Copyright republicworld
New Delhi: The News Broadcasters Federation (NBF) has welcomed the decision by the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting (MIB) to review and potentially ban the counting of landing-page viewership in TV audience measurement. Such a step, the federation says, marks a significant step in curbing the “bad practice” of using landing-page placement as a strategic tool to inflate viewership ratings.Under the proposed changes, viewership generated from the “landing page” will no longer be counted in audience measurement, with the MIB clarifying that the landing page may only be used as a marketing tool.In its statement, the NBF applauded the MIB’s move to include landing-page measurement in its review. “Some channels have made the use of landing pages as a strategic tool to mislead the advertisers and most unfortunately Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) has so far failed to stop it. NBF has been engaging with all stakeholders constructively and we believe that by ending landing pages measurement finally, this bad practice will end. We also hope that broadcasters who use this tool as an artificial measure to spike ratings stop doing so. The NBF stands in solidarity with independent news broadcasters across the country on this issue,” Republic Media Network's Editor-in-Chief and NBF President, Arnab Goswami said, while welcoming the decision.According to reports, advertisers have long demanded that the BARC segregate landing-page data from actual voluntary viewership, arguing that many viewership spikes are artificially created. BARC itself acknowledged the distortion, noting that landing pages “exaggerate viewership estimates by forcing viewership”.Under the revised MIB draft, only companies registered in India under the Companies Act, 2013, can apply for registration. The Board members and promoters cannot have any business ties with broadcasters and cross-holdings are capped at 20%. These restrictions, however, will not apply to self-regulatory bodies such as the BARC that directly manage audience-measurement activities.The BARC’s own documentation shows it has been aware of the problem since at least 2020, having introduced algorithms to mitigate landing-page impact.The MIB’s move signals that the regulator is ready to act, either by modifying key input criteria for ratings calculation or by mandating clearer disclosure of how landing-page viewership is treated. If landing-page viewership is excluded from ratings, channels will have to rely on genuine engagement rather than positional advantage.
