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 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 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 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 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.