I&B Ministry
India tells TV rating agencies to hit 80,000 metered homes or get out
New Delhi sets hard deadlines, demanding bigger samples and independent directors
NEW DELHI: India’s television ratings industry is getting a rude awakening. The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting fired off a sharp set of amendments on May 8th to its TV Ratings Policy 2026, and the message to rating agencies is unambiguous: clean up, scale up, or get out.
The order, signed by Shiv Ram Meena, under secretary to the government of India, amends four key provisions of the guidelines issued barely six weeks earlier on March 27th, 2026, a sign that New Delhi thinks the original rules did not go nearly far enough.
The most pointed change goes to the heart of governance. At least 33 per cent of every rating agency’s board of directors must now be independent, with no direct or indirect ties to broadcasters, advertisers or advertising agencies. The intent is plain: to break the cosy relationships that have long made India’s ratings system a target of suspicion.
On scale, the government is pulling no punches. Agencies must operate a minimum of 80,000 metered homes. New entrants get 18 months to hit that number; existing agencies get just nine. The establishment survey used to estimate the total “TV universe”, covering the number of households with televisions, their socio-economic profiles and their viewing infrastructure, must be conducted once every three years and must cover at least ten times the number of metered homes. That is a considerable logistical and financial ask.
Existing agencies have 60 days from notification to register under the new guidelines, a tight window that signals impatience from a ministry that has spent years trying to bring rigour to a system riddled with complaints of manipulation and under-representation.
The order comes into force with immediate effect, which in the language of Indian bureaucracy means there is no wriggle room and no grace period.
For an industry long accused of running on thin panels, murky methodology and vested interests, the reckoning has arrived, and it is on a clock.
