New Delhi, July 19 -- With the ministry of information and broadcasting directing the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) to stop publishing television ratings across news and non-news genres until its licence is renewed under the Television Ratings Policy, 2026, the broadcasting industry is scrambling to find alternative ways to sustain advertising operations.

Broadcasters and media agencies are increasingly relying on historical BARC ratings, DTH (direct-to-home) and cable distribution data, OTT analytics such as watch time and unique viewers, and campaign performance metrics including sales and website traffic. While most large broadcasters already used these alongside BARC, they have now become far more important in advertiser...