News TV ratings paused as govt faces questions over regulatory failure

New Delhi: After failing to contain hyperbole and war hysteria on television screens despite various clauses and provisions of the Cable Television Networks (Amendment) Rules, 2021 (erstwhile CTN Act, 1995), the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting on Friday directed BARC India to pause ratings for news television.

In the past, the government used to issue advisories and warnings to broadcasters in case of violations of the norms.

While unprecedented, the move prima facie appears vague, with industry veterans calling it illogical.

“Ratings are one of the reasons for hyperbole, but surely not the sole reason. The same content also caters to digital audiences, and a clickbaity yet provocative thumbnail yields millions of views,” an industry observer told BestMediaInfo.com.

“For long, broadcasters have complained that television is highly regulated, even as they push back against any such regulation for digital or OTT. Even YouTuber journalists accept that they have to use different language when they appear on TV. The pause on ratings is nothing but regulation turning into strangulation. It is an excuse to hide the government’s inaction,” the observer added.

The observer asked, “Is it not true that the government has long been sitting on the proposed overhaul of the TRP rating guidelines, which also sought to address the contentious landing page issue?”

Referring to a BestMediaInfo report that showed the Hindi news genre ahead of top Hindi GECs on return path data (RPD) involving millions of set-top boxes on a single platform, an industry veteran said news broadcasters had been reduced to fighting for survival after alleged suppression by the existing ratings system for a decade.

For context, BARC data, which comes from 50,000 peoplemeters, is the exact opposite of RPD, which comes from millions of set-top boxes.

Between weeks 32 and 44 of 2025, the news genre had a 3.76 per cent share, according to BARC data for the Pay TV segment.

In comparison, the share of the Hindi general entertainment genre was approximately seven times higher than that of news. Over the 13-week period, Hindi GECs had an average genre share of 25.87 per cent.

Now look at an RPD dataset for the same period, sourced from millions of set-top boxes and exclusively accessed by BestMediaInfo.

Hindi News recorded an average reach of around 52.2 per cent, while Hindi GECs recorded an average reach of around 43.6 per cent.

In fact, Hindi News was ahead on reach in every single week during this 13-week period.

The AMA’000 for Hindi News was also higher, at around 2.6 per cent, than that of Hindi GECs.

“The suppression and distortions thrived under the nose of this government, which is both a licensor of BARC India and a stakeholder as a broadcast player. The entire ecosystem needs bold reform and a hard reset instead of cosmetic changes and knee-jerk decisions like the pause,” the veteran concluded.