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Government Asks BARC to Suspend TV Ratings Until Registration Compliance

Ad Tribe! Bureau2 min read
Government Asks BARC to Suspend TV Ratings Until Registration Compliance

India's Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has directed the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) to suspend TV ratings publication, across news and non-news genres alike, until it completes registration under the new Television Ratings Policy, 2026.

Why BARC Was Asked to Suspend TV Ratings

The directive stems from Clause 14.2 of the new policy, which states that no television ratings agency can generate or publish ratings until it complies with the updated regulatory framework. The 2026 policy replaced the previous 2014 framework in March, and BARC, India's sole TV audience measurement agency, is now working through registration under the new rules rather than facing a permanent shutdown.

What the New Policy Actually Changes

The Television Ratings Policy, 2026 lowers the minimum net worth requirement for a ratings agency from ₹20 crore to ₹5 crore, expands the measurement panel to between 80,000 and 120,000 metered homes, and mandates technology-neutral measurement across cable, DTH, terrestrial TV, OTT and connected TVs. It also introduces mandatory internal and external audits with graded penalties for non-compliance.

BARC's weekly viewership data is the benchmark the Indian media and advertising industry uses for planning and programme evaluation, which makes this a suspension with real, immediate consequences for buying and scheduling decisions even though it's framed as procedural. Media planners who lean on BARC numbers to justify spend will be working without their usual reference point until the registration process clears.

Because BARC has effectively operated as a monopoly measurement provider since its founding, there is no ready alternative dataset for the industry to fall back on in the interim. Broadcasters, media agencies and advertisers will likely rely on internal proprietary metrics and platform-reported numbers until ratings publication resumes, a gap that could reshape negotiating leverage for the duration of the suspension.

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