Indian Tv channel firm, New Delhi Television Ltd (NDTV) has filed a law suit against TAM India and its international partners, Nielsen and Kantar over allegations of data manipulation in rankings.

NDTV is suing the companies for over $1.3 billion and accused them of manipulated data presentation on Tuesday. It filed a 194-page lawsuit in a court in New York claiming that manipulated viewership data in favor of channels who paid money to them.

The ratings war is heating in the Indian television industry with the ever growing number of channels n various languages. The data on viewership is used by advertisers to determine which channel to use for advertising. data on viewership patterns get the most sponsorship deals.

NDTV claimed that widespread data manipulation has been going on at the research companies since eight years. It claimed that the data indicated that fewer people were watching NDTV than the actual number of viewers and caused it huge financial losses. NDTV said that Nielsen and Kantor operate worldwide with a complex network of subsidiaries and joint ventures and has abused TAM's monopoly in India.

The company is demanding $810 million for fraud and at least $580 million to compensate for those losses, according to the lawsuit filed by the company.