New Delhi Television Limited - NDTV

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 claim in the advertisement, or alternately to substantiate the claim 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, “NDTV uses its own data application which pulls actual numbers from the official YouTube APIs and collate the data to use it for reporting. NDTV has relied upon the data of YouTube API. The data represented is a replica of the data as availed from YouTube APIs, on the specified date and time as indicated in the Advertisement”. In support of their response, the advertiser provided a copy of the advertisement, and data extracted from official YouTube APIs as on 28th October 2024. The advertiser’s response along with the claim support data, was referred to an Independent technical expert of ASCI for an opinion in the matter. The expert's opinion was then shared with the complainant and the advertiser, who were given the opportunity to make additional submissions. However, neither the complainant nor the advertiser supplied any additional information. The Consumer Complaints Council (CCC) viewed the Ad – emailer, considered the complaint, the advertiser’s response along with the claim support data, and the expert’s opinion presented at the meeting. The CCC observed that the advertiser’s claim of, “NDTV 24x7 Half A Month And Already At No.1 – YouTube”, is qualified to mention the Source as “YouTube API, English Broadcasters, Views in Million, Videos published between 1st October’24 to 15th October’24: Data updated on 16th October 7:35 AM”. The CCC discussed that the data presented in the advertisement is directly sourced from the YouTube’s Application Programming Interface (API) collected during the period of October 1–15, 2024, and specifically at 7:35 a.m. on the final date. The advertisement focuses on video-on-demand (VOD) data, which refers to content like YouTube videos and Shorts that viewers can watch at any time. This data excludes any "long-running lives" (live events) that might have been on YouTube during the same period. The CCC further discussed that the complainant has used data from Databeings and Playboard, which are external sources that do not have direct access to YouTube's internal data. The complainant’s channel - Network 18's use of data from Data Beings and Playboard to challenge the advertiser’s channel - NDTV 24x7's YouTube API data appears to be incorrect. Based on these observations, the CCC concluded that the claim, “NDTV 24x7 Half A Month And Already At No.1 – YouTube”, is not objectionable. The said claim is not in contravention of Chapter I of the ASCI Code. This complaint was NOT UPHELD