TRP: Excluding landing pages to distort real audience behaviour, says news broadcaster

The landing-page question has rapidly become the most debated flashpoint in the broadcast industry ever since the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting proposed removing it from television-viewership measurement. The idea of excluding all impressions generated through landing-page placement has triggered strong reactions across news broadcasters, MSOs and industry bodies, turning the issue into a defining point of contention in the government’s ongoing TRP overhaul.

exchange4media accessed some of the submissions and one of the news broadcasters has urged the government to drop the proposal to exclude “landing page” impressions from television-viewership measurement in the ongoing TRP overhaul.

According to the broadcaster, the change would unfairly punish broadcasters by erasing legitimate audience engagement and the timing could not be worse, since the issue is already sub-judice before the Supreme Court.

The broadcaster argued that landing pages, the channel that appears automatically when a viewer turns on their set-top box, are a valid tool for content discovery and marketing.

Excluding these initial impressions, they said, effectively deletes genuine consumer choice: viewers can watch the channel or immediately switch away, but the mere fact that they had the opportunity to watch should count as valid viewership. Removing landing-page counts undermines the actual picture of consumer behavior and risks eroding the credibility of TV ratings.

Further, the broadcaster pointed out that this proposal seeks to revive a method previously examined and dismissed by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) as “unsuitable” because it would strip out legitimate impressions.

To treat landing pages as marketing rather than viewership, they argued, is comparable to ignoring sales from a product simply because it was displayed prominently, like a jacket-cover of a newspaper or shelf-eye-level in a supermarket, rather than delving into whether customers browsed the paper or bought the product.

They also stressed that banning landing-page viewership would disproportionately hurt smaller and regional broadcasters that rely on such placements for visibility and discoverability, especially in a highly competitive environment.

Several such broadcasters along with the All India Digital Cable Federation (AIDCF) have already submitted similar objections to MIB.

In its November 2025 draft amendments to the Television Rating Points (TRP) policy, the Ministry proposed that any viewership arising from a “Landing Page” shall no longer be counted under audience measurement. The draft stipulates that Landing Pages may only be used as a marketing tool, not as a source of TRP data.

Read e4m report on MIB's ruling on landing page

Under the revised policy, the sample size for TV-rating meters will also be expanded: rating agencies will need to build a panel of at least 80,000 households within six months, increasing by 10,000 homes each year until the panel reaches 1.2 lakh households.

In addition, the draft tightens governance: only companies registered under the Companies Act 2013 can become rating agencies; cross-holding and conflict-of-interest norms are strengthened to prevent broadcasters from having any stake in rating agencies.

The changes are part of a broader push by MIB to overhaul the TRP system, address long-standing concerns of inflated or artificially rigged ratings, and restore trust among advertisers in the television medium.

Proponents argue that by removing “forced visibility” (i.e., instant auto-play on startup), the TRP numbers will more accurately reflect genuine viewer interest and engagement, and avoid conflating marketing spend with audience loyalty.

Read e4m Deep Dive on Landing Page puzzle