Kerala High Court Allows Centre To Exclude Landing Page Views From Official TV Ratings

The Kerala High Court on Friday lifted its interim stay on a key provision of the Centre's Television Rating Policy, 2026, allowing the government to implement its plan to exclude "landing page" viewership from official television ratings (TRPs).

Justice Bechu Kurian Thomas vacated the stay that had been in place since May 22 after hearing arguments from the Centre, the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC), and petitioners All India Digital Cable Federation (AIDCF) and DEN Networks, according to Exchange4Media.

The provision, Clause 5.4.1 of the Television Rating Policy, says that viewership from "landing pages" will no longer be counted while calculating official TV ratings. Landing pages are the default channel or screen that appears automatically when a television set-top box is switched on.

Under the new policy, these automatic views will no longer be included in official TV ratings. The Centre says only programmes that viewers actively choose to watch should count towards TRPs.

BARC, which prepares television ratings in India, also supported the policy. It said landing page impressions are a form of "forced viewing" because viewers see the channel automatically when they switch on the TV. According to BARC, such impressions artificially inflate TRPs and do not accurately measure audience preferences.

AIDCF and DEN Networks argued that television ratings are the foundation of the broadcasting business because advertisers, broadcasters and agencies rely on TRPs to decide advertising rates and investments.

They said removing landing page viewership from TRPs would reduce the commercial value of landing page advertising, even though broadcasters are still allowed to use landing pages. 

Senior advocate Arun Kathpalia, appearing for AIDCF and DEN Networks, argued that the Centre was trying to achieve indirectly what the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) had been prevented from enforcing directly.

He pointed to a 2018 TRAI direction that sought to stop broadcasters and distributors from placing popular channels on landing pages. 

That direction was later struck down by the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT). The matter is currently pending before the Supreme Court.

According to the petitioners, excluding landing page views from TRPs yields nearly the same result as banning landing pages, as it removes their commercial value. "Can you do indirectly what directly is prohibited?" he argued before the high court.

Citing Supreme Court judgments such as Tata Press vs MTNL, Sakal Papers and Bennett Coleman vs Union of India, they argued that advertising revenue forms an important part of the right to free speech under Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution. Therefore, they claimed, any policy that substantially affects advertising revenue indirectly infringes constitutional rights.

The Centre defended the Television Rating Policy, saying it only changes the methodology for measuring television audiences and does not prohibit broadcasters or distributors from using landing pages. 

The only change, the government said, is that these automatic views will not be included while calculating official television ratings because they do not reflect a viewer's actual choice.