The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) has released a comprehensive draft of new policy guidelines for Television Rating Points (TRP) measurement. This bold reform aims to dismantle restrictive clauses that have for years kept potential competitors out, failed to reflect the country’s massive digital shift, and allowed one player—BARC (Broadcast Audience Research Council)—to dominate the space without sufficient accountability.
The draft policy, made public on July 2, 2025, has been thrown open to stakeholder and citizen feedback for 30 days, signalling the government’s intent to democratise, decentralise, and technologically upgrade India’s outdated audience measurement system.
Why the current TRP system is broken
India today has over 230 million TV households, but the audience measurement system that guides multi-billion-dollar ad decisions is based on just 58,000 people meters—a penetration of only 0.025 per cent. This minuscule sample size has long been criticised by industry veterans, advertisers, and media professionals for being statistically inadequate and deeply skewed.
More importantly, BARC’s current system fails to track the digital evolution of Indian viewers—especially the sharp rise in content consumption via:
- Smart TVs
- Mobile devices
- OTT platforms
- Connected devices like Fire TV Stick, Android Boxes, and Smart Dongles
With urban and even semi-urban households increasingly opting for non-linear content consumption, the absence of integrated digital viewership data in TRP metrics has made the current system obsolete and misleading.
Major issues plaguing the existing framework
- BARC Monopoly: As the sole authorised TRP agency since 2014, BARC has faced criticism for its lack of innovation, slow response to industry demands, and alleged manipulation vulnerabilities. Multiple controversies have surfaced regarding biased ratings and TRP fraud.
- Technological Stagnation: BARC has failed to upgrade its tech infrastructure to accommodate multi-screen behaviour, ignoring the exponential rise in streaming viewership.
- Restrictive Entry Barriers: The existing guidelines, especially Clauses 1.4, 1.5, and 1.7, blocked competition by disallowing advisory roles, limiting cross-holdings, and imposing rigid structural rules. This discouraged innovation and investment from major broadcasters and tech firms who could have improved the system.
No Incentive for Transparency: With no rivals and limited regulatory push, BARC has operated in an opaque manner, with little accountability to the very broadcasters and advertisers that depend on its data.
The new draft policy flips the script on the old, monopolistic setup. Here’s how:
- Opening the Sector to Multiple Players: By eliminating Clauses 1.5 and 1.7, the government will allow new rating agencies to enter the TRP ecosystem. This would create competition, drive technological advancements, and dilute the undue dominance of any single entity. Stakeholders such as tech companies, media analytics firms, and even academic institutions could enter with innovative audience measurement models.
- Relaxing Clause 1.4 for Operational Flexibility: The earlier condition that a company’s Memorandum of Association (MoA) must not include consultancy or advisory services has been revised. The updated clause ensures only that no activity should cause a conflict of interest, enabling greater ease of business entry.
- Focus on Digital Integration: The amendments signal a strategic pivot toward connected TV, streaming apps, and mobile-based tracking technologies, ensuring that India’s growing digital audience is not invisible anymore. This is particularly vital for advertisers and OTT platforms whose revenues hinge on accurate engagement metrics across platforms.
- Attracting Stakeholder Investment: Previously, broadcasters and advertisers were prevented from investing in TRP agencies. The new policy allows them to participate, enabling funding for better infrastructure, AI-driven analytics, and privacy-compliant data collection tools.
In a democratic move, the Ministry has opened the draft for public consultation, encouraging broadcasters, digital content creators, advertisers, civil society groups, tech firms, and ordinary citizens to submit their feedback within 30 days of the draft’s release.
This step reflects the government’s recognition that audience measurement is not just a commercial tool—but a public utility, shaping everything from advertising trends to content development, media ethics, and newsroom priorities.
The impact of this reform could be massive:
- TV News & GECs (General Entertainment Channels) will now compete on a level playing field with OTT platforms, as digital viewership finally enters the official TRP radar.
- Ad revenues could become more accurately distributed, reducing the incentive to sensationalise or manufacture TRP wars.
- Viewers across rural, regional, and tier-2/3 cities may now see their preferences better represented in content decisions.
- Smaller media houses and digital creators may benefit from a more decentralised and tech-savvy rating mechanism.
This reform is not just administrative—it’s philosophical. It challenges the status quo, dismantles a cartelised rating structure, and affirms that in the age of digital India, data must be democratic, transparent, and technologically robust.
The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has sent a clear signal: TV ratings are too important to be monopolised, and too outdated to be trusted in their current form. With over $10 billion in annual advertising spend riding on TRP numbers, these changes may reshape not only India’s television landscape but also the entire digital content economy.
