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.