The government has stripped India’s telecom regulator of oversight over television ratings, taking full control of the system that influences billions of dollars in advertising spending.
The 2026 policy released last week hands complete oversight to the ministry of information and broadcasting (MIB), showed the document reviewed by Mint. Until now, both the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) and the ministry shared oversight, creating a dual system.
Trai, however, continues to regulate other key aspects of the broadcasting and cable TV sector, including channel pricing, advertising limits, interconnection and distribution rules, service quality, and compliance standards.
The policy has also issued guidelines to establish standards for the registration, operation, audit, and oversight of all entities engaged in providing television rating services in India.
TV ratings track what millions of people watch every day and dictate where advertising money is spent. Indian companies spent ₹36,200 crore on television advertising, including connected TVs, in 2025, according to an EY-Ficci report released in March. But ratings are mired in controversy, with the Mumbai Police in 2020 probing Broadcast Audience Research Council (Barc) for alleged manipulation of numbers.
By removing Trai from the oversight structure and concentrating these powers with the ministry, the policy may raise concerns about the absence of an independent regulatory check in the TV ratings ecosystem, said Rahul Mehta, partner, King Stubb & Kasiva, Advocates and Attorneys. Since TV ratings directly influence advertising revenue, broadcaster competitiveness, and market credibility, independent supervision is often considered important to maintain transparency and industry trust, he said.
Queries emailed to Trai and MIB on Tuesday did not elicit any response until press time.
Broadcasters have often disagreed with the regulator in the past, arguing that price caps and bouquet rules limit their ability to price their content freely and hurt their revenues. The regulator’s move to enforce a 12-minute-a-hour advertising cap also faced resistance, with the industry calling it rigid and out of step with market realities
“Being a broadcasting sector regulator as well, Trai has been actively involved in the earlier policy frameworks pertaining to the TV Ratings framework. The government has the right to modify the provisions of the policy, keeping in view the sector’s interest,” said an official who didn’t want to be identified while discussing a regulatory issue.
What changes
In 2012, MIB had approached Trai for guidelines and an accreditation mechanism for TV rating agencies in the country. On the regulator’s recommendations, the government issued the policy framework in 2014.
Among key changes, rating agencies were also brought under the Trai Act, 1997. It also gave the regulator the right to audit systems and inspect premises without notice, and required these agencies to provide data and reports to the regulator.
The 2026 policy does not mention the Trai Act, and vests all other powers with the ministry.
It also transfers dispute resolution, previously handled by the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal under the Trai Act, to the courts in New Delhi.
“Even if the government has the powers, merging regulation with policy and removing an independent regulator from oversight is a retrograde step,” said Satya N. Gupta, former principal advisor at Trai.
Regulator’s advisory role
To be sure, the new policy has retained some of the recommendations that Trai voluntarily made to the ministry in 2020 to improve the reliability of the existing rating system.
“There seems to be a misconception here. The regulation of ratings agencies is through the guidelines for television ratings administered by MIB. The licenses are issued by MIB and the agencies accountable to MIB through orders issued from time to time,” former Prasar Bharati CEO Shashi Shekhar Vempati told Mint.
Trai, as the sectoral regulator, has issued papers and recommendations from time to time, he said. This could continue in an advisory capacity, keeping in view the long term trends and evolution of the sector, he added.
A query emailed to the Indian Broadcasting & Digital Foundation (IBDF), which represents broadcasters, on Wednesday evening did not elicit a response until press time.
“The 2026 Policy provides a singular, predictable regulatory environment under the MIB, and it eliminates the risk of prescriptive and rigid regulations, something for which Trai has long been criticized,” an executive at a broadcasting company said. The TV rating agencies are market research entities, not ‘service providers’ that are under the Trai Act, the person said.
Yet, the industry is not happy with all aspects of the new policy.
Industry concerns
Currently, BARC is the only licensed rating agency which is jointly owned by broadcasters and advertisers. While the new policy has eased registration guidelines for more agencies, it has also tightened rules by requiring at least 50% of the board to be independent directors with no ties to broadcasters or advertisers, ensuring neutrality and good governance.
The government also requires rating agencies to increase the number of people or TRP meters—devices deployed at homes to track what people watch on TV—to 80,000 within 18 months, and add 10,000 more every year until the total reaches 120,000.
India has approximately 230 million television households. However, only about 58,000 meters were used to capture viewership data, representing 0.025% of the total TV homes, according to a government release dated 3 July 2025.
“India is a massive, diverse nation. Even with the recent policy changes to increase sample sizes, a few thousand extra boxes cannot accurately represent 1.44 billion people,” said Pankaj Krishna, founder at Chrome Data Analytics and Media, a market research firm, in a LinkedIn post. “The current sample remains too thin to capture the true diversity of our language, culture, and viewing habits.”
Krishna also flagged the high cost of hardware boxes and their weak security. “Panel home addresses remain prone to being leaked, often by the households themselves or through field networks. This leads to compromised data, as stakeholders influence the viewing behaviour of those specific homes, rendering the ratings manufactured rather than organic,” he explained.
The executive, cited above, instead suggested digital tracking with apps and streaming platforms as it is cheaper, more secure, easier to scale, and gives a real-time, accurate picture of the content being watched and its duration.