Times Now

About Times Now

Overview

Times Now is an English-language news television channel based in Mumbai, India, owned by The Times Group and operated by Times Network. Launched on 23 January 2006, it is the flagship news channel of Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd., the publisher of The Times of India. Times Now was the Times Group's first entry into television news, and it went on to redefine the English news genre in India with an aggressive, debate-driven prime-time format. Within a few years of launch it became the most-watched English news channel in the country, a position it has held for most of its history. The channel is known for high-decibel studio debates, confrontational interviewing, and a nationalist editorial posture. It broadcasts in high definition alongside its standard-definition feed and is distributed across all major Indian direct-to-home and cable platforms as well as internationally. Its official website is timesnownews.com.

History and Launch

Times Now was launched on 23 January 2006 by Times Global Broadcasting Company Limited, a subsidiary of Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. The launch marked the Times Group's return to television after its earlier partnership in the Times Television experiment of the 1990s. The channel began as a partnership between the Times Group and the international news agency Reuters, which provided global newsgathering support in its early years. The founding editor-in-chief was Arnab Goswami, previously with NDTV 24x7, whose combative on-air style quickly became the channel's signature. In its launch phase the channel positioned itself as a premium, urbane alternative to NDTV 24x7, CNN-IBN and Headlines Today. By 2008 it had overtaken its rivals in the ratings, a breakthrough driven largely by Goswami's prime-time show The Newshour. The channel later parted ways with Reuters and built its own newsgathering infrastructure across India.

Ownership and the Times Network

Times Now is owned by Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. (BCCL), commonly known as The Times Group, India's largest media conglomerate. It is managed by Times Network, the group's broadcast television arm, which also operates ET Now, ET Now Swadesh, Mirror Now, Times Now Navbharat, Zoom, Movies Now, Romedy Now, MNX and Times Now World. The Times Group also publishes The Times of India, The Economic Times, Navbharat Times and Maharashtra Times, giving the network deep synergies with the group's print titles. The channel's corporate headquarters is in Mumbai, Maharashtra, with bureaus in New Delhi, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Ahmedabad and other major cities, plus correspondents in several international capitals. As part of a large, profitable media house, Times Now has been able to invest heavily in studio technology, election programming and marketing campaigns that smaller rivals could not match.

The Arnab Goswami Era

The first decade of Times Now is inseparable from Arnab Goswami, who was editor-in-chief from the channel's launch in 2006 until his resignation in November 2016. Goswami's nightly show, The Newshour, aired at 9 pm and became the most influential programme in Indian English television news. His interrogative, often hectoring style of debate divided critics and audiences but delivered record ratings, and phrases from the show entered popular culture. Under Goswami the channel covered the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, the Anna Hazare anti-corruption movement of 2011, and the 2014 general election campaign with sustained, opinion-led programming. Goswami left in 2016 to launch his own channel, Republic TV, taking several senior colleagues with him. The channel sued Goswami over non-compete and other issues, and the two sides traded public accusations, but Times Now retained its leadership position in the ratings in the years that followed.

Flagship Programming

The centrepiece of Times Now's schedule remains its prime-time debate block. The Newshour, originally Goswami's show, continued under new anchors after his departure and remains the flagship 9 pm debate. India Upfront, hosted by Rahul Shivshankar for several years, was the channel's second prime-time debate property. Frankly Speaking is the network's long-form interview show, which has featured heads of state, including a notable interview with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Access, a weekly interview and features show, and the weekend debate formats round out prime time. Daytime programming is dominated by rolling news coverage anchored from the Mumbai and Delhi studios, with specialised strands for business news drawn from ET Now's resources, sports bulletins, and entertainment coverage. During elections the channel mounts large-scale programming including opinion polls, exit polls and results-day marathons marketed as flagship events.

Editorial Style and Market Position

Times Now pioneered the opinion-led model of Indian television news, in which the anchor is an active protagonist rather than a neutral moderator. Its editorial posture is assertively nationalist, with strong support for the armed forces, muscular coverage of terrorism and national security, and frequent campaigns against perceived enemies of the nation. The channel describes itself as representing the voice of the people and frequently runs hashtag-driven campaigns on social media. Media critics have accused it of jingoism, sensationalism and trial by media, and the channel has been pulled up by the News Broadcasting & Digital Standards Authority on occasion. Commercially, however, the formula has been extraordinarily successful: Times Now has been the number-one English news channel in India by BARC ratings for the overwhelming majority of weeks since the late 2000s, ahead of Republic TV, India Today, CNN-News18 and NDTV 24x7.

Key Anchors and Journalists

The post-Goswami generation of Times Now anchors includes Navika Kumar, who joined the channel at launch and became one of its most recognisable faces, eventually being named Group Editor-in-Chief of Times Network in 2023. Rahul Shivshankar was a prominent prime-time anchor and consulting editor until his departure in 2023. Other notable names associated with the channel include Padmaja Joshi, Maroof Raza, the strategic affairs analyst who anchored defence coverage, and Heena Gambhir. The channel's election coverage has featured psephologists and political analysts as regular contributors. Times Network has also built a bench of reporters in state capitals and conflict zones, and its correspondents have covered wars and natural disasters abroad. The network invests in star anchors as brand assets, and its faces are heavily promoted across Times Group print and digital properties.

Expansion: Navbharat, Mirror Now and Times Now World

Building on the Times Now brand, Times Network has launched several extensions. Times Now Navbharat, the group's Hindi news channel, was launched in 2021 to take the brand into the much larger Hindi news market. Mirror Now, the network's second English news channel, was created in 2017 from the former MagicBricks Now and focused on civic journalism before its operations were merged with Times Now in 2025. In 2025 Times Network announced Times Now World, an international English news service aimed at the Indian diaspora and global audiences interested in South Asia, extending the brand beyond Indian borders. The group has also experimented with HD-only feeds and digital-first shows. These expansions reflect the Times Group's strategy of leveraging its most successful television brand across languages, formats and geographies.

Ratings, Revenue and Influence

Times Now has been the dominant channel in the English news genre for most of its existence, regularly commanding the largest share of BARC-measured viewership among English news channels. The English news genre itself is small, accounting for a fraction of total Indian television viewership, but it is disproportionately influential because its audience includes policymakers, business leaders, diplomats and the English-language press. The channel's prime-time debates frequently set the agenda for the next day's newspapers and social media discourse. Advertising revenue from the channel is significant within the Times Network portfolio, with premium rates commanded during elections and major news events. The brand's equity has also been monetised through events and awards properties run by the Times Group.

Digital Presence

Times Now operates one of the largest news websites in India at timesnownews.com, which publishes breaking news, videos, explainers and live blogs in English. The site is among the most-visited news portals in the country and is integrated with the Times Internet ecosystem that includes indiatimes.com and economictimes.com. The channel's video content is distributed on YouTube, where its clips of prime-time debates routinely attract millions of views, and on social media platforms including X, Facebook and Instagram. The Times Now app offers live streaming of the channel. Digital expansion has been a strategic priority, with the network launching digital-first shows and podcasts to reach younger audiences who do not watch linear television.

Criticism and Controversies

Times Now has faced sustained criticism from media watchdogs, academics and rival journalists. Common charges include sensationalism, the conflation of news and opinion, communal dog-whistling, and the harassment of individuals through trial-by-media coverage. The News Broadcasting & Digital Standards Authority (formerly the News Broadcasting Standards Authority) has on multiple occasions found the channel in violation of broadcasting codes and ordered apologies or fines. The channel's coverage of the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput in 2020 drew particular criticism for its intensity and speculation. Supporters of the channel argue that its confrontational style holds the powerful to account and reflects the sentiments of its viewers. The debates over its journalism mirror the larger polarisation of Indian public life, in which Times Now is both a product and a driver.