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BARC / TRP suspension
What it is
BARC is India's sole television audience measurement body, and its weekly Television Rating Points are the currency for advertising sales, media planning and programming decisions
MIB suspended news-channel ratings from 6 Mar 2026 through repeated extensions, then in Jul 2026 widened the freeze to every genre until BARC completes fresh registration under the Television Ratings Policy 2026
Impact on industries
- Removes the pricing currency of TV advertising - inventory cannot be benchmarked, so negotiation reverts to historical rates and challengers cannot evidence gains
- Advertising budgets drift to digital, where measurement continues uninterrupted, and some of that shift is unlikely to return once media plans are rebuilt
- MIB directed BARC not to charge news channels subscription fees for the blackout period, so broadcasters at least avoid paying for undelivered data
- News broadcasters have pushed for resumption under a cleaner system that excludes landing-page viewership, so the pause could correct a long-standing distortion