The News Broadcasters Federation, an industry body of TV news channels, has bemoaned — in a letter to Minister of Information and Broadcasting Anurag Thakur — lack of action on the part of Broadcast Audience Research Council India (BARC India) to smoothen out alleged viewership  data distortions because of landing pages.

Landing pages refer to what a consumer sees first when he/she switches on the set-top-box for linear TV viewing on the TV set. This real estate on TV is used by distribution platforms to rake in additional revenue by renting the space, which is often taken by television channels to create a buzz about the product itself or some shows.

“We write to you in face of the Broadcast Audience Research Council’s failure to address the ongoing problematic matter of Landing Pages being measured by the viewership rating agency as true viewership, thereby skewing the final data. Despite multiple letters from multiple national and regional news channels, BARC has yet to initiate any course correction.

The non-addressal of the Landing Page matter has compromised the whole measurement system,” the NBF letter to the Minister said.

Pointing out that the government has repeatedly shown its “commitment to building a merit-based level playing field”, the June 1 NBF letter stated “allowing landing pages to be a measure of viewership, stops and prevents a fair competitive environment” and aids “predatory behaviour”.

“It is a purely restrictive trade practice that encourages exclusionary behaviour in the news industry,” the NBF stressed, alleging it was shocking that some “news channels get 84 percent  of their viewership from just two States in India because of landing pages”.

The letter from NBF, which is headed by Republic Networks’ Arnab Goswami as president, alleged freedom of the media was a bedrock of the Indian democratic system and it was being dented by landing pages.

“The validation of monopolistic practices has the net effect of blocking and winding up other news channels that do not have the same monetary backing as the monopoly,” the letter pointed out, requesting MIB to “intervene in light of BARC’s failure to address the present situation”.