It was the golden era of television, which began in the early ’90s with the entry of Star TV, Zee, Sony and Sun TV. For over 25 years, appointment television or linear TV ruled the media business, bringing in the largest share of audience and revenues. This remained true even after streaming arrived with Hotstar (2015) and Netflix and Amazon Prime Video (2016). That golden era is now ending.
Look at the numbers. In 2019, over 210 million Indian homes had a television set — an audience size of almost 900 million. Most of these were DTH (direct-to-home) or cable homes. Thanks to the pandemic and the rise of streaming, this is down to 157 million homes, reaching 659 million people. Break it down further. A little under half of those 157 million homes are on DD Freedish — a free DTH service from the state broadcaster. The remaining 92 million homes are either hybrid (a combination of cable/DTH plus connected TV) or only one of these. That means just a little over half of these are linear (cable/DTH). Going by government figures, hundreds of multi-system operators (distributors of TV signals) have either surrendered their licences, let them expire or had them cancelled. There is, however, no rush for new licences.
Note that these are numbers from early 2025. They have fallen further, say analysts. They don’t show because the Broadcast Audience Research Council (Barc), the official ratings body, has been flogging the same reach numbers since 2018. That is when the last baseline study was done. The biggest indicator of the decline of linear TV is the sharp fall in both ad and pay revenue — from a high of ₹78,800 crore in 2019 to ₹61,700 crore in 2025, going by the FICCI-Frames report from EY. The whole idea of appointment viewing, steady ratings and advertising contracts for six- and 12-months is on a downhill.
That is the first reason recent moves to regulate ratings are puzzling.
On March 6, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting directed Barc to withhold the ratings of news channels for four weeks. This was in light of the over-the-top coverage of the United States-Israel attack on Iran. More than a month down the line, there has been complete silence from news broadcasters, advertisers and agencies. News, which is a sliver of total TV viewership, simply doesn’t matter when the reach of TV itself is shrinking.
On March 27, the government came out with a TV Ratings Policy 2026. It undoes the whole regulatory tinkering that came after three different reports, a court case, much wrangling, and all that went into dismantling the TRP mechanism under TAM (television audience measurement) and creating Barc between 2010 and 2015.
The new policy states, “Any member of the Board of Directors of the television rating company shall not be in the business of broadcasting /advertising /advertising agency.” This means Barc, a venture between the Indian Broadcasting Foundation, the Indian Society of Advertisers, and the Advertising Agencies Association of India, will have to restructure itself within 30 days of the notification of the guidelines. It also means the power to decide the metrics that determine the fate of the rapidly declining ₹26,300-crore television advertising market now lies with non-industry figures.
You could argue that if linear TV is in decline, how does this intervention matter? Maybe because it could set a precedent for similar interventions in private businesses. Could the state be deciding how readership data, box-office takings of a film, or digital impressions are measured?
That brings this to the second reason the regulatory overreach is puzzling. DD Freedish is the single largest linear TV service. It reaches anywhere from 50 million to 65 million homes. The biggest indicator of its impact comes from the fact that the channels watched on DD Freedish — such as Dangal TV and Star Utsav — show up strongly on existing rating charts. There is no issue or complaint from advertisers or broadcasters on this one. The big screen is thriving also because of on-demand services like YouTube and Netflix. But in this world, ratings are irrelevant. Advertising is performance, not ratings driven.
What is missing is something that bridges various screens to give a composite picture. The ratings policy talks of a technology-neutral mechanism that captures data across cable, DTH and streaming. And in the next breath talks of meters, homes, and mandates a sample. That is a tough ask. Barc, an industry body with the best minds in the business, has tried for over a decade to get this one going. It is not clear how a new body that cannot have people from the business will achieve that.
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