India — news channels live

Aaj Tak is the Hindi-language news channel of the India Today Group and launched in 2000. It is among the most watched Hindi news channels in India, reaching an audience larger than all the country's English-language channels combined.

Its register represents the characteristic form of Hindi news broadcasting: fast-paced presentation, strong visual construction and a direct idiom addressed to a mass audience. That style is bound up with the sheer scale of news consumption in the country.

For a reader who wants Indian domestic affairs as the country's largest audience sees them, it is a primary source.

ABP News is the Hindi-language news channel of the Kolkata-based ABP Group. The group's origins lie in Ananda Bazar Patrika, the long-established Bengali newspaper, which ties the channel strongly to eastern India.

It follows the national agenda but has particular depth in reporting from West Bengal and the eastern states. The group also publishes channels in Bengali and other regional languages.

CNN-News18 is an English-language news channel within the Network18 group, operating a brand partnership with CNN while its content and editorial management belong to its Indian owner. Network18 is a large media group under Reliance Industries running many channels and digital properties in India.

Its agenda covers domestic politics, the economy and foreign affairs. The group's scale gives the channel broad field and archive resources.

Firstpost is the digital news and analysis service of the Network18 group. It was established as a digital publication rather than a television channel and has expanded its video output over time.

Its identity rests on analysis and explanatory journalism, producing programming devoted to the context and background behind a development. It gives particular weight to the international agenda and to geopolitics.

India Today is the English-language news channel of the India Today Group, one of India's long-established media houses. The group's origins lie in the news magazine of the same name founded in 1975, regarded as one of the country's most influential political publications, and the channel is built on that inheritance.

Its strength is political analysis and election coverage; the polling and survey work it runs during India's vast elections is followed nationwide. The same group owns the Hindi-language channel Aaj Tak, and comparing how the two treat the same event in different languages is a useful route into understanding Indian journalism.

India TV is a Hindi-language news channel founded in 2004 by the journalist Rajat Sharma. Its best-known programme is Aap Ki Adalat, given over to long and direct interviews with politicians, a format that has established itself as distinctive on Indian television.

Its schedule is built around national politics, public order and social affairs.

NDTV — New Delhi Television — pioneered private television journalism in India. Founded in 1988 by Prannoy Roy and Radhika Roy, it was one of the first serious instances of independent news production outside the state monopoly of Doordarshan, and a generation of journalists was trained in its newsroom.

The channel was known for years for an independent line in English-language broadcasting. Ownership changed in 2022 when the Adani Group took control of the company, a transfer that sat at the centre of India's debate about media independence and a fact readers should hold when weighing the channel.

NDTV publishes separate channels in English and Hindi.

Republic was founded in 2017 by the journalist Arnab Goswami and broadcasts in both English and Hindi. From launch it became known for loud debate programming and a sharp presentational style, which opened a wide argument in India about the quality of television news.

Its editorial line and running order are a recurring subject in the country's media debates, and readers are best placed judging it in that context.

Times Now is the English-language news channel of the Times Group, India's largest newspaper house, and launched in 2006. The group's flagship, The Times of India, is one of the highest-circulation English-language newspapers in the world, and the channel is built on that institutional network.

Domestic political debate and studio programming dominate its schedule. The group runs separate news channels in English and Hindi.

WION — World Is One News — launched in 2016 as an English-language international news channel within Zee Media. Its founding idea is explicit: to report world news looking out from India rather than through the filter of Western channels. The claim is in its name.

South Asia, the Indian Ocean region, China–India relations and the Gulf carry marked weight in its agenda. Regional developments that Western-based international channels treat briefly lead its bulletins, and that is what distinguishes it for an international audience.

It broadcasts in English and its live feed is free and open on YouTube.

Zee News is the Hindi-language news channel of Zee Media. The Zee group was established in the first wave of private television in India and runs a large number of channels across entertainment, film and news.

Domestic politics and national security dominate its agenda. The same group owns the English-language channel WION.