It's getting harder and harder for the federal government to get consensus on policy issues because there are too many TV stations and other media outlets, according to Secretary of State John Kerry.

"[G]overning is harder," Kerry told an audience at the India Institute of Technology in Delhi on Wednesday.

"It is harder today to build consensus around an issue than it used to be," Kerry explained. "When I was growing up in America ... we also had only three major, four major television stations in the United States."

"So when I was a college student, the president of the United States, somebody from the press office would call the media, one or two networks, and say, 'The president wants to talk to the nation tonight,'" he said. "They'd block out a half-hour, and that was it. Everybody watched it."

He said the next day, everyone would be talking about what the president said. But today, Kerry said, everyone can pick and choose their own way to get news, which he said makes it harder to find common ground.

"That doesn't happen today," he said. "If a president wants to talk to the nation, he or she has to go out and fight to find all kinds of different venues, which is why the president of the United States goes on "The View" and goes on David Letterman and goes on the night show and goes on whatever — in order to be able to talk to people in segments."

"And it takes a lot longer to build it up, and you still have trouble getting people to be able assimilate and process facts," Kerry added.

"So governing is harder," he concluded. "And it's true everywhere that governing is harder."