TV channel exits accelerate as India’s linear television model comes under pressure

India’s television broadcasting industry is undergoing a structural reset, with broadcasters shutting down, closing or shelving channels as advertising weakens, pay-TV homes decline and audiences shift to connected TV, OTT and short-form platforms.

As many as 114 television channel licences have been surrendered between 2022 and 2026, including 17 licences surrendered by six broadcasters to the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) by August 5 this year.

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JioStar, Zee Entertainment, NDTV and B4U Networks are among the other broadcasters that have surrendered licences, citing strategic decisions, changes in business plans and a challenging operating environment. Some channels were shut down, while others were never launched.

The figure, however, includes 26 existing downlinking permissions surrendered by Sony Pictures Networks India last year after it received MIB approval to uplink and downlink the same set of channels under new permissions.

The trend is part of a wider consolidation underway across the media and entertainment industry, as scale becomes increasingly important in competing for audiences, advertising and premium content.

“Media and entertainment is entering an era of consolidation because scale is becoming a strategic necessity. The industry remains too fragmented, while digital has already concentrated power among a few scaled platforms. Look at cricket rights—how many players can genuinely compete for them?” said Ashish Bhasin, Founder, The Bhasin Consulting Group and former CEO, Dentsu Asia Pacific.

“Consolidation can create the scale, capital and reach that traditional media needs to compete effectively in a digital era,” he added.

India’s roughly Rs 62,000-crore broadcasting industry is under pressure as consumers move from linear television to OTT, short-form video, microdramas and connected TV. Industry insiders estimate paying TV homes at around 80 million, while the FICCI-EY report puts the combined pay-TV and connected base at 140 million. Free TV, largely DD Free Dish, reaches about 53 million homes.

The shift accelerated in 2025. Linear pay TV lost around 11 million subscriptions, while free TV added 4.5 million and connected TV gained about 10 million. Linear TV revenues fell 9.2% to Rs 62,000 crore, declining for the fourth consecutive year as both advertising and subscription revenues weakened.

Advertising remains the biggest pressure point. FMCG companies and other traditional TV advertisers are diverting part of their budgets to more measurable, outcome-driven platforms, including quick commerce. At the same time, television audience measurement is struggling to keep pace with fragmented viewing across TV, connected devices and digital platforms.

Connected TV is consequently becoming an increasingly important part of the market. India now has an estimated 62-65 million CTV households and 207 million viewers, according to WPP Media, The Trade Desk and Ormax Media. The CTV audience has tripled since 2022, with viewers spending an average 2.9 hours a day on the platform.

Yet the shift does not mean broadcasters are not willing to invest in linear television altogether. Sony Pictures Networks India, for instance, is still planning launches in the Telugu and Tamil general entertainment markets, a selective bet on regional television even as other broadcasters rationalise portfolios and tighten investments.

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For most broadcasters, however, the economics remain difficult. During Shemaroo Entertainment’s recent Q1 earnings call, COO Arghya Chakravarty said: “Our monetisation of the channels are completely dependent on advertising. And advertising over the last couple of years has remained subdued.”

He said monetisation on some channels was “not good enough to make it a EBITDA breakeven business” and that, until the advertising environment improves, the company was keeping investments “prudent and controlled.”

The company owns and operates Shemaroo TV and Shemaroo Josh.

Distribution trends underline the pressure. According to TRAI, India had 917 private satellite channels in March 2026, including 342 pay channels. The number of multi-system operators fell to 752 from 774 in the December 2025 quarter, while the active pay-DTH subscriber base declined from 50.99 million to 49.05 million.