel and 12 million data points. The auditor concluded that there was an undeniable evidence of tampering in favour of Express channels. While Mr Robert Ruud appeared and duly clarified aspects of his report and answered the queries from the board, the hearing of the showcause proceedings could not be concluded due to the non-appearance of Mr Sultan Lakhani (Express News) who through an email asked for more time and more documents to file a reply.
In the interests of justice, the PBA Board allowed the Express News 10 more days to file a reply and appear before the board. The board also extended the earlier suspension of Express News from the PBA until the conclusion of the showcause proceedings.
The above was passed unanimously by the PBA Board.
Robert Ruud is a technical adviser to the Norwegian Media Businesses Association and has played a central role in introducing the TAM meters in Norway. Robert is a Master’s in Social Science from the Oslo University and has done TAM audits and consulting in Romania, Norway, Lebanon, the UAE, Poland, Ukraine, Russia, Switzerland, Denmark, Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Croatia, South Africa and Pakistan.
Sources who attended the PBA Board meeting claimed that the same auditor, Robert Ruud, was appointed in 2014, unanimously by the PBA Board, including Express, to do an annual audit of Medialogic. Express representative Sultan Lakhani was also the PBA’s finance secretary at the time and approved the payment for the audit service and therefore Express is having difficulty responding to the auditor or raising doubts about him.
Sources who saw the presentation claim that Robert Ruud concluded that Express channels had benefited from the tampering of the ratings system since January 2015. Ruud told the PBA that sophisticated statistical analysis without doubt proved that more than 70% of ratings increase for Express came from tampering. He further concluded that Express channels were given this illegal benefit for at least six months and that anyone who has any experience in auditing in this field would come to the same conclusion after analysing the data. Sources said that Ruud told the board that he has worked in over a dozen countries and audited many such complaints but the Express channel rigging is an extreme example of illegal tampering with the ratings system. Sources also claim that the earlier estimate of 450m loss was under-reported and the actual loss to industry is in billions of rupees.
In the previous board meeting held on September 9th, 2015, the PBA had issued a showcause notice to Express, attaching the alleged evidences from Medialogic. The evidence included multiple affidavits of household members who claimed that they were asked to watch Express channels in return for money, affidavits of Medialogic employees who claimed that they were paid by people to push the viewing of Express channels, and bank account and financial transactions trail showing Express paying certain Express employees who then paid the Medialogic staff members. A TV recording was also included where an Express Group employee is asking Medialogic persons to tamper ratings and in case of any negative consequences Express Group’s companies including Colgate Palmolive and McDonalds will have vacancy for them.
Instead of giving the PBA even a single reply to any of the allegations, Express has resorted to giving conspiracy theories in its own media. There is hardly any doubt now in the media industry and experts from it that Express is guilty of the crime. Experts from the industry also remind that in 2008-9, two times at least the same accusations were made against Express of tampering with ratings to increase its own profits unfairly at the expense of the entire industry.
In Pakistan there are very few examples of industry associations or institutions to catch and punish one of their own for crimes they have committed or unfair practices.
The ratings scandal of Express became public 50 days ago but there is no conclusion so far. It remains to be seen will Pakistan’s largest broadcaster association be able to do justice or give protection to one of its own as is routine in the country across all institutions.