Television
BARC redraws TV ratings playbook as landing pages lose power
New TV Ratings Policy 2026 removes default landing page viewership from ratings
MUMBAI: The remote may still switch on the channel, but under BARC’s new rulebook, that no longer means the viewer has truly “tuned in”. The Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) has rolled out a detailed operational framework explaining how landing page viewership will now be excluded from television ratings under the government’s new TV Ratings Policy 2026, a move that could significantly reshape how channels chase eyeballs and advertising revenue.
In fresh guidelines issued to broadcasters, BARC clarified that any viewership generated through landing pages, the default channels that automatically appear when viewers switch on set-top boxes will no longer count towards official ratings.
The revised framework follows the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting’s policy notification issued on 27 March 2026, which stated that landing pages may continue purely as a marketing tool, but not as a ratings booster.
BARC’s latest communication now explains exactly how that separation will work in practice.
Under the new mechanism, if a watermarked channel appears as the first viewed channel in a viewing session because of a landing page arrangement, that exposure will be completely ignored in ratings calculations. The same exclusion will apply to watermarked static and audio-visual barker pages.
However, there is an important distinction.
If viewers later continue watching the same channel voluntarily, revisit it after surfing elsewhere, or actively tune into it during the same session, that consumption will still be measured and reflected in ratings data.
In essence, BARC is attempting to distinguish passive exposure from active viewer choice, a debate that has quietly shaped India’s television distribution wars for years.
Landing pages have long been a powerful promotional tool for broadcasters, particularly during major launches, elections, sporting events and high-stakes programming battles. Channels often secured prime landing page placements through distribution deals with cable and DTH operators, effectively guaranteeing instant visibility every time viewers powered on their televisions.
Critics, however, argued that such placements inflated ratings artificially by capturing accidental eyeballs rather than deliberate viewing intent.
The new framework appears designed to close that loophole.
To operationalise the system, broadcasters will now have to submit weekly disclosures to BARC detailing every landing page and barker page placement. For a ratings week running from Saturday to Friday, declarations must be filed by 8 pm on the preceding Thursday.
The disclosures will need to include channel names, language feeds, operator details, geography, placement duration, landing page positions and slot-wise schedules wherever applicable.
BARC said it will provide broadcasters with a dedicated portal and secure login credentials for these submissions.
Importantly, the ratings body has also shifted compliance responsibility squarely onto broadcasters. If undeclared landing page placements emerge through complaints or contradictory information, BARC said it would be obligated to report the matter directly to the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting.
The operational overhaul forms part of the wider TV Ratings Policy 2026, which also mandates larger audience sample sizes, annual establishment surveys, cross-platform audience measurement spanning linear TV, OTT and connected TV, alongside tighter audit and transparency requirements.
Alongside the measurement overhaul, BARC has also outlined its FY27 pricing structure for broadcasters.
Under the revised cess/base price model, broadcasters will pay either 0.8 per cent of net television advertising revenue or Rs 20 lakh per channel annually, whichever is higher.
The pricing examples shared by BARC reveal how dramatically costs could vary depending on network scale. A broadcaster with two channels and Rs 60 crore in advertising revenue would pay Rs 48 lakh annually under the 0.8 per cent formula. But a smaller network with the same number of channels and only Rs 5 crore in revenue would still pay the minimum Rs 40 lakh base fee.
BARC has also retained premium data products including Prime and Supreme analytics packages, Spottrek ad tracking services and behavioural targeting tools as part of its broader ratings ecosystem.
The ratings body said it is currently aligning its internal systems with the revised framework and will conduct a broadcaster webinar on 22 May 2026 to address implementation-related questions.
For broadcasters, the message is becoming increasingly clear: in India’s next television ratings era, merely appearing on screen may no longer be enough.
