TELEVISION IN INDIA
THE GENESIS
• Television was introduced to India in 1959, almost by
accident as it were.
• The multinational company — Philips — had been
exhibiting some television equipment at an industrial
expo in New Delhi. The company gifted the closed-circuit
television equipment and offered a low-range transmitter
at a reduced cost to the government at the end of the
exhibition.
• Almost simultaneously UNESCO gave a grant of $
20,000 towards the purchase of community receivers.
• The United States offered some more equipment.
TELEVISION STARTS
• Television first came to India on Sept 15, 1959 as the
National Television Network of India and as part of the
All India Radio.
• The range of the transmitter was 40 kilometres round
and about Delhi.
• The first telecast started on Sept 15, 1959 in New
Delhi.
• The makeshift studio at Akashvani Bhavan in New
Delhi was chosen for location of the experiment.
• The experiment started with one-hour programme,
broadcast twice a week, on community health, citizen
rights, education and traffic sense etc.
TELEVISION EXPANDS
• The first major expansion of television in India began in
1972, when a second television station was opened in
Bombay.
• This was followed by stations in Srinagar and Amritsar
(1973), and Calcutta, Madras and Lucknow in 1975.
• Relay stations were also set up in a number of cities to
extend the coverage of the regional stations.
• By 1976, the government found itself running a television
network of eight television stations covering a population
of 45 million spread over 75,000 square kilometers.
• Faced with the difficulty of administering such an
extensive television system television as part of All India
Radio, the government constituted Doordarshan, the
national television network, as a separate Department
under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.
PANDIT NEHRU’S MAJOR GOALS
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Doordarshan’s social objectives include that it has to:
a) act as a catalyst for social change;
b) promote national integration;
c) stimulate a scientific temper in the minds of the
people;
• d) disseminate the message of family planning as a
means of population control and family welfare;
• e) provide essential information and knowledge in order
to stimulate greater agricultural production; and
• f) promote and help preserve environment and
ecological balance.
1976: ADVERTISING BEGINS
• Indian television had been funded through a combination
of television licenses and allocations from the annual
budget
• In 1976-77 under 1% of Doordarshan's budget came
from advertising revenues. By 1990 Doordarshan's
revenues from advertising were about $300 million,
accounting for about 70% of its annual expenditure.
• Doordarshan began to shift the balance of its
programming from educational and informational
programmes to entertainment programs.
• The commercialization of Doordarshan saw the
development of soap operas, situation comedies,
dramas, musical programs, quiz shows and the like
1982: EVENTS THAT CHANGED TV
• INSAT-1A, the first of the country's domestic
communications satellites became operational
and made possible the networking of all of
Doordarshan's regional stations.
• India hosted the Asian Games and the
government introduced color broadcasts for
the coverage of the games.
• In 1983 television signals were available to just
28% of the population, this had doubled by the
end of 1985 and by 1990 over 90% of the
population had access to television signals.
EMERGENCE OF CABLE TV
• The first competition for Doordarshan came in the form of
illegal distribution of television signal by cable and foreign
television channels in late 1980s and early 1990s.
• With the introduction of VCRs in India, some dynamic
entrepreneurs in Bombay in 1984 launched cable network.
• According to one survey, there were about 3500 cable TV
networks in India in May 1990 serving 330,000 households
in four metros of Bombay, Delhi, Calcutta and Madras.
• In 1995 the authorities moved in to regulate the business
and a Cable TV Act was passed in 1995. It is said that as
many as 60,000 cable operators were operating in the
country.
• This figure fell after multi-system operators entered the
scene and began to consolidate the networks.
1991: A CRUCIAL YEAR
• January-February 1991: International satellite
television is introduced in India by CNN through
its coverage of the Gulf War.
• August 1991: Hong Kong based STAR (Satellite
Transmission Asia Region) TV started
broadcasting. The television network was part of
the influential Hutchison Whampoa group,
owned by the Hong Kong based businessman Li
Ka-Shing and his son Richard Li.
• Soon the group was beaming five channels into
India using the ASIASAT-1 satellite: including
BBC and MTV.
INDIAN MARKET EXPANDS
• October 1992: The first Indian-owned satellite television
network Zee Network, starts transmission from the
ASIASAT-1 satellite. It was owned by Subhash Chandra
till then the owner of an amusement park in Mumbai,
Essel World.
• End 1992: Star TV starts its first Hindi channel Star Plus.
• 1993: Rupert Murdoch sets his eyes on India and buys
off the STAR TV network (in July) and also a 49% stake
in the Zee Television network (in December).
• There was also talk of his company News Corp setting
up a newspaper or at least investing in one. However,
India’s FDI rules prevented him from doing much.