Community Television in Asia: Potentiality and Need Justification Dr Ankuran Dutta Programme Officer CEMCA, New Delhi

Understanding basics of Community Media Community Ownership Not for profit Community Participation

Defining Community Television (CTV) Community Television is a service of video transmission through terrestrial, satellite or on the web run by a particular community with a non profit motive for providing and sharing information, education and entertainment aiming at overall development of a community.

Why Community Television (CTV)? Community TV can provide a public platform to the marginalized sections of the society which is otherwise neglected by the mainstream media. The local people want their culture, tradition, social, political or economic problems to be reflected in front of their own and other people or local governance that can provide them possible solutions.

Growth and Development of CTV It was first originated in Canada and US and soon covered countries like United Kingdom, Australia, Venezuela etc. In a survey, Cathrine Edwards, Spokesperson of Canadian Association of Community Television Users and Stations says that 28 countries have CTV policies and practices around the globe.

Experiment of CTV in Asia Community television had also started in India. The technological and social innovation was piloted in three villages in West Godavari district, Andhra Pradesh and the local programmes reached about 69 villages across the district through the cable network. Ankuram community TV was an initiative of Byrraju Foundation. But the project has been stopped.

Cont. In Nepal, Ratna TV may be considered as a community television initiative in the Tansen of lower Himalaya. It was started in the late 90’s. There are nine CTV experiments are now operational. BNNRC started dialoging for Community Television in Bangladesh

Television penetration and Need for CTV Community TV has a great potentiality in the South Asian region. If we can take an example of television penetration in India, Licenses to about 850 TV channels. More than 70,000 cable operators (not MSOs) are providing cable service in India A large number of them also run local cable tv from their own.

Cont. The number of TV households in India is expected to increase from 154 million to 191 million aided by strong growth in sale of television sets. The number of C&S households in India increased by 11 million in 2012 to reach 130 million. Approximately 14 million television sets were sold in India only in 2012.

Issues for consideration Policy imperative for setting up of CTV; Availability of low cost technologies for fostering development and use of CTV; Experiences in other countries, where it has been put to service; and Awareness creation for CTV

Technology of telecasting depends on Quality of the picture Feasibility Availability of the technology Financial involvement Consumer habit etc.

Issues for technology of CTV Cost effective Unpretentious technology Easy maintenance and technical sustainability Power consumption Basic civil infrastructure Selection of suitable locations considering natural problems

Justifications for CTV Lessons learnt from the CTV practices in both, developed countries and under developed countries of Africa. If the policy allows thousands of cable operators to run local channels, then there is no point to not allowing broadcast community programmes for development.

Cont. Television is the most effective medium for societal development and as an instrument to improve the livelihoods with positive behavior. If, we are thinking for the remote areas, who cannot access mainstream media, then we can justify that about 80 million rural households (India) have television sets at home. Television programme production and transmission are not much expensive for educational institutions and financially stable social organisations.

Cont. As the community radio cannot provide service to the deaf and dumb population of the country and they should not be deprived from development broadcasting. It may help to create an environment for skill based community members either in programming or in technical field. It will create a platform for the community members to share their ideas, to expose talent, to preserve local culture and music, ‘face’ to the ‘faceless’ people.

Cont. For the small ethnic and social groups, it will help to promote their identity, which is indeed a great problem for establishing their identity infront of the dominant social groups of different region. The issue of identity crisis may be addressed with this initiative, which will help to resolving conflicts in the disturbed areas.

Strategies for an environment towards CTV Review and baseline study of policy environment for CTV, available technology and practices; Forum for discussion on CTV to promote awareness on policy and technologies; Engage with communities to prepare them to use CTV.

Conclusion A Community television can succeed if community people participate enthusiastically as change agents. The community members have to engage themselves as volunteers and work together for production of programmes. For sustainability, local advertisements have to be incorporated. The local people have to participate in every step of television programming like writing scripts, pre-production, execution, volunteering, post production etc.

Thank You