ABSTRACT
The digital deluge that hit India a decade ago has transformed television news in what used to be one of the most regulated broadcasting environments of any liberal democratic polity. The rapid liberalization, deregulation and privatization of media and cultural industries in the world’s largest democracy, coupled with the increasing availability of digital delivery and distribution technologies, has created a new market for 24/7 news. This chapter examines the implications of the exponential growth of Indian television in the past decade, from Doordarshan – a notoriously monotonous and unimaginative state monopoly – to more than 300 digital channels, including 70 dedicated news networks, making it home to the world’s most competitive news arena, catering to a huge, increasingly Westernized Indian audience, and indeed South Asian diaspora.
