ETV is an Indian

Telugu Telugu may refer to: * Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of South India ** Telugu literature, is the body of works written in the Telugu language. * Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India * Telugu script, used to write the Tel ...

-language general entertainment

pay television Pay television, also known as subscription television, premium television or, when referring to an individual service, a premium channel, refers to Subscription business model, subscription-based television services, usually provided by multichan ...

channel. The channel was launched on 27 August 1995 focusing on the state of

Andhra Pradesh Andhra Pradesh (ISO 15919, ISO: , , AP) is a States and union territories of India, state on the East Coast of India, east coast of southern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, seventh-largest state and th ...

. It is a part of the

ETV Network ETV Network is a network of Telugu language news and entertainment satellite television channels in India. It is based in Hyderabad, Telangana, India. It also had some non Telugu-language satellite television channels. All non- Telugu satel ...

owned by

Ramoji Group Ramoji Group is an Indian conglomerate founded by Ramoji Rao and headquartered in Hyderabad, India. Its businesses cover television and newspaper media, film production, financial services, retail, education and hospitality. In 1996, one of ...

. It is the second-oldest Telugu

satellite channel Satellite television is a service that delivers television programming to viewers by relaying it from a communications satellite orbiting the Earth directly to the viewer's location.ITU Radio Regulations, Section IV. Radio Stations and Systems ...

after

Gemini TV Gemini TV is an Indian Telugu language general entertainment pay television channel owned by Sun TV Network. It is the first satellite TV channel in Telugu. It was launched on 9 February 1995 by the Gemini Group of Hyderabad (run by Akkineni ...

. It is also one of the earliest private satellite channels in

South India South India, also known as Southern India or Peninsular India, is the southern part of the Deccan Peninsula in India encompassing the states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Telangana as well as the union territories of ...

Name

The letter E in ETV stands as a

letter "ఈ" meaning "This" collectively meaning as "This TV". The letter E also stands as a short cut form of

Eenadu ''Eenadu'' (; ) is the largest circulated Telugu-language daily newspaper In India predominantly distributed in the states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. It was founded by Ramoji Rao in 1974 in Visakhapatnam and has been a significant presen ...

, a Telugu newspaper owned by

Ramoji Rao Cherukuri Ramoji Rao (16 November 1936 – 8 June 2024) was an Indian businessman, media proprietor and film producer. He was head of the Ramoji Group which owns the world's largest film production facility Ramoji Film City, '' Eenadu'' news ...

. ''Eenadu'' is a

polysemic Polysemy ( or ; ) is the capacity for a Sign (semiotics), sign (e.g. a symbol, morpheme, word, or phrase) to have multiple related meanings. For example, a word can have several word senses. Polysemy is distinct from ''monosemy'', where a word h ...

word which has two meanings in Telugu language "this day" and "this land".

History

Launch

ETV was launched on 27 August 1995 by

which owned

, the largest circulated

-language daily newspaper. The company leased a high-quality transponder on the

Intelsat Intelsat S.A. (formerly Intel-Sat, Intelsat) is a Luxembourgish-American multinational satellite services provider with corporate headquarters in Luxembourg and administrative headquarters in Tysons, Virginia, United States. Originally formed ...

satellite system, and uplinked from Padduka near

Colombo Colombo, ( ; , ; , ), is the executive and judicial capital and largest city of Sri Lanka by population. The Colombo metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of 5.6 million, and 752,993 within the municipal limits. It is the ...

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

. ETV began with an ambitious 18-hour service of entertainment and film-based programming. Its initial programming included children's programmes like ''Sabash Tin-Tin'', ''Baboi Dennis'' (the Telugu-dubbed versions of animated series ''

The Adventures of Tintin ''The Adventures of Tintin'' ( ) is a series of 24 comic albums created by Belgians, Belgian cartoonist Georges Remi, who wrote under the pen name Hergé. The series was one of the most popular European comics of the 20th century. By 2007, a c ...

'' and '' Dennis the Menace''), film-based programmes like ''Cinema Quiz'', ''Cinemasala'', ''Hats Off'' (hosted by veteran film actor

Nutan Prasad Tadinada Varaprasad popularly known as Nutan Prasad (12 December 1945 – 30 March 2011) was an Indian actor who worked predominantly in Telugu cinema and Telugu theatre. He was a native of Kaikaluru, Andhra Pradesh, India. He started his fil ...

), ''Masterminds'', a children's quiz, women-centric programmes like ''Vasundhara'', ''Chitti Chitkalu'', ''Ghuma Ghumalu'' etc.

Recent history

In February 2006,

had taken its two Telugu channels ETV and

ETV2 ETV2 () is the second channel of the Estonian Public Broadcasting (ERR) focusing on children's programming during the day and providing cultural content in the evening. ETV2 is known for its quality art house feature film and documentary sel ...

to pay mode at a combined price of 10. However, its non-Telugu channels remained

free-to-air Free-to-air (FTA) services are television (TV) and radio services broadcast in unencrypted form, allowing any person with the appropriate receiving equipment to receive the signal and view or listen to the content without requiring a subscri ...

(FTA). It was reported in January 2014 that

Network18 Group Network18 Media & Investments Limited, (d/b/a Network18 Group) is an Indian media conglomerate owned by the Reliance Industries, headed by Mukesh Ambani. Rahul Joshi is the managing director, chief executive officer and group editor-in-chief, a ...

had bought 24.5 percent stake in the Telugu channels ETV and ETV2 along with acquiring 100 percent stake in the regional

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

news channels of the

. It also has a HD version which was launched on 29 July 2016 under the name ETV HD. The channel is the 3rd most watched

Telugu language Telugu (; , ) is a Dravidian languages, Dravidian language native to the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, where it is also the official language. Spoken by about 96 million people (2022), Telugu is the most widely spoken member of ...

TV channel with an impression of 1228.2 AMA (

average minute audience Average minute audience (AMA) is a type of measurement that directly reflects the television audience size. It is calculated by averaging the number of viewers for each minute of programming throughout the event. It is commonly used by broadca ...

) during 10th week data of 6–12 March 2021 according to BARC ratings. In February 2017, ETV entered into an exclusive partnership with over-the-top (OTT) content provider

YuppTV YuppTV is an over-the-top (OTT) content provider for South Asian content including live television and films with recording and storage features. YuppTV allows broadcasters and content providers to reach an audience, and allows consumers to vie ...

in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. As part of the association, YuppTV users can access content from ETV Telugu, along with other ETV Network channels like ETV Life, ETV Plus, ETV Cinema, and ETV Abhiruchi in the US Market.

Programming

Initially, ETV preferred creating in-house content as the parent company had experience in film production through Usha Kiran Movies banner and because Ramoji Group also owns

Ramoji Film City Ramoji Film City is an integrated film studio facility located in Hyderabad, India. Spread over , it is recognized as the world's largest film studio complex by the Guinness World Records. Established in 1996 by Telugu media proprietor Ramoj ...

, the largest film studio facility in the world. Later it also started encouraging outside producers to produce serials for the channel.

Logos

File:ETV old logo.png, Logo in 1995 File:ETVnewLogo.png, Present logo File:ETVHDNewLogo.png, Present logo of ETV HD

References

External links

Eenadu Television Pvt. Ltd.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Etv Telugu Telugu-language television channels Television stations in Hyderabad Television channels and stations established in 1995 Ramoji Group ETV Network