The debate around TRAI's Landing Page directive in 2019

On May 29, 2019 as the judgment of the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) set aside the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI)’s landing page directive dated December 3, 2018. The judgment was only the beginning of months of debates and discussions on landing page; who owns it, who pays for it, who gains from it and so on. The judgment had opened a 'Pandora's box' of confusion among both broadcasters and authority.

What was the judgment after all? Explaining the judgment to exchange4media, legal expert Harsh Walia had said, “The primary basis for setting aside the direction is lack of jurisdiction of TRAI to issue it in the first place. In its judgment, TDSAT has unequivocally held that TRAI does not have powers to issue directions for 'controlling contents of the landing page for TRP purposes' under the provision of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India Act, 1997 that was relied upon by TRAI to issue the direction.”

While the initial reaction was that of celebration, not all broadcasters were party to it. But why?

Following TDSAT’s ruling, BARC India announced that they would include the ratings of channels placed on landing page in its weekly ratings data. Post the decision when BARC put out Week 22 data, CNN News 18 was on the number one spot followed by Republic TV, Times Now, DD India and India Today Television. Most broadcasters felt this data from Week 22 was reflective of how broadcasters with deep pockets manipulate the ratings with huge investments in landing page.

Week 22 ratings were thus under thorough scrutiny by broadcasters as BARC put out the numbers without filtering out the outliers.

Quite naturally the next step was protest. Many broadcasters detested the move that nullified TRAI’s restraint on all broadcasters and distributors of TV channels from placing any registered TV channel on the landing page. A group of broadcasters had apparently also written a letter to BARC, requesting it to “reconsider and reinstate the appropriate moderation policies”.

Next came a big question. Is investing in landing page a bona fide marketing activity or an unethical practice? Like most other issues in the industry this too had two schools of thought. One side obviously thought that it manipulates ratings and the other was of the opinion that it makes perfect sense in the television business to invest on landing page.  

“TDSAT is an appellate tribunal. So this is not a ‘TDSAT policy’. It’s a judgment. This is a case that has been heard by them for over six months, with arguments from both sides and they have taken a learned view on the subject. So, this is not a unilateral ‘policy’. We believe that landing pages are a bona fide marketing mechanism,” said MK Anand, MD & CEO, Times Network.

Another week passed with ongoing debates of whether landing page data should be taken under consideration to calculate ratings and before Week 23 numbers were put out by BARC it was said BARC took a decision to go back to their initial method of calculating ratings and neutralize outlier numbers.

That didn’t however put the protest among broadcasters regarding ratings to rest. The industry was still torn between whether BARC did the right thing by going back to their initial method of calculation viewership impressions. BARC then appointed Nakul Chopra and Praveen Tripathi to set up a two-member committee to make an assessment of the whole issue. The move came in handy to calm down broadcasters and their appointment reiterated BARC board’s commitment to give confidence to the industry and stakeholders their spokesperson had said.

Finally in October,  the two member committee’s report cleared BARC outlier policy as unbiased and accurate. Post the committee’s report the chatter on landing page died down for a while, the debate around what channels use them and whether it is legit to do still remains in discussion and is not seen to be coming to an end anytime soon.