Media of India consist of several different types of Indian communications media: television, radio, cinema, newspapers, magazines, and Internet-based Web sites. Many of the media are controlled by large, for-profit corporations who reap revenue from advertising, subscriptions, and sale of copyrighted material. India also has a strong music and film industry. India has more than 70,000 newspapers and over 500 satellite channels (more than 80 are news channels) and is the biggest newspaper market in the world - over 100 million copies
The Indian media was initiated since the late 18th century with print media started in 1780, radio broadcasting initiated in 1927, and the screening of Auguste and Louis Lumière moving pictures in Bombay initiated during the July 1895 —is among the oldest and largest media of the world.Indian media—private media in particular—has been "Free and Independent" throughout most of its history. The period of emergency (1975–1977), declared by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, was the brief period when India's media was faced with potential government retribution.
The organization Reporters Without Borders compiles and publishes an annual ranking of countries based upon the organisation's assessment of their press freedom records. In 2011-12 India was ranked 131st out of 179th countries, which was a setback from the preceding year

The first major newspaper in India—The Bengal Gazette—was started in 1780 under the British Raj by James Augustus Hickey. Other newspapers such asThe India Gazette, The Calcutta Gazette, The Madras Courier (1785), The Bombay Herald (1789) etc. soon followed. These newspapers carried news of the areas under the British rule. The Bombay Samachar, founded in 1822 and printed in Gujarati is the oldest newspaper in Asia still in print. The Times of India was founded in 1838 as The Bombay Times and Journal of Commerceby Bennett, Coleman and Company, a colonial enterprise now owned by an Indian conglomerate. The Times Group publishes The Economic Times (launched in 1961), Navbharat Times (Hindi language), and the Maharashtra Times (Marathi language).

In the 1950s 214 daily newspapers were published in the country. Out of these, 44 were English language dailies while the rest were published in various regional languages. This number rose to 2,856 dailies in 1990 with 209 English dailies. The total number of newspapers published in the country reached 35,595 newspapers by 1993 (3,805 dailies).

The main regional newspapers of India include the Malayalam language Malayala Manorama (published from: Kerala, daily circulation: 673,000), the Hindi-language Dainik Jagran (published from: Uttar Pradesh, daily circulation in 2006: 580,000), and the Anandabazar Patrika (published from: Kolkata, daily circulation in 2006: 435,000). The Times of India Group, the Indian Express Group, theHindustan Times Group, the Hindu Group and the Anandabazar Patrika Group are the main print media houses of the country. The Anandabazar Patrika group runs the oldest surviving Hindi newspaper in India.
Newspaper sale in the country increased by 11.22% in 2007. By 2007, 62 of the world's best selling newspaper dailies were published in China, Japan, and India. India consumed 99 million newspaper copies as of 2007—making it the second largest market in the world for newspapers.