How India's Media Landscape Works in India

India's media and entertainment industry is the world's most heterogeneous: it serves 1.4 billion people across 22 officially scheduled languages, 210 million homes with television sets, over 900 million internet users, 140,000 registered publications in more than 20 languages, and approximately 900 privately owned TV channels — half of which are dedicated to news. The FICCI-EY report "Shape the Future" released in March 2025 valued the Indian media and entertainment sector at ₹2.5 trillion ($29.4 billion) in 2024, growing 3.3% from 2023. Digital media overtook television for the first time in 2024, contributing 32% of total M&E sector revenues — ending a two-decade reign by television as India's largest media segment. Advertising revenues grew 8.1%, reaching an all-time high of $14.9 billion; digital advertising — driven by e-commerce, short video, and social media — accounted for 55% of total ad spending at $8.18 billion.

Representational Visualisation: How India's Media Landscape Works in India

Understanding India's media ecosystem requires distinguishing between its commercial scale and its journalistic quality. The former is extraordinary: India is one of the world's largest media markets, producing more films annually than Hollywood, sustaining more daily newspapers than any other country, and building a digital advertising infrastructure that is among the most sophisticated in the developing world. 

The latter is increasingly compromised: India ranked 157th of 180 countries on the RSF World Press Freedom Index in 2026 — down from 151st in 2025 and 161st in 2024, reflecting the complex trajectory of press freedom measurement — with the index noting that "press freedom is in crisis in the world's largest democracy" amid rising ownership concentration, legal harassment of critical journalists, and self-censorship in the mainstream media.

What You Need to Know

• Indian M&E sector: ₹2.5 trillion ($29.4 billion) in 2024; digital media largest segment at 32% of revenues; television second; print contributing approximately 13%; advertising grew 8.1% to all-time high; digital advertising now 55% of total ad spend.
• India has approximately 900 privately owned TV channels (half news-dedicated); 140,000+ registered publications in 20+ languages; over 20,000 daily newspapers with combined circulation of 390 million copies; and rapidly growing OTT streaming with over 50 million subscriptions combined across JioCinema and Disney+ Hotstar (now unified as JioHotstar).
• The JioStar merger (November 14, 2024): Reliance Industries' Viacom18 and The Walt Disney Company's Star India merged to form JioStar — an $8.5 billion deal giving Reliance Industries 63.16% effective control; JioStar operates over 100 TV channels, produces 30,000+ hours of annual content, and holds dominant cricket broadcast rights; it is the largest media entity in India.
• Adani Group acquired a controlling 64.71% stake in NDTV — formerly India's most respected independent television news channel — by December 2022; RSF noted in 2023 that the takeover "signals end of pluralism in India's leading media."
• RSF 2026 World Press Freedom Index: India 157th of 180 countries (score 31.96), down from 151st in 2025; the report notes: "with a rise in violence against journalists, highly concentrated media ownership, and outlets with increasingly overt political alignment, press freedom is in crisis."

How It Works in Practice

1. Television news — the dominant political medium: India's approximately 450 dedicated news TV channels — dominated by Hindi-language channels — are the primary political communication medium for India's largest electoral demographic. News channels operate on a 24/7 breaking news model driven by advertising TRP (Television Rating Points); the content economics reward dramatic, conflict-driven political coverage over analytical public interest journalism. RSF notes that "most TV media outlets, particularly in Hindi, devote a significant portion of their airtime to religious news, sometimes openly advocating hatred of Muslims."

2. Print media — regional resilience: India's print media, while facing secular digital pressure, remains commercially significant in regional language markets. Hindi dailies — Dainik Jagran, Hindustan, Amar Ujala, Dainik Bhaskar — command massive regional circulation with four major Hindi dailies controlling 76.45% of Hindi readership. English-language papers (Times of India, Hindustan Times, The Hindu, Indian Express) reach smaller but more influential urban audiences. Print revenues grew marginally (1%) in 2024 per EY data; the sector's digitisation transition is more gradual than in Western markets because print audiences are more geographically and linguistically diverse.

3. Digital news — the independence island: India's digital-first news outlets — The Wire (founded 2015), Newslaundry, Scroll.in, The News Minute, The Quint, The Print, and others — constitute the primary space for journalism that challenges government narratives and investigates powerful interests. These outlets are typically small (10–50 editorial staff), dependent on reader subscriptions, donations, or grants rather than advertising, and face consistent legal, regulatory, and financial pressure. Their investigative work — on electoral bonds, police encounters, welfare scheme corruption — has produced some of India's most significant public interest journalism.

4. OTT and the entertainment-news convergence: The OTT streaming market has grown dramatically: projected to reach ₹21,032 crore by 2026 at 14.1% CAGR; JioHotstar (merged JioCinema + Disney+ Hotstar) dominates with 50+ million subscriptions; Netflix and Amazon Prime have significant but smaller Indian subscriber bases. The content economics of OTT have enabled documentary journalism — investigative films on subjects that television news avoids — distributed through Netflix and Amazon, reaching urban audiences directly.

5. Government as the dominant advertiser: India's media are primarily funded by advertising, and the central and state governments are collectively the largest single source of advertising revenue — spending billions annually across television, print, digital, and outdoor. This creates a fundamental conflict of interest: media that criticises the government risks losing government advertising, which is often decisive for smaller or regional publications' economic viability. RSF's 2026 analysis states explicitly that "under Narendra Modi, billions of dollars of public funds have been spent on advertising" and that this gives governments "the power to pressure media to censor their content."

What People Often Misunderstand

• India's media is rich in quantity, variable in quality: The scale of India's media industry — more newspapers than any country, hundreds of news channels — does not indicate quality; much of the content is driven by TRP economics, owner influence, and advertiser appeasement rather than journalism standards.
• Digital media is not a simple alternative to corrupted mainstream media: Digital outlets face their own pressures — funding instability, reader fatigue, legal harassment, and the algorithmic dynamics of social media distribution; the Wire's 2022 Meta-Tek Fog reporting failure illustrated that small independent outlets also make serious editorial errors.
• RSF's rankings reflect specific assessment criteria: RSF's World Press Freedom Index measures journalists' operating conditions — safety, legal framework, economic pressures, ownership concentration — not the quality of individual journalism; India's low ranking reflects systemic conditions, not a judgement that all Indian journalism is poor.
• The regional language media is more commercially robust than English media: The Times of India and Hindustan Times are more visible internationally but are smaller markets than Hindi and other regional language newspapers; the commercial health of regional print is better than English print.
• OTT consolidation is as concerning as television consolidation: The merger of JioCinema and Disney+ Hotstar into JioHotstar under Reliance's 63% control creates a dominant OTT platform with enormous leverage over content economics, distribution, and cultural agenda-setting.

What Changes Over Time

The JioStar merger's full effects on India's media content economy — including news content — will manifest over 2025–2028. The 2023 Telecommunications Act, 2023 IT Amendment Rules, and DPDPA's Section 44(3) amendment to RTI together constitute the most significant new legal framework governing media and digital communication in a decade; their operational impact is being established through 2025–2026.

Sources and Further Reading

• FICCI-EY — Shape the Future: Indian Media and Entertainment 2025: https://www.ey.com/en_in/insights/media-entertainment/shape-the-future-the-revolution-in-indian-media-and-entertainment-sector
• RSF — India 2026 World Press Freedom Index: https://m.thewire.in/article/media/india-is-157th-out-of-180-countries-on-rsfs-2026-world-press-freedom-index
• Exchange4media — JioStar merger: https://www.exchange4media.com/media-tv-news/jiostar-is-here-the-85-billion-disney-reliance-jv-that-can-reshape-indian-media-138736.html
• Journalism.University — New Trends in Media Ownership: https://journalism.university/introduction-to-journalism-and-mass-communication/new-trends-media-ownership-integration-structural-changes/
• Variety — Digital Surges Ahead as India M&E hits $29 billion: https://variety.com/2025/film/news/digital-ahead-india-media-entertainment-sector-29-billion-1236349601/

(This series is part of a long-term editorial project to explain the structures, institutions, contradictions, and operating logic of governance in India for a global audience. Designed as a 25-article briefing cluster on the Indian Media Ecosystem & Journalism, this vertical examines how information is produced, distributed, consumed, regulated, and contested in contemporary India — from television news, newspapers, digital media, and public broadcasting to media ownership, press freedom, journalism ethics, advertising economics, misinformation, platform power, and the changing relationship between the media, the state, and the public. Written in accessible format for diplomats, investors, researchers, NGOs, civil society actors, students, academics, policymakers, and international observers, the series seeks to explain both how India’s media architecture is structured on paper and how journalism, influence, narrative formation, and public discourse actually function on the ground. This is Vertical 7 of a larger 20-vertical knowledge architecture being developed by IndianRepublic.in under the editorial direction of Saket Suman. All articles are protected under applicable copyright laws. All Rights Reserved.)