FICCI Frames 2026: Broadcasters push for BARC ratings ahead of festive ad season

India’s television industry is heading into the crucial festive advertising season without its most widely accepted audience currency, prompting broadcasters and media executives to call for the immediate restoration of BARC ratings while also questioning whether the measurement system needs an upgrade.

At FICCI Frames 2026, Zee Entertainment CEO Punit Goenka, Sony Pictures Networks India MD and CEO Gaurav Banerjee, and NDTV CEO and editor-in-chief Rahul Kanwal flagged the growing uncertainty caused by the absence of television audience data.

The ratings blackout has become particularly consequential ahead of the festive season, when advertisers typically step up spending. JioStar CEO Kevin Vaz, in his inaugural address at FICCI Frames, urged the government to immediately restore the release of BARC ratings, arguing that the absence of credible and verifiable audience data was creating uncertainty for broadcasters, advertisers and agencies.

“The absence of credible, verifiable audience data is creating uncertainty for broadcasters, advertisers and agencies, particularly during the crucial festive season,” Vaz said. The issue came up during a panel discussion on the evolution of media measurement. Asked about the ratings blackout, Goenka said he was at a loss to understand why the industry had been “blanked out in ratings”, but stressed that the larger issue was regulatory responsiveness. “I think first and foremost, I’m at loss of words as to why we are blanked out in ratings,” Goenka said. “Regulation needs to keep pace with how the industry is evolving. And if they do not keep pace with that, the industry will move on.”He said the issue should not be viewed in isolation, pointing to other regulatory matters, including pricing, that could affect the industry as it evolves. “All of this has to come together,” he said.Banerjee broadly agreed, but said the current disruption also raised a larger question about the future of measurement itself. “The ratings was a smart, interesting solve. It worked for a while. Then there possibly needs to be an upgrade,” he said, adding that the industry had already started thinking about what that upgrade could look like. The comments come amid a prolonged suspension of BARC audience ratings. The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting introduced the Television Ratings Policy 2026 in March, replacing the earlier 2014 framework, and subsequently amended it to require existing rating agencies to expand their panels to at least 80,000 metered homes within nine months.

Kanwal said BARC remains the only universal currency accepted by both advertisers and broadcasters, making the absence of ratings particularly disruptive to the television advertising market.“In the absence of that is like fighting an election without knowing who won the election,” Kanwal said, explaining that the industry needs a neutral mechanism to establish where channels and content actually stand. “You can like the ratings, you can dislike the ratings, but the absence of ratings is like driving a car in the blind without really knowing whether the content is being consumed, who’s watching it, to what extent,” he said.Kanwal also warned that the ratings blackout could have a broader consequence for the linear television business. With advertisers unable to access a commonly accepted measure of television audiences, he said it could push advertising money towards digital faster than the shift was already happening. “I think we need to bring ratings back as quickly as possible because what this also does… is that it pushes money away from linear television faster to digital faster,” he said. “Reliable measurement is essential for brands to plan campaigns and reach audiences efficiently,” Vaz said. He also pointed to the broader regulatory burden on linear broadcasting and called for a roadmap that would allow television to evolve alongside digital.

Vaz welcomed the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting’s removal of the 10+2 advertising cap, describing it as an important step towards a regulatory framework that reflects changing realities in linear broadcasting and the wider media landscape. At the same time, he said self-regulation and industry best practices should form the basis of the sector’s next phase of growth.

For broadcasters, the immediate priority is restoring a common measurement currency before the festive advertising cycle gathers pace.