How Media Ownership Concentration Is Reshaping Indian Journalism

India's media has undergone one of the most rapid ownership concentration processes in any major democracy over the past decade. Where once journalism was conducted primarily by organisations whose primary business was journalism — newspaper families, media companies — the dominant force shaping India's media landscape in 2026 is the conglomerate: industrial and business groups whose primary interests lie in petroleum, infrastructure, telecommunications, mining, or real estate, and who have acquired media properties as instruments of political influence, reputational management, or business strategy. 

Representational Visualisation: How Media Ownership Concentration Is Reshaping Indian Journalism

The formation of JioStar (November 14, 2024) — the $8.5 billion merger of Reliance Industries' Viacom18 with Disney Star India — created a media entity controlling over 100 TV channels, JioHotstar streaming, and dominant cricket broadcast rights, with Reliance Industries holding 63.16% effective ownership. Gautam Adani's acquisition of 64.71% of NDTV by December 2022 brought the country's most respected independent television news network under the control of India's second richest man, a prominent government ally.

The pattern is consistent: industrial conglomerates whose business interests require government regulatory decisions are acquiring media properties. As Journalism University's analysis (January 2026) noted, "with no laws or regulations on cross-holdings in India, a few powerful conglomerates now control a significant slice of the media audience, reducing plurality and diversity." Legacy groups like Bennett, Coleman & Co. (Times Group) and Living Media India (India Today Group) remain powerful but are now operating in a landscape dominated by conglomerates with primary interests far larger than media.

Essential Context

• JioStar (formed November 14, 2024): Reliance Industries 63.16% effective control (16.34% direct + 46.82% via Viacom18); Disney India 36.84%; controls 100+ TV channels including Star Plus, Star Sports, Colours, and dozens of regional channels; JioHotstar streaming platform with 50+ million subscribers; dominant rights holder for Indian Premier League and ICC cricket events; total deal value $8.5 billion.
• The RSF 2026 India country report notes that outlets "promote particular policies" and maintain proximity to the ruling government.
• Government advertising dependency: India's media organisations are funded primarily by advertising revenue; the government (central and state) is the largest single advertising source; RSF documents this as a structural mechanism through which "governments are in a position to put pressure on the media to censor their content."

How It Works in Practice

1. The conglomerate media model: When Reliance Industries owns a major media conglomerate and simultaneously seeks regulatory approvals for telecom spectrum, petroleum pricing, renewable energy projects, and retail market expansion, its media properties face an inherent conflict of interest: investigative journalism that implicates Reliance or government regulators who govern Reliance is contrary to the media owner's business interests. This is not a hypothetical; it is a documented pattern where media organisations with conglomerate ownership avoid investigations that would be commercially or politically costly to their owners.

2. NDTV as a case study: NDTV under its founders Prannoy Roy and Radhika Roy was India's most respected independent television news organisation — known for rigorous fact-checking, questioning power, and presenting minority perspectives in a television landscape dominated by nationalist content. After Adani's takeover, the channel has maintained some journalistic credibility but has visibly moved away from coverage patterns that were critical of the government; the departure of several senior journalists who had defined NDTV's editorial identity illustrates the impact on newsroom culture.

3. Bennett, Coleman & Co. (Times Group) as the traditional conglomerate model: The Times Group — which owns The Times of India (largest English daily by circulation), The Economic Times, Times Now, and more — has long operated a commercial journalism model that prioritises advertiser relationships and government proximity over adversarial journalism.

4. The regional language advantage: Regional language media — particularly Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayali, Marathi, and Bengali — is more commercially driven by local audiences than national political considerations; Tamil Nadu's DMK government and media landscape operates differently from Hindi-belt BJP-aligned media; Kerala's vibrant Malayalam press maintains relatively greater editorial independence; this regional variation means national ownership concentration data understates the diversity in India's actual information environment.

5. The impact on editorial independence: Where conglomerate ownership intersects with political alignment, the primary documented impact is self-censorship: editors and reporters understand — often without explicit direction — that certain stories will not be published, certain officials will not be criticised, and certain government policies will be covered positively. The Wire's 2016 CJR profile noted that Scroll.in founder Fernandes described "reclaiming" journalistic values from publications where "the organisation could not accommodate their growth" — a euphemism for the pressure to self-censor.

What People Often Misunderstand

• Concentrated ownership does not mean uniform political alignment: The Times Group under Bennett, Coleman is politically and commercially opportunist rather than ideologically BJP-aligned; its media management responds to commercial incentives and advertiser relationships rather than ideological commitment; the distinction between commercial and political accommodation matters.
• Journalism quality and ownership are not perfectly correlated: Despite Adani's NDTV acquisition, some journalism continues to emerge from the outlet; some journalists in conglomerate-owned media produce important work within the constraints of their organisations; individual journalist integrity operates alongside institutional pressures.
• Cross-media ownership is normal in many democracies: The concern is not that conglomerates own media per se — this is common globally — but that India has no cross-holding regulations, no significant public broadcaster comparable to BBC, and no structural protections for editorial independence; the combination of concentrated ownership, political proximity, and absent regulation is the problem.
• The JioStar merger was approved by competition authorities: CCI and NCLT approved the Reliance-Disney merger; its approval reflects that Indian competition law does not have specific provisions for media plurality concerns beyond general antitrust analysis; the absence of media plurality regulation is a policy gap.
• Advertising dependency is not unique to India: Advertiser-funded media faces commercial pressures on editorial independence globally; India's specific problem is that the government is the dominant advertiser, meaning editorial pressure has a political rather than purely commercial character.

What Changes Over Time

The formation of JioStar and its subsequent consolidation of Indian OTT and entertainment content markets will be the most consequential media ownership development of the 2024–2028 period. The pending Broadcast Services Regulation Bill — which has been in draft for years — may introduce cross-media ownership restrictions; its current status (as of May 2026) is under consultation. The 2026 RSF index's documentation of India's continued press freedom deterioration, including the specific impact of the JioStar and NDTV acquisitions, will form the international accountability record for this period.

Sources and Further Reading

• Exchange4media — JioStar formation: https://www.exchange4media.com/media-tv-news/jiostar-is-here-the-85-billion-disney-reliance-jv-that-can-reshape-indian-media-138736.html
• RSF — NDTV takeover signals end of pluralism: https://rsf.org/en/ndtv-takeover-signals-end-pluralism-india-s-leading-media
• The Diplomat — Corporate Takeover of India's Media: https://thediplomat.com/2024/05/the-corporate-takeover-of-indias-media/
• Grokipedia — Media Ownership in India: https://grokipedia.com/page/List_of_news_media_ownership_in_India
• Journalism.University — Media Ownership Landscape: https://journalism.university/introduction-to-journalism-and-mass-communication/media-ownership-global-india-landscape/

(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.)