Television advertising in India’s news genre fell 7% in January-July 2026 compared with the same period in 2025, according to the TAM AdEx advertising report. The decline is a meaningful moderation from the 15% drop recorded in January-July 2025 over January-July 2024. More than 3,400 advertisers and 5,190 brands were active on news channels during the period.
The report shows a market that is still contracting overall, but with sharp differences by sector, category and language.
The sector and category shifts
Food & Beverages became the leading sector with a 14% share of news genre ad volumes, up from second position a year earlier. Services held a 13% share and Education accounted for 10%. The top 10 sectors together contributed 81% of total ad volumes.
At the category level, Retail Outlets-Jewellers moved to first place with a 5% share, up from fourth position in Jan-Jul 2025. The top 10 categories accounted for 31% of all news genre ad volumes.
Spices recorded the highest absolute increase, growing 30%. Sanitary Napkins grew 5.5 times, Solar Products Range grew 3.6 times and Ecom-Other Services grew 2.6 times.
- Sanitary Napkins: 5.5x growth
- Solar Products Range: 3.6x growth
- Ecom-Other Services: 2.6x growth
- Spices: 30% absolute increase
Advertisers and brands in focus
Reckitt Benckiser (India) and Patanjali Ayurved retained the top two advertiser positions. GCMMF (Amul) ranked third, followed by SBS Biotech, LIC of India, Godrej Consumer Products and Policybazaar Insurance Brokers. TVS Motor Company jumped from rank 29 to eighth, MDH moved from rank 24 to ninth and Lalithaa Jewellery Mart rounded out the top 10.
Policybazaar.Com led the brand rankings, ahead of Lalithaa Jewellery, Harpic Power Plus 10x Total Clean, Ultratech Cement and Dettol Toilet Soaps. Reckitt placed three brands in the top 10: Harpic, Dettol Toilet Soaps and Dettol Antiseptic Liquid. The presence of ChatGPT among the top 10 brands is notable for marketers watching new-economy advertisers on legacy media.
Where the reach is
Hindi News remained the largest subgenre with an 18% share of news ad volumes, followed by Bengali News at 12%, Hindi Regional and Tamil News at 10% each, and Telugu News at 9%. Kannada and Marathi each had 6%, while Malayalam, Assam and Gujarati each had 5%. The top five subgenres together accounted for 59% of total volumes.
What marketers should do with this
A 7% decline is still a decline, but the moderation from 15% suggests news TV is not losing share at the same pace. Marketers can use the category and subgenre split to reconsider budgets: F&B and services remain dependable, while fast-growing categories such as spices and solar products show where advertisers are testing news audiences.
The regional language base remains the core opportunity. More than half of all news genre ad volumes sit in Hindi, Bengali, Hindi regional, Tamil and Telugu subgenres, so a language-first media plan is not a niche strategy.
Source: MediaNews4U
