TV ad volumes fall 6%; Reckitt overtakes HUL as top advertiser

Television advertising in India contracted 6% in January–September 2026 compared with the same period last year, the latest TAM AdEx Television Advertising Report shows. The fall is narrower than the 10% decline recorded in January–September 2025, but the aggregate number masks a far more uneven market underneath.

01 · Reckitt moves to the top of the leaderboard

Reckitt Benckiser (India) overtook Hindustan Unilever to become India’s largest television advertiser during the nine-month period. HUL, which led the rankings a year earlier, slipped to second place. Godrej Consumer Products held third, followed by Cadburys India and Nestle India; Coca Cola India, P&G, Britannia Industries, Google and Wipro Enterprises completed the top ten.

The concentration is striking. The top 10 advertisers accounted for 42% of television ad volumes, even as the total advertiser pool narrowed from more than 6,100 in January–September 2025 to 5,800+ in the 2026 period.

Reckitt’s push also showed up at brand level. Seven of the top 10 TV brands belonged to the company, led by Harpic Power Plus 10x Total Clean, Dettol Toilet Soaps and Dettol Antiseptic Liquid. Ultratech Cement, Flipkart.com, Google Search Engine and Moov Pain Balm were among the other high-volume brands. The top 10 brands together accounted for 12% of volumes.

02 · Category growth tells a more useful story

Food & Beverages stayed the largest sector with 21% of total TV ad volumes. Services climbed to second at 16%, while Personal Care / Personal Hygiene held 14% and Household Products took 10%. Toilet Soaps and Toilet / Floor Cleaners led categories at 6% each.

The fastest movers, however, were in specific categories:

• Ecom-Other Services: grew 10.1 times year on year
• Biscuits: +74%, jumping from rank 20 to rank six
• Chocolates: +40%
• Noodles / Pasta: +70%
• Coffee: +32%
• Corporate-Financial Institute: +56%

More than 160 categories recorded positive growth in the period, even as overall volumes shrank.

03 · Where the television money is running

General Entertainment Channels and News remained the mainstay for advertisers, together accounting for 56% of TV ad volumes. GEC gained one percentage point to 31%, News held at 25% and Movies stayed at 22%. Music lost a point to 9%, while Kids and Others took 4% and 9% respectively.

04 · What brand leaders should do with this

The headline decline is real but not a reason to treat TV as one homogenous medium. The action is in category-level and genre-level shifts: ecommerce services, biscuits and chocolates are expanding their television presence while several hygiene and household categories consolidate around large advertisers such as Reckitt.

For media and marketing teams, the useful starting point is to benchmark your own category against the 6% average, review where your television budgets sit by genre, and watch which fast-growing categories are competing for the same audiences. A contraction in total volume can still leave room for brands that read the sub-trends correctly.

Source: MediaNews4U

Mad About Marketing Desk The strategists and writers at Mad About Marketing, writing up what we see in the work every week.