BBC and Jio Partner to Expand Regional News Access Across India

While the Hindi service is currently live, the BBC News Marathi and BBC News Gujarati channels are scheduled to launch soon.

RMN Stars TV Desk
New Delhi | March 18, 2026

NEW DELHI — The BBC and Jio Media Limited have officially secured a partnership to deliver trusted news content to audiences across India. The agreement will see BBC News Hindi, BBC News Marathi, and BBC News Gujarati delivered across smart and connected TVs, as well as the Jio mobile app.

Under the deal, Indian audiences can access BBC journalism through Jio’s digital streams and FAST (Free Ad-supported Streaming TV) channels. A key feature of this service is a daily 18-minute live news bulletin in Hindi, which will be part of a content stream running 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

The BBC Hindi FAST channel launched on March 16 on both the Jio TV and Jio TV+ platforms. While the Hindi service is currently live, the BBC News Marathi and BBC News Gujarati channels are scheduled to launch soon.

Tim Awford, Regional Director for South Asia at BBC News, highlighted the significance of the expansion, noting that the BBC reaches more people in India than in any other country in the world. He stated that the partnership with Jio will “enhance our presence and ability to serve audiences across India” by increasing access to accurate and impartial news.

Rupa Jha, Editor-in-Chief and Co-founder of Collective Newsroom, noted that the partnership aims to combine the BBC’s journalism with Collective Newsroom’s digital storytelling. She emphasized that the goal is to ensure “credible, engaging, and impactful stories are accessible to people across platforms” in the spirit of public service.