Media :

Newspaper publishing started in Chennai with the launch of a weekly, The Madras Courier, in 1785. It was followed by the weeklies The Madras Gazzette and The Government Gazzette in 1795. The Spectator, founded in 1836, was the first English newspaper in Chennai to be owned by an Indian and became the city's first daily newspaper in 1853. The first Tamil newspaper, Swadesamitran, was launched in 1899.

The major English dailies published in Chennai are The Hindu, The New Indian Express, The Deccan Chronicle and The Times of India recently joined the list. The evening dailies are, The Trinity Mirror and The News Today. As of 2004, The Hindu was the city's most read English newspaper, with a daily circulation of 267,349. The major business dailies published from the city are The Economic Times, The Hindu Business Line, Business Standard, and The Financial Express. The major Tamil dailies include the Dina Thanthi, Dinakaran, Dina Mani, Dina Malar, Tamil Murasu, Makkal Kural and Malai Malar and major Telugu dailies include Eenandu, Vaartha, Andhra Jyothi and Sakshi . Neighbourhood newspapers such as The Annanagar Times and The Adyar Times cater to particular localities. Magazines published from Chennai include Ananda Vikatan, Kumudam, Kalki, Kungumam, "Thuglak",Swathi (Telugu magazine), Frontline and Sportstar.

Doordarshan runs two terrestrial television channels and two satellite television channels from its Chennai centre, which was set up in 1974. Private Tamil satellite television networks like Sun TV, Raj TV, Raj Digital Plus, Zee Tamil, Star Vijay, Jaya TV, Makkal TV, Vasanth Tv and Kalaignar TV broadcast out of Chennai. The Sun Network one of India's largest broadcasting companies is based in the city. While SCV and Hathway are the major cable TV service providers, Direct-to-home (DTH) is available via DD Direct Plus, Dish TV, Tata Sky, Reliance Big TV, Sun Direct and very recently Digital TV(Airtel-Bharti). Chennai is the first city in India to have implemented the Conditional Access System for cable television. Radio broadcasting started from the radio station at the Rippon Buildings complex, founded in 1930 and was then shifted to All India Radio in 1938. The city has two AM and ten FM radio stations, operated by Anna University, All India Radio and private broadcasters.