Television in India
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| Culture of India |
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| Indian television |
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The television industry in India is one of the largest broadcasting ecosystems in the world, producing thousands of programmes across numerous Indian languages. According to the 2020 TV Universe Estimates released by the BARC India, the country had approximately 210 million television households.
By 2025, the Government of India reported that India had 918 operational private satellite TV channels, serving a nationwide audience of more than 900 million viewers. Industry projections indicate continued growth, with television households expected to increase from 190 million in 2024 to 214 million by 2026.
The industry operates in dozens of languages, with national channels broadcasting in Hindi and English, alongside major regional networks in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Bengali, Marathi, Odia, Punjabi, Gujarati, Urdu, Assamese, Bhojpuri, Konkani and several others. Industry studies by KPMG and FICCI highlight the dominance of the Hindi, Tamil and Telugu television markets, which collectively command the largest share of viewership and revenues.
The national broadcaster is Doordarshan, owned by Prasar Bharati. There are several commercial television broadcasters such as Culver Max Entertainment (Sony), Disney Star, Viacom18 (owned by Reliance Industries through Network18 Group), Warner Bros. Discovery India and Zee Entertainment Enterprises at the national level, and Sun TV Network and ETV Network at the regional level.
Currently, the major Hindi general entertainment channels (GECs) dominating pay television include StarPlus, Sony SAB, Sony Entertainment Television, Zee TV and Colors TV. Since 2019, free-to-air Hindi channels such as Dangal and Goldmines have grown significantly in popularity due to their availability on DD Free Dish. Regional-language channels like Sun TV and Star Vijay (Tamil), Star Maa and Zee Telugu (Telugu), Asianet (Malayalam) and Star Pravah (Marathi) also continue to lead viewership rankings.
Unlike many other countries, major Indian entertainment channels generally do not air news, with some exceptions in South India such as Sun TV and ETV. This practice is partly attributed to Indian media regulations that restrict Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in news broadcasting to 26%. Foreign-owned broadcasters such as Star have previously exited news broadcasting. Several media groups, including ABP Group, India Today Group, TV9 Network and ITV Network, operate exclusively news channels, while others such as NDTV and The Times Group operate both news and non-news channels. Meanwhile, Zee Media Corporation and Network18 Group function separately from the Zee and Viacom18 entertainment businesses, which have foreign shareholdings.