I&B Ministry
Government overhauls TV rating rules to tighten transparency and accountability
New 2026 policy widens metered homes, cuts entry barriers and adds independent audits
NEW DELHI: India’s TV ratings game is getting a proper shake-up. The ministry of information and broadcasting has rolled out the Television Rating Policy 2026, replacing the old 2014 guidelines with a sharper rulebook designed to make audience measurement more transparent, independent and accountable.
The reforms read like a genuine reset. The net worth requirement for rating agencies drops from Rs 20 crore to Rs 5 crore, opening the door to more players. Measurement itself goes technology-neutral, covering connected TVs and TV channels streamed on OTT platforms, not just traditional sets. The sample size gets a serious boost too, with metered homes expanding from 50,000 to 80,000, sharpening the accuracy of the numbers that drive advertising and programming decisions across the industry.
The policy also introduces periodic establishment surveys every three years, strips landing pages out of viewership computation to avoid inflated numbers, and mandates annual independent audits. Non-compliance now carries a graded penalty framework, meaning consequences scale with the severity of the breach.
On governance, the safeguards are tight: cross-holding restrictions to prevent conflicts of interest, a minimum 33 per cent independent directors on agency boards, a ban on consultancy or advisory work that could compromise neutrality, and security clearance requirements alongside audit and transparency obligations.
Every entity in the TV ratings business will need to register afresh under the new policy and meet these additional requirements. As things stand, no agency has yet registered, though the policy places no cap on how many can. The field, in other words, is wide open.
The clarification came from L Murugan, Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting and Parliamentary Affairs, in a written reply to an unstarred question raised by John Brittas in the Rajya Sabha.
With sharper sampling, tighter governance and lower barriers to entry, India’s TV ratings system is set for its most significant overhaul in over a decade.
