Mumbai: Several leading national news broadcasters — including NDTV, News18 and Times Now — have strongly opposed the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting’s (MIB) Proposed Landing Page Amendment, stating that the move is legally untenable, technically flawed and commercially unfair to the broadcasting industry.
The broadcasters said the amendment must be withdrawn in its entirety as it attempts to regulate a subject currently sub-judice before the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India, violating principles of administrative propriety. They also noted that the proposal seeks to revive a technical methodology for stripping landing page impressions — an approach earlier examined and rejected by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) as “unsuitable” due to inherent technical flaws.
The broadcasters argued that the assumption underlying the amendment — that viewership gained from a landing page is illegitimate — is fundamentally incorrect. They clarified that a landing page functions as a legitimate marketing and discovery tool, similar to premium placements used across other industries. When a viewer turns on their set-top box and chooses either to watch the channel or navigate away, this constitutes genuine consumer choice and engagement.
They further highlighted that excluding initial impressions would effectively delete authentic viewing behaviour. TRAI, in its 2018 assessment, had explicitly rejected the same methodology on the grounds that it would remove genuine impressions and distort viewership measurement.
Drawing parallels to other sectors, the broadcasters said landing page placement is equivalent to a newspaper jacket or an eye-level shelf in a supermarket — both widely accepted premium placements whose sales and consumption data are never excluded from market metrics. Similarly, they argued, landing page viewership must remain part of official ratings to preserve the integrity of the industry’s measurement ecosystem.
Industry bodies have also raised objections. The All India Digital Cable Federation (AIDCF) has written to the Ministry opposing any changes to the usage of landing pages. Several small broadcasters have separately submitted their concerns, signalling widespread industry resistance to the amendment.
Broadcasters have urged the MIB to withdraw the proposed amendment and maintain the current rating framework to ensure fair competition, transparency and a realistic reflection of consumer behaviour within India’s television ecosystem.
