BARC blackout puts linear TV’s ad business under pressure, say broadcasters

The absence of television ratings is hurting the business and pushing advertising money towards digital, senior broadcasting executives said at a CEO panel on reinventing media for the age of infinite content at the FICCI FRAMES 2026.

Zee Entertainment CEO Punit Goenka was blunt about the situation. "I think first and foremost, I'm at a loss of words as to why we have blanked out on ratings," he said.

He widened the point to regulation, which he said must keep up with a changing industry. "Regulation needs to keep pace with how the industry is evolving," Goenka said. "And if they do not keep pace with that, the industry will move on. And regulation will always be hampering the industry at some point or the other."

NDTV CEO and Editor-in-Chief Rahul Kanwal said the industry may eventually need a better system, but not at the cost of having none. "There possibly needs to be an upgrade. And the industry needs to think and has begun to think about what that upgrade looks like," he said. "But at the moment, BARC is the only universal currency which is acceptable to advertisers and broadcasters."
Without it, he said, nobody can settle claims. "The absence of that is like fighting an election without knowing who won the election."

Kanwal said news is especially prone to inflated claims. "The world of news where I come from, I'm sure many of you would agree, is one of high vanity, extreme delusion," he said. "And therefore, everyone is convinced that they are number one." His remedy: "There has to be some neutral umpire which steps in and says, okay, this is where things stand."

He added that even critics of ratings should want them back. "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 that content is being consumed, who is watching it, to what extent."

"I think we need to bring ratings back as quickly as possible," Kanwal said.

Kanwal warned of a commercial cost. "It pushes money away from linear television faster to digital, which in any case is a cycle which is underway," he said. "And it's terrible for the television business in general."

Speaking at the event, Sony Pictures Networks India MD and CEO Gaurav Banerjee focused on how advertisers and content owners will do business without a rating. "We have to re prioritize and figure a way around transactions with advertisers and content owners," he said.

Away from ratings, the panellists described how they are adapting to a market where viewers have unlimited choice.

Language was a common theme. Goenka said Zee does not use the phrase "regional languages". "We actually call them languages," he said, "because we believe they are a cultural part of our country and they are as important as Hindi." He added: "I agree that all the best stories today that are on Hindi have come from these language markets."

On viewer behaviour, he said: "When we consume content, we consume content in our language of choice. And that cannot be taken away. And therefore, the growth of the language market will continue to grow."

JioStar's Kevin Vaz, who chairs the FICCI M&E Committee, agreed. "Growth of consumption has come by going more and more regional and speaking to people in their language," he said. "Some of the best stories are actually coming from regional languages." That, he said, gives creators wider options: "Instead of just depending on one market, on today's date, you can actually tap into multiple markets to get great ideas."

Prime Video's Gaurav Gandhi said the platform has been "really obsessed and intentional about how do we increase the linguistic palette of our customers in the country?" The result: "We see 60% of our customers watching four plus Indian languages." He added, "It's not just a question of subs and dubs."
Banerjee said Sony is pushing into new formats. "We just launched something with Rohit Sharma. So, an active India cricketer, right? Helming a show," he said, adding that such content "transcends that divide beautifully," whether it is "a KBC or a Rohit Sharma show."

Gandhi said Prime Video has built new IP in unscripted content, "which is digital first, and then not coming from TV only."

Kanwal described NDTV's answer for younger audiences. "Instead of trying to force viewers to change their habits, change your habit, your format, your style of presentation to go to where the consumers are in the end," he said. NDTV Micro, he explained, is "that one effort where you're trying to put out news in a micro-drama format, serialize and put it out in a way that speaks to the young generation of Gen Z consumers in a language that they understand."

On non fiction, Vaz said shows now draw active participation, with "tens and millions of people voting for the show." Advertisers benefit too: "Brands get to associate with shows which identify with their brand and they can go and tell their story better."

Sony's Gaurav Banerjee said such formats can cut across the usual divides of television. "This kind of content for us, whether it is a KBC or a Rohit Sharma show, transcends that divide beautifully." Prime Video's Gandhi added, the platform is building digital-first unscripted IP rather than borrowing from TV.

In a market where content is endless and attention is not, the panellists agreed that the winners will be those who meet viewers where they are, whether through a language, a format or a screen. As Kanwal put it, "change your habit, your format, your style of presentation to go to where the consumers are in the end." Whether television gets the ratings to measure that shift is a question the industry is still waiting to see answered.