India country Media profile .......

MEDIA

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•  Media

Indian broadcasting has flourished since state TV's monopoly was broken in 1992. The array of channels is still growing.

Private cable and satellite stations command large audiences. News programmes often outperform entertainment shows. Many 24-hour news channels are up and running and more are planned.

Established newspapers are slugging it out with new rivals

Doordarshan, the public TV, operates 21 services including its flagship DD1 channel, which reaches some 400 million viewers.

Multichannel, direct-to-home (DTH) TV has been a huge hit. Five operators - Dish TV, Tata-Sky, Sun Direct, Big TV and Airtel Digital TV - have attracted millions of subscribers. State-owned Doordarshan Direct offers a free-to-air DTH service.

Some industry sources say the number of DTH subscribers could reach 60 million by 2015. The cable TV market is one of the world's largest.

Since they were given the green light in 2000, music-based FM radio stations have proliferated in the cities. But only public All India Radio can broadcast news.

India's press is lively. Driven by a growing middle class, newspaper circulation has risen and new titles compete with established dailies.

Internet use has soared; by late 2008, around 81 million Indians were online (Internetworldstats).

Paris-based Reporters Without Borders says press freedom is threatened by "the violence of political parties as well as religious and separatist groups" (India - Annual report 2008).

The press

• Deccan Herald - Bangalore-based daily
• The Hindu - Madras-based daily
• The Hindustan Times - New Delhi-based daily
• The Pioneer - New Delhi-based daily
• The Indian Express - New Delhi-based daily
• The Statesman - Calcutta-based daily
• The Times of India - Mumbai-based daily
• The Asian Age - New Delhi-based daily
• India Today - New Delhi-based news magazine
• Outlook - New Delhi-based news magazine

Television

• Doordarshan Television - public TV; operates national, regional, local and satellite services
• Zee TV - satellite, cable TV services operated by Zee Group
• STAR TV - operates satellite, cable TV services including STAR News, owned by News Corporation
• Sony Entertainment TV - commercial channel
• Aaj Tak - 24-hour news in Hindi
• New Delhi TV (NDTV) - operates NDTV-India and NDTV 24x7 news channels
• Sun Network - commercial multi-channel broadcaster

Radio

• All India Radio - public, operates domestic and external networks
• Radio Mirchi - commercial network, stations in Mumbai, Delhi and other cities, mainly music, operated by The Times Group
• Radio City - commercial, FM stations in Delhi, Mumbai and other cities, owned by News Corporation
• Red FM - commercial, operated by India Today Group

News agency

• Press Trust of India - non-profit, owned by newspaper titles