The Indian Broadcasting & Digital Foundation (IBDF), the representative body for broadcasters in India, has refrained from offering a formal response to the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) on the contentious issue of landing pages proposed in the draft Television Rating Points (TRP) policy released in November. The ministry had sought stakeholder feedback on the proposal, but IBDF chose not to comment on the landing-page provision, even as it submitted responses on other aspects of the draft.
According to sources, IBDF’s silence stems from sharp differences of opinion among its members. While some broadcasters strongly oppose the proposed exclusion of landing-page viewership from ratings, others support the move. Only two broadcasters reportedly submitted written views to IBDF on the issue, making it difficult for the industry body to arrive at a consensus position. As a result, IBDF addressed other elements of the measurement policy draft but stayed away from the landing-page question altogether.
Sources told e4m that the I&B Ministry’s revised TRP policy is now ready, and the government is expected to instruct the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) to exclude landing-page viewership from ratings data once the new framework is notified.
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The landing-page issue has emerged as one of the most fiercely debated flashpoints in the broadcast industry since the MIB proposed its removal from television viewership measurement. Landing pages refer to the channel that appears automatically when a viewer switches on a set-top box. The proposal to exclude all impressions generated through such placements has triggered strong reactions from news broadcasters, multi-system operators (MSOs), and industry bodies, turning it into a defining point of contention in the government’s broader TRP overhaul.
exchange4media has accessed some of the submissions made to the ministry, including one from a news broadcaster that has urged the government to drop the proposal altogether. The broadcaster argued that excluding landing-page impressions would unfairly penalise broadcasters by wiping out legitimate audience engagement. It also pointed out that the timing of the move is problematic, as the issue of landing pages is already sub judice before the Supreme Court.
According to the broadcaster, landing pages serve as a legitimate content-discovery and marketing tool, helping viewers navigate an increasingly cluttered channel universe. Several other broadcasters, along with the All India Digital Cable Federation (AIDCF), have submitted similar objections to the ministry, opposing the exclusion of landing-page viewership from TRP calculations.
In its draft amendments issued in November 2025, the MIB proposed that any viewership arising from a “Landing Page” should no longer be counted under audience measurement. The draft explicitly states that landing pages may be used only as a marketing tool and not as a source of TRP data.
Beyond the landing-page provision, the draft also proposes a significant expansion of the TV ratings sample size. Rating agencies will be required to build a panel of at least 80,000 households within six months, with the panel expanding by 10,000 households every year until it reaches 1.2 lakh homes. Governance norms are also being tightened: only companies registered under the Companies Act, 2013 will be eligible to operate as rating agencies, and stricter cross-holding and conflict-of-interest rules will prevent broadcasters from having any stake in ratings firms.
These changes form part of the MIB’s broader effort to overhaul the TRP system, address long-standing concerns around inflated or artificially rigged ratings, and restore advertiser confidence in television measurement. Proponents of the landing-page exclusion argue that removing “forced visibility” created by auto-play on startup will ensure that TRP numbers better reflect genuine viewer choice and engagement, rather than conflating marketing tactics with true audience loyalty.
Why landing pages became television’s prime address
In the fragmented world of cable and DTH, attention is the scarcest commodity. Landing pages offered a shortcut. By paying a distribution platform to auto-play their channel on startup, broadcasters could instantly put themselves in front of millions of viewers, no surfing, no searching, no second choices. For high-stakes genres like news, movies, and general entertainment, that visibility often translated into higher TV ratings, which in turn meant better ad pricing. The model blurred ethical lines, a practice designed for marketing began to influence measurement, creating an uneven playing field where deeper pockets as smaller broadcasters say ‘could buy top positions’.
What the new clause actually means
The MIB’s latest draft amendment added after Clause 5.5.1 of the TRP guidelines seeks to cut that link. In simple terms, ratings agencies like BARC must exclude landing-page impressions from official audience data. Broadcasters may still purchase those slots, but purely for promotional visibility not for measurement gain. TRP calculations must reflect voluntary viewing, not automatic exposure.
The intent is to restore parity and transparency in a system long accused of conflating marketing spend with audience loyalty.
The ripple effect on the ecosystem
For broadcasters, the rule threatens a long-relied-on tactic for boosting reach metrics. Networks that invested heavily in landing slots may see their average ratings dip once those impressions are stripped out. Smaller or regional channels could benefit, competing on content strength rather than carriage clout.
“For distributors, landing pages have been a dependable source of revenue. If these placements are downgraded to ‘marketing only,’ their commercial value may shrink. DTH and cable players may need to re-price or re-package their offerings,” said a member of a national cable tv operator body.
For advertisers, the move promises cleaner, more credible TRP data. Without inflated figures, ad decisions can be based on real audience behaviour rather than placement-driven spikes.
The feasibility challenge
“The biggest question is implementation. Distinguishing an auto-play from a user-selected tune-in requires technological precision that India’s heterogeneous TV infrastructure may not yet have,” said a media buyer on conditions of anonymity.
“Thousands of MSOs, small cable operators, and local networks still operate without centralised data sharing. Identifying which households were exposed through landing-page auto-plays and filtering those out in real time is complex,” the media buyer added.
According to them, even within BARC’s Return Path Data (RPD) framework, such detections rely on deductive logic rather than direct tagging. In short: the intent is sound, but enforcement depends on systems that don’t fully exist yet.
A symbolic but significant reset
Despite the technical hurdles, the amendment carries symbolic weight. It’s a public statement that visibility is not viewership, a distinction long blurred in India’s broadcast economy.
For years, regulators, advertisers and rival broadcasters have argued that landing-page buys distort competition. By formally excluding such impressions from ratings, the MIB is aligning with global norms where automatic exposures are treated as promotional reach, not audience measurement.
The MIB’s consultation window remains open till early December, after which a final framework is expected. Whether or not the system can fully operationalise the clause, the message is unambiguous: In India’s next phase of television measurement, attention will have to be earned, not auto-played.