In a memo filed before the Kerala High Court on July 28, the AIDCF said that due to “certain subsequent developments”, it did not wish to pursue the case and sought permission to withdraw the petition, while reserving the liberty to file a fresh writ petition on the same or similar cause of action.
The federation had challenged the proviso to Clause 5.4.1 of the policy, which excludes viewership generated through landing pages—the channels that automatically appear when a subscriber switches on a set-top box—from television ratings. It had also sought to restrain the government and the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) from implementing the revised methodology.
Landing pages are an important revenue stream for distribution platforms and have long helped TV channels increase viewership, as they are displayed by default when a viewer switches on a set-top box.
The new policy, however, seeks to count only deliberate viewer choices, excluding viewership generated merely because a channel appears as the default landing page.
The withdrawal follows a July 24 order in which Justice Bechu Kurian Thomas vacated an interim stay granted in May, holding that television ratings methodology is a matter of government policy and broadcasters have no vested right to insist on a particular ratings methodology.
The court also ruled that excluding landing-page impressions neither violates the right to carry on business nor freedom of speech and distinguished the case from the pending Supreme Court litigation on the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s statutory powers over landing-page regulations.The move comes as the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting pushes ahead with implementation of the new framework. Earlier this month, BARC suspended publication of weekly television ratings after the ministry directed it not to publish ratings until it complies with the Television Ratings Policy, 2026.
The government has indicated that ratings are unlikely to resume immediately. In a written reply in the Rajya Sabha on Friday, Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting L. Murugan said no television ratings agency has yet been registered under the new policy.
An industry source said the withdrawal clears the deck for the resumption of TV ratings, but added that the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting must grant registration to BARC to enable compliance with the revised guidelines. The source also said the ratings blackout has hurt smaller broadcasters, while larger networks can partly offset the impact by bundling TV and digital advertising inventory.
An information and broadcasting ministry official had earlier told ET that BARC is yet to meet key eligibility conditions, including appointing independent directors to comprise at least one-third of its board, implementing cross-media audience measurement, expanding its panel to 80,000 people meters and excluding landing-page impressions from ratings.
BARC’s registration expired in July 2025 and its application under the new policy remains pending.