Two days after Sony Entertainment Television put out positive figures on the television viewer ratings (TVRs) of its gameshow Jeeto Chappar Phaad Ke, there‘s a mysterious email out debunking it all.

The mail has been sent out by "a friendly ghost" (not your regular Casper type though) and asks the question "kiska kya phadaa?" (impossible to translate but the general drift could be "who‘s punctured who?)

Looking at the TAM data released from an all-India perspective, the figures show a weighted average TVR of 6.8 points for five episodes, much lower than the 11 point TVR which Sony had put out. The key difference here is that south side figures pull down JCPK‘s TVRs like crazy. Basically because JCPK has virtually zero takers in the south.

Asked for his reaction, Sony CEO Kunal Dasgupta was dismissive. "It is obvious that the figures we put out would be based on results coming in from the north. Those in the know know what the truth is," Dasgupta said. (It is acknowledged that JCPK targets Hindi speaking audiences).

Sony programming head Rekha Nigam echoed Dasgupta in saying that TVR from the north were what they were interested in. "I try to put all these things out of my mind and get on with work," Nigam said.

Looks like the channel wars are heating up in right earnest and we can expect ever more creative expressions of it.

Sony Entertainment Television CEO Kunal Dasgupta is in a fiery mood. Just back from power packed meetings with senior Sony Pictures Entertainment executives in Los Angeles, Dasgupta had one question on his mind. "What‘s happened to the deal hawking off DD-2 to another company for 10 years?"

He says if the government is open to giving away more of DD Metro to any other company, he‘d like Sony have a go at it. "If they‘re going to give away terrestrial, Sony Entertainment will take away the entire terrestrial frequency," he elaborated. "We want to get SET onto DD."

With Sony now throwing its hat into the DD-2 sellout game, one will have to wait and watch for responses from Star, Zee TV, Sahara and B4U. Can we hear Sun TV‘s Kalanithi Maran also beating the same drum?

Kerry Packer and Channel Nine India boss Ravina Raj Kohli may be in for a spat if Dasgupta and the rest of the television executives mean business.