News business generates ad revenue of Rs.3000-4000 crore which accounts for 5 per cent of the broadcast business. There are 400 plus news channels which vie for this stagnant amount. Hindi news has the highest viewership — 667 million viewers. It compares well with 457 million people watching news on Internet, and 421 million people who read a newspaper. We find a lot of duplication among the audience of TV news, internet news and print news. Advertising rates on news media are 30 per cent less than those on a GEC — or general entertainment channel. That explains the theatrics of the anchors and sensationalisation of the content to capture the eyeballs.

Out of digital advertising of Rs.30000 plus crore, Google and Meta take away the bulk of revenue. It leaves just a few thousand crore for dozens of newspapers, websites and TV. Online news is consumed on India Today, NDTV or The Indian Express. Subscription revenues are poor.

TV Today Network has 4 news channels. NDTV runs 5 news channels. ABP runs 8 news channels. Zee runs 19 news channels. Network 18 of Reliance runs 20 news channels. Times Network runs 5 news channels. TV 9 runs 6 news channels. ARG Outlier runs 3 news channels. The viewership share of top news channels is between 0.2 to 0.3 per cent.

News demands fresh investment in feet-on-the ground journalism. It should employ technologies such as AI. Corporates buy news channels for the glamour of being in news. Some want to be influencers.