MUMBAI: Cacophony. There?s been a lot of noise about what?s been happening with TAM?s TV ratings as of this week. Reports have been that several networks have started getting reported on a monthly basis and that TAM was responsible for taking this step.

The facts now. Four broadcast networks - Star India group, Network18 group, Zee Group, , and Sony Entertainment Television Network - and three news networks - BAG Network, The Times Television Network and NDTV group - have requested that ratings be reported on them on a monthly basis. TAM will continue to monitor and report on the rest of the broadcasters as it used to in the past with weekly reports.

Then, TAM says the entire reporting methodology will change to absolute numbers as against share percentages as was the practice earlier.This is being done only for those clients who have requested for it. Deals between broadcasters and advertisers will as a corollary be done on a cost per mille or thousand basis as against cost per rating point as is the practice now.

The number of channels under these four broadcast networks and news networks tots up to about 100 and represents a big bite of television advertising revenues nationally. Estimates are that these account for almost 60-70 per cent of total annual TV ad revenues. So for media planners and buyers it is going to be quite a handful to deal with.

TAM says it is bound by contract to service its clients in the manner they want and it is only complying with their requests.

The decision clearly shows the power shift that has taken place in the media industry with broadcasters increasingly having their way with advertisers and agencies. A couple of months ago, the Indian Broadcasting Foundation got the AAAI and ISA to agree to move to net billings from gross billings which had been a practice for more than half a century.

MUMBAI: A New York federal judge has found that Apple colluded with major book publishers to inflate the price of e-books.

The Department of Justice brought the lawsuit in April 2012 and alleged that Apple had acted as the "hub" in a hub-and-spoke conspiracy to move the book industry from a "wholesale" model dominated by Amazon.com to an "agency" model where Apple and other e-retailers would take commissions. The result of the actions resulted in e-books being sold past the $9.99 price point that was regularly used by Amazon.

The big publishers settled the government?s claims, leaving Apple to defend its own actions in a three-week trial last month.

In a ruling on Wednesday, US District Judge Denise Cote said the government has proven its case.

"The plaintiffs have shown that the publisher defendants conspired with each other to eliminate retail price competition in order to raise e-book prices, and that Apple played a central role in facilitating and executing that conspiracy," wrote Judge Cote in a 160-page ruling. "Without Apple?s orchestration of this conspiracy, it would not have succeeded as it did in the Spring of 2010."