Indian Television
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The television industry in India is very diverse and produces thousands of programmes in many Indian languages. Nearly 87% of Indian households own a television. As of 2016, the country had over 900 channels of which 184 were pay channels. National channels operate in
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 ...
and
English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Culture, language and peoples * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England * ''English'', an Amish ter ...
, in addition to channels in several other languages including
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 ...
,
Tamil Tamil may refer to: People, culture and language * Tamils, an ethno-linguistic group native to India, Sri Lanka, and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka ** Myanmar or Burmese Tamils, Tamil people of Ind ...
,
Kannada Kannada () is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly in the state of Karnataka in southwestern India, and spoken by a minority of the population in all neighbouring states. It has 44 million native speakers, and is additionally a ...
, Tulu,
Malayalam Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian languages, Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (union territory), Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of ...
,
Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...
,
Marathi Marathi may refer to: *Marathi people, an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group of Maharashtra, India **Marathi people (Uttar Pradesh), the Marathi people in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh *Marathi language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Mar ...
, Odia,
Punjabi Punjabi, or Panjabi, most often refers to: * Something of, from, or related to Punjab, a region in India and Pakistan * Punjabi language * Punjabis, Punjabi people * Punjabi dialects and languages Punjabi may also refer to: * Punjabi (horse), a ...
,
Rajasthani Rajasthani may refer to: * something of, from, or related to Rajasthan, a state of India * Rajasthani languages, a group of Indic languages spoken there * Rajasthani people, the native inhabitants of the state * Rajasthani architecture, Indian ar ...
, Assamese, Manipuri,
Gujarati Gujarati may refer to: * something of, from, or related to Gujarat, a state of India * Gujarati people, the major ethnic group of Gujarat * Gujarati language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by them * Gujarati languages, the Western Indo-Aryan sub- ...
,
Urdu Urdu (; , , ) is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in South Asia. It is the Languages of Pakistan, national language and ''lingua franca'' of Pakistan. In India, it is an Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of Indi ...
,
Bhojpuri Bhojpuri may refer to: * Bhojpuri language, an Indo-Aryan language of India and Nepal * Bhojpuri grammar, grammatical rules of the language * Bhojpuri nouns, nouns of the language * Bhojpuri people, people who speak the language * Bhojpuri region ...
,
Kashmiri Kashmiri may refer to: * People or things related to the Kashmir Valley or the broader region of Kashmir * Kashmiris, an ethnic group native to the Kashmir Valley * Kashmiri language, the language of the Kashmiris ethnic group People with the nam ...
,
Konkani __NOTOC__ Konkani may refer to: Language * Konkani language is an Indo-Aryan language spoken in the Konkan region of India. * Konkani alphabets, different scripts used to write the language **Konkani in the Roman script, one of the scripts used to ...
,
Haryanvi Haryanvi (हरियाणवी or हरयाणवी) is an Indo-Aryan language spoken primarily in the Indian state of Haryana and the territory of Delhi. Haryanvi is considered to be part of the dialect group of Western Hindi, which a ...
and Himachali, among others. The Hindi, Telugu and Tamil language television industries are by far the largest television industries in India. The national television broadcaster is
Doordarshan Doordarshan (), abbreviated as DD, is India's State-owned enterprise, state-owned public broadcasting, public television broadcaster. Established by the Government of India on 15 September 1959, it is owned by the Ministry of Information and B ...
, owned by
Prasar Bharati Prasar Bharati (abbreviated as PB) () is India's state-owned public broadcaster, headquartered in New Delhi, India. It is a statutory autonomous body set up by an Act of Parliament. It comprises Doordarshan, the television broadcaster, and Al ...
. There are several commercial television broadcasters such as
Culver Max Entertainment Culver Max Entertainment Pvt. Ltd., Trade name, trading as Sony Pictures Networks India (SPN or SPNI), is an Indian media conglomerate owned by Sony Pictures Television. SPN manages and operates 26 television channels, the streaming media platf ...
(Sony Pictures Networks),
Disney Star Disney Star (also known as JioStar), registered as JioStar India Private Limited, is an Indian media conglomerate joint venture owned with a share of 16.34% by Reliance Industries, 46.82% by Viacom18 and 36.84% by Disney India. On 14 Nove ...
,
Viacom18 Viacom18 Media Private Limited is an independent Indian media conglomerate, part of JioStar. It is owned by Reliance Industries and Bodhi Tree Systems. The Organisation had various channels and content production studios in India. Following ...
(owned by
Reliance Industries Reliance Industries Limited is an Indian multinational conglomerate headquartered in Mumbai. Its businesses include energy, petrochemicals, natural gas, retail, entertainment, telecommunications, mass media, and textiles. Reliance is the ...
through
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 ...
),
Warner Bros. Discovery India Warner Bros. Discovery India also known as (WBD or WBDI) is a division of Warner Bros. Discovery Asia-Pacific that operates several television channels in India. The division is responsible for delivering a range of content across various gen ...
and
Zee Entertainment Enterprises Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (ZEEL) (formerly Zee Telefilms) is an Indian media conglomerate. Headquartered in Mumbai, it has interests in television, print, internet, film, and businesses related to mobile content, and operates 45 c ...
, at the national level, and
Sun TV Network Sun TV Network Limited is a Indian media company, headquartered in Chennai. It is a part of Sun Group and was established on 14 April 1993 by Kalanithi Maran. It owns a variety of television channels and radio stations in multiple languages ...
and
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 ...
at the regional level. Currently, the major Hindi national general entertainment channels (GECs) that dominate pay television are
StarPlus StarPlus is an Indian Hindi-language general entertainment pay television channel owned by JioStar, a joint venture between Viacom18 and Disney India. Its programming consists of family dramas, romantic comedies, youth-oriented realit ...
,
Sony SAB Sony SAB is an Indian Hindi-language general entertainment pay television channel owned by Culver Max Entertainment Culver Max Entertainment Pvt. Ltd., Trade name, trading as Sony Pictures Networks India (SPN or SPNI), is an Indian media ...
,
Sony Entertainment Television Sony Entertainment Television (abbreviated as SET) is an Indian Hindi-language general entertainment pay television channel that was launched in 1995 and is owned by Culver Max Entertainment, a division of Sony Pictures. History This chann ...
,
Zee TV ZEE TV also known as Z TV is an Indian Hindi language general entertainment pay television channel owned by Zee Entertainment Enterprises. It was launched on 1 October 1992 as the oldest privately owned television channel in India. History ...
and
Colors TV Colors TV is an Indian general entertainment pay television channel owned by JioStar, a joint venture between Viacom18 and Disney India. Its programming consists of Soap opera, family dramas, Comedy, comedies, fantasy shows, youth-oriented Rea ...
. Since 2019, free-to-air Hindi channels like Dangal and Goldmines have drastically increased in popularity due to their availability on
DD Free Dish DD Free Dish (formerly known as DD Direct Plus) is an Indian state-owned free-to-air satellite television provider owned and operated by Public Service Broadcaster Prasar Bharati. It was launched in December, 2004. In March 2022, It has a reac ...
. Regional-language channels like Sun TV and
Star Vijay Star Vijay is an Indian Tamil language general entertainment pay television channel owned by JioStar, a joint venture between Viacom18 and Disney India. The channel telecasts programmes such as serials, reality shows & Tamil films. History T ...
(Tamil),
Star Maa Star Maa is an Indian Telugu language, Telugu-language general entertainment pay television channel owned by JioStar, a joint venture between Viacom18 and Disney India. It primarily telecasts programmes such as serials, reality shows and Telugu ...
and
Zee Telugu Zee Telugu is an Indian Telugu-language general entertainment pay television channel in India. It was launched on 12 September 2004 as '' Alpha TV Telugu''. and was rebranded as ''Zee Telugu'' on 18 May 2005. The channel is owned by Zee Entert ...
(Telugu),
Asianet Asianet may refer to: JioStar channels * JioStar, is an Indian media conglomerate wholly owned by Disney India. ** Asianet, a Malayalam language general entertainment channel ** Asianet Plus, a Malayalam language general entertainment channel ** As ...
(Malayalam) and
Star Pravah Star Pravah is an Indian Marathi language general entertainment pay television channel owned by JioStar, a joint venture between Viacom18 and Disney India. It primarily telecasts family dramas, comedies, reality shows and films. History ...
(Marathi) are also among the most popular television channels by viewership. Unlike most other countries, major Indian entertainment channels do not air news, with some exceptions in South India like Sun TV and
ETV ETV may stand for: Television * Educational television, the use of television in education * Enhanced TV, an interactive television application specification Africa * e.tv, South Africa * ETV (Ethiopia), Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation * ETV G ...
. This is partly due to Indian media regulations prohibiting Foreign Direct Investment of more than 26% in print and broadcast news, and foreign-owned broadcasters like
Star A star is a luminous spheroid of plasma (physics), plasma held together by Self-gravitation, self-gravity. The List of nearest stars and brown dwarfs, nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked eye at night sk ...
have exited news broadcast. Some broadcasters (such as
ABP Group ABP Group (Ananda Bazar Patrika) is an Indian media conglomerate headquartered in Kolkata, West Bengal. It was established in 1922. History The company in recent years did mass layoff at various times. Current assets Newspapers * ''Ananda ...
,
India Today Group Living Media India Limited, d.b.a. India Today Group, is an Indian media conglomerate based in New Delhi, India. It has interests in magazines, newspapers, books, radio, television, printing and the Internet. History India Today Group was f ...
, TV9 and
ITV Network ITV, legally known as Channel 3, is a British free-to-air public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television network. It is branded as ITV1 in most of the UK except for central and northern Scotland, where it is b ...
) operate only news channels, while others (like
NDTV New Delhi Television Ltd is an Indian news media company focusing on broadcast and digital news publication. It was founded in 1984 by economist Prannoy Roy and journalist Radhika Roy. NDTV began as a production house for news segments, ...
and
The Times Group Bennett Coleman and Company Limited (BCCL), d/b/a the Times Group, is an Indian media conglomerate based in Mumbai. Notable media properties owned and operated by the group include India's largest selling daily English-language newspaper ''The ...
) have both news and non-news channels, while
Zee Media Corporation Zee Media Corporation Limited (abbreviated as ZMCL; formerly Zee News Limited) is an Indian mass media and news broadcasting company based in Mumbai. The company is engaged mainly in the business of broadcasting news and current affairs, and re ...
and
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 ...
operate independently of the Zee and Viacom18 entertainment channels, which have foreign shareholdings.


History

In January 1950,
The Indian Express ''The Indian Express'' is an English-language Indian daily newspaper founded in 1932 by P. Varadarajulu Naidu. It is headquartered in Noida, owned by the ''Indian Express Group''. It was later taken over by Ramnath Goenka. In 1999, eight y ...
reported that a television was put up for demonstration at an exhibition in the
Teynampet Teynampet, also Teynampettai, is one of the busiest commercial localities in the city of Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. Part of the city's central business district, it is surrounded by Gopalapuram, Chennai, Gopalapuram in the north, Mylapore in th ...
locality of
Chennai Chennai, also known as Madras (List of renamed places in India#Tamil Nadu, its official name until 1996), is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Tamil Nadu by population, largest city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost states and ...
(formerly Madras) by B. Sivakumaran, a student of
electrical engineering Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems that use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...
. A letter was scanned and its image was displayed on a
cathode-ray tube A cathode-ray tube (CRT) is a vacuum tube containing one or more electron guns, which emit electron beams that are manipulated to display images on a phosphorescent screen. The images may represent electrical waveforms on an oscilloscope, a ...
screen. The report said that "It may be this is not the whole of television but it is certainly the most significant link in the system" and added that the demonstration of the sort could be the "first in India". The first TV transmitter in India was installed in the Electronics and Telecommunications Engineering Department of the Jabalpur Engineering College on 24 October 1951. In Srinagar, television was first used in the house of the Jan family, which was a huge milestone for industrialisation. In 1952, the government's Scientific Advisory Committee for Broadcasting recommended the creation of a pilot station to showcase television's potential to viewers. A television demonstration was held in Mumbai, Bombay from 10 to 12 October 1954. In 1955, an officer of All India Radio went to the United States to study telecommunications. The trip would give stamina to AIR's first experimental television station. An experiment was conducted at the American Pavilion of the 1955 Indian Industries Fair, which opened on 29 October 1955, with PM Nehru being the first face to appear on television in India. Existing radio networks were open to start a television network. Terrestrial television in India officially started with the experimental telecast starting in Delhi on 15 September 1959 with a small transmitter and a makeshift studio. Daily transmission began in 1965 as a part of All India Radio, Akashvani (formerly All India Radio AIR). Television service was later extended to Mumbai (formerly Bombay) and Amritsar in 1972. Up until 1975, only seven Indian cities had television services. Satellite Instructional Television Experiment (SITE) was an important step taken by India to use television for development. The programmes were mainly produced by
Doordarshan Doordarshan (), abbreviated as DD, is India's State-owned enterprise, state-owned public broadcasting, public television broadcaster. Established by the Government of India on 15 September 1959, it is owned by the Ministry of Information and B ...
(DD) which was then a part of AIR. The telecast happened twice a day, in the mornings and evenings. Other than information related to agriculture, health and family planning were the other important topics dealt with in these programmes. Entertainment was also included in the form of dance, music, drama, folk and rural art forms. Television services were separated from radio in 1976. The national telecast was introduced in 1982. In the same year, colour television was introduced in the Indian market. The introduction of colour television was sluggish compared to other countries, taking into account rampant poverty, the cost of conversion and the late arrival of television to cities such as Bengaluru, whose television station switched on in November 1981. By contrast, both Pakistan and Bangladesh already had colour television. The return of Indira Gandhi to government also enabled the improvement of radio and television infrastructure. In 1983, Minister H.K.L. Bhagat suggested that the conversion to colour television would be complete by 1985, by then with a possible 17-hour daily schedule, as well as a project to launch 70 new low-powered transmitters to increase its reach to virtually every city and city cluster. Indian small-screen programming began in the early 1980s. During this time, there was only one national channel, the government-owned
Doordarshan Doordarshan (), abbreviated as DD, is India's State-owned enterprise, state-owned public broadcasting, public television broadcaster. Established by the Government of India on 15 September 1959, it is owned by the Ministry of Information and B ...
. Mythological TV series Ramayan (1987 TV series), Ramayan and Mahabharat (1988 TV series), Mahabharat, both based on the Indian epics of the same names, were the first major television series produced. They notched up a world record in viewership numbers. By the late 1980s, more people began to own television. Though there was a single channel, television programming had reached saturation. Hence, the government initiated another service, which had part national programming and part regional. The channel, known as DD Metro (formerly DD 2) was broadcast terrestrially along with DD National. In 1997,
Prasar Bharati Prasar Bharati (abbreviated as PB) () is India's state-owned public broadcaster, headquartered in New Delhi, India. It is a statutory autonomous body set up by an Act of Parliament. It comprises Doordarshan, the television broadcaster, and Al ...
, a statutory autonomous body was established.
Doordarshan Doordarshan (), abbreviated as DD, is India's State-owned enterprise, state-owned public broadcasting, public television broadcaster. Established by the Government of India on 15 September 1959, it is owned by the Ministry of Information and B ...
along with AIR were converted into government corporations under
Prasar Bharati Prasar Bharati (abbreviated as PB) () is India's state-owned public broadcaster, headquartered in New Delhi, India. It is a statutory autonomous body set up by an Act of Parliament. It comprises Doordarshan, the television broadcaster, and Al ...
. The Prasar Bharati Corporation was established to serve as the public service broadcaster of the country which would achieve its objectives through AIR and Doordashan. This was a step towards greater autonomy for
Doordarshan Doordarshan (), abbreviated as DD, is India's State-owned enterprise, state-owned public broadcasting, public television broadcaster. Established by the Government of India on 15 September 1959, it is owned by the Ministry of Information and B ...
and AIR. However, Prasar Bharati has not succeeded in shielding Doordarshan from government control. The transponders of the American satellites PAS-1 and PAS-4 helped in the transmission and broadcast of Doordarshan's television services. An international channel called DD International was launched in 1995 and it broadcast programmes for 19 hours a day to foreign countries via PAS-4 to Europe, Asia and Africa and PAS-1 to North America. The 1980s was the "Golden Era of Doordarshan" with various shows like Hum Log (TV series), Hum Log (1984–1985), Wagle Ki Duniya (1988), Buniyaad (1986–1987) and comedy shows like Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi (1984) glued millions to Doordarshan and later on Chandrakanta (1994 TV series), Chandrakanta (1994–1996). Hindi film songs-based programmes like Chitrahaar, Rangoli (TV series), Rangoli, Superhit Muqabla and crime thrillers like Karamchand, Byomkesh Bakshi (TV series), Byomkesh Bakshi. Shows targeted at children included Divyanshu Ki Kahaniyan, Vikram Aur Betaal, Malgudi Days (TV series), Malgudi Days, and Tenali Rama. It is also noted that Bengali filmmaker Prabir Roy had the distinction of introducing colour television coverage in India in February–March 1982 during the Nehru Cup, a football tournament which was held at Eden Gardens, Kolkata, with five on-line camera operation, before
Doordarshan Doordarshan (), abbreviated as DD, is India's State-owned enterprise, state-owned public broadcasting, public television broadcaster. Established by the Government of India on 15 September 1959, it is owned by the Ministry of Information and B ...
started the same during the 1982 Asian Games in November that year. The central government, under the leadership of the Congress, launched a series of economic and social reforms in 1991 under the then-Prime Minister P. V. Narasimha Rao. Under the new policies, the government allowed private and foreign broadcasters to engage in limited operations in India. This process has been pursued consistently by all subsequent federal administrations. Foreign broadcasters like CNN, the BBC and
Disney Star Disney Star (also known as JioStar), registered as JioStar India Private Limited, is an Indian media conglomerate joint venture owned with a share of 16.34% by Reliance Industries, 46.82% by Viacom18 and 36.84% by Disney India. On 14 Nove ...
and private domestic broadcasters such as Zee Entertainment Enterprises, ZEEL,
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 ...
, Sun TV and
Asianet Asianet may refer to: JioStar channels * JioStar, is an Indian media conglomerate wholly owned by Disney India. ** Asianet, a Malayalam language general entertainment channel ** Asianet Plus, a Malayalam language general entertainment channel ** As ...
started satellite broadcasts. Starting with 41 sets in 1962 and one channel, by 1995, television in India had covered more than 70 million homes giving a viewing population of more than 400 million individuals through more than 100 channels.


Broadcast media

There are at least five basic types of television in India: terrestrial television, broadcast or "over-the-air" television, unencrypted satellite or "free-to-air", Satellite television, Direct-to-Home (DTH), cable television, Internet Protocol television, IPTV and Over-the-top media services in India, OTT. Over-the-air terrestrial and free-to-air TV (such as
DD Free Dish DD Free Dish (formerly known as DD Direct Plus) is an Indian state-owned free-to-air satellite television provider owned and operated by Public Service Broadcaster Prasar Bharati. It was launched in December, 2004. In March 2022, It has a reac ...
) is free with no monthly payments while cable, DTH, and IPTV require a subscription that varies depending on how many channels a subscriber chooses to pay for and how much the provider is charging for the packages. Channels are usually sold in groups or A la carte pay television, a la carte. All television service providers are required by law to provide the a la carte selection of channels. India is the second largest pay-TV market in the world in terms of subscribers after China and has more than doubled from 32% in 2001 to 66% in 2018.


Terrestrial television

In India, the broadcast of free-to-air television is governed through a state-owned
Prasar Bharati Prasar Bharati (abbreviated as PB) () is India's state-owned public broadcaster, headquartered in New Delhi, India. It is a statutory autonomous body set up by an Act of Parliament. It comprises Doordarshan, the television broadcaster, and Al ...
corporation, with the
Doordarshan Doordarshan (), abbreviated as DD, is India's State-owned enterprise, state-owned public broadcasting, public television broadcaster. Established by the Government of India on 15 September 1959, it is owned by the Ministry of Information and B ...
group of channels being the only broadcaster. As such, cable television is the primary source of TV programming in India.


Broadcast cable and satellite television

As per the TAM Annual Universe Update – 2015, India had over 167 million households (out of 234 million) with televisions, of which over 161 million have access to cable or satellite television, including 84 million households which are DTH subscribers. Digital TV households have grown by 32% since 2013 due to migration from terrestrial and analogue broadcasts. TV-owning households have been growing at between 8–10%. Digital TV penetration is at 64% as of September 2014. India now has over 850 TV channels (2018) covering all the main languages spoken in the nation and whereby 197 million households own televisions. The growth in digital broadcast has been due to the introduction of a multi-phase digitization policy by the Government of India. An ordinance was introduced by the government regarding the mandatory digitisation of cable services. According to this amendment made in Section 9 of the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Amendment Ordinance, 1995, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting is in the process of making the Digital Addressable System mandatory. As per the policy, viewers would be able to access digital services only through a set-top box. Starting in December 1991, Disney Networks Group Asia Pacific, Star TV introduced four major television channels into the Indian broadcasting space that had so far been monopolised by the Indian government-owned
Doordarshan Doordarshan (), abbreviated as DD, is India's State-owned enterprise, state-owned public broadcasting, public television broadcaster. Established by the Government of India on 15 September 1959, it is owned by the Ministry of Information and B ...
: MTV (Indian TV channel), MTV, StarPlus, STAR Plus, Star Movies (Indian TV channel), Star Movies, BBC News (international TV channel), BBC World Service Television and Prime Sports. In October 1992, India saw the launch of
Zee TV ZEE TV also known as Z TV is an Indian Hindi language general entertainment pay television channel owned by Zee Entertainment Enterprises. It was launched on 1 October 1992 as the oldest privately owned television channel in India. History ...
, the first privately owned Indian channel to broadcast over cable followed by the Asia Television Network (ATN). A few years later CNN International South Asia, CNN, Discovery Channel (Indian TV channel), Discovery Channel and National Geographic (Indian TV channel), National Geographic made their foray into India. Later, Star TV Network expanded its bouquet with the introduction of Star World (Indian TV channel), STAR World, Star Sports India, STAR Sports, ESPN, Channel V India, Channel V and Disney Star, STAR Gold. With the launch of the
Tamil Tamil may refer to: People, culture and language * Tamils, an ethno-linguistic group native to India, Sri Lanka, and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka ** Myanmar or Burmese Tamils, Tamil people of Ind ...
Sun TV in 1993, South India saw the birth of its first private television channel. With a network comprising more than 20 channels in various South India languages, Sun TV network recently launched a Satellite television, DTH service and its channels are now available in several countries outside India. Following Sun TV, several television channels sprung up in the south. Among these are the Tamil channel Raj TV (1993) and the
Malayalam Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian languages, Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (union territory), Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of ...
channel
Asianet Asianet may refer to: JioStar channels * JioStar, is an Indian media conglomerate wholly owned by Disney India. ** Asianet, a Malayalam language general entertainment channel ** Asianet Plus, a Malayalam language general entertainment channel ** As ...
launched in 1993 from Asianet Communications, which was later acquired by
Disney Star Disney Star (also known as JioStar), registered as JioStar India Private Limited, is an Indian media conglomerate joint venture owned with a share of 16.34% by Reliance Industries, 46.82% by Viacom18 and 36.84% by Disney India. On 14 Nove ...
. Asianet Cable Network and Asianet Broadband were from Asianet Communication Ltd. These three networks and their channels today take up most of the broadcasting space in South India. In 1994, industrialist N. P. V. Ramasamy Udayar launched a Tamil channel called ''GEC'' (Golden Eagle Communication), which was later acquired by Vijay Mallya and renamed as Star Vijay, Vijay TV. In Telugu, Telugu daily newspaper Eenadu started its television division called
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 ...
in 1995 and later diversified into other Indian languages. The same year, another Telugu channel called Gemini TV was launched which was later acquired by the Sun TV Network in 1998. Throughout the 1990s, along with a multitude of Hindi-language channels, several regional and English-language channels flourished all over India. By 2001, international channels HBO India, HBO and History TV18, The History Channel started providing service. In 1995–2003, other international channels such as Cartoon Network (Indian TV channel), Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon (Indian TV channel), Nickelodeon, VH1 and Toon Disney entered the market. Starting in 2003, there has been an explosion of news channels in various languages; the most notable among them are NDTV 24x7, NDTV India, CNN-News18, Times Now and Aaj Tak.


Conditional Access System

CAS, or conditional access system, is a digital mode of transmitting TV channels through a set-top box (STB). The transmission signals are encrypted and viewers need to buy a set-top box to receive and decrypt the signal. The STB is required to watch only pay channels. The idea of CAS was mooted in 2001, due to a furore over charge hikes by channels and subsequently by cable operators. Poor reception of certain channels; arbitrary pricing and increase in prices; bundling of channels; poor service delivery by Cable Television Operators (CTOs); monopolies in each area; lack of regulatory framework and redress avenues were some of the issues that were to be addressed by implementation of CAS It was decided by the government that CAS would be first introduced in the four metros. It has been in place in Chennai since September 2003, where, until very recently, it had managed to attract very few subscribers. It has been rolled out recently in the other three metros of Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata. Only 25 per cent of the people have subscribed to the new technology. The rest watch only free-to-air channels. As mentioned above, the inhibiting factor from the viewer's perspective is the cost of the STB.


Analogue switchover

The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (India), Ministry of Information and Broadcasting issued a notification on 11 November 2011, setting 31 March 2015 as the deadline for complete Digital television transition, shift from analogue to digital systems. In December 2011, Parliament passed the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Amendment Act to digitise the cable television sector by 2014.15-day grace period to get TV set-top box
. Hindustan Times (4 April 2013).
Chennai Chennai, also known as Madras (List of renamed places in India#Tamil Nadu, its official name until 1996), is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Tamil Nadu by population, largest city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost states and ...
, Delhi, Kolkata, and Mumbai had to switch by 31 October 2012. The second phase of 38 cities, including Bangalore, Chandigarh, Nagpur, Patna, and Pune, was to switch by 31 March 2013. The remaining urban areas were to be digitised by 30 November 2014 and the rest of the country by 31 March 2015. †Indicates the date when analogue signals were switched off and not necessarily the date when 100% digitisation was achieved.


Phase I

From midnight on 31 October 2012, analogue signals were switched off in Delhi and Mumbai. Pirate television, Pirated signals were available in parts of Delhi even after the date. In Kolkata, on 30 October 2012, the state government refused to switch off analogue signals citing low penetration of set-top boxes (STBs) required for receiving digital signals. The Ministry did not push for switching off of analogue signals in Kolkata. After approximately the Centre estimated that 75% of Kolkata households had installed STBs, the ministry issued a directive to stop airing analogue channels in some parts of the city beginning 16 December and completely switch off analogue signals after 27 December. On 17 December 2012, the West Bengal government openly defied the directive and stated that it would not implement it. The state government then announced that it would extend the deadline to 15 January 2013. The Ministry had initially threatened to cancel the licence of List of multiple-system operators, multi system operators (MSOs) in Kolkata if they did not switch off all analogue channels. However, the ministries softened their stand following a letter from MSOs, explaining how they were sandwiched between divergent orders from the Central and State Governments. In Chennai, the deadline was extended twice to 5 November by the Madras High Court. The extension was in response to a petition filed by the Chennai Metro Cable TV Operators Association (CMCOA), who argued at the beginning of November that only 1,64,000 homes in Chennai had the proper equipment, and three million households would be left without service. When a week later only a quarter of households had their set-top boxes, the Madras High Court further extended the deadline to 9 November. The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting stated that it would allow an additional extension to 31 December. As of March 2013, out of 3 million subscribers, 2.4 million continued to be without set-top boxes. A similar petition, filed by a local cable operator (LCO), to extend the deadline in Mumbai was rejected by the Bombay High Court on 31 October 2012.


Phase II

In the second phase, 38 cities in 15 states had to digitise by 31 March 2013. Of the 38, Maharashtra has 9 cities, Uttar Pradesh has 7 and Gujarat has 5. About 25% of the 16 million households covered did not have their equipment installed before the deadline. Secretary Uday Kumar Varma extended a 15-day grace period. The Ministry estimated that as of 3 April 2013, 25% of households did not have set-top boxes. Enforcement of the switchover varied from city to city.Cable digitisation: Govt allows grace period of 15 days
Zeenews.india.com.
Vishakhapatnam had the lowest rate of conversion to the new system at 12.18 per cent. Other cities that had low figures included Srinagar (20 per cent), Coimbatore (28.89 per cent), Jabalpur (34.87 per cent) and Kalyan Dombivli (38.59 per cent).


Satellite television

As of 2016, over 1600 TV satellite television channels are broadcast in India. This includes channels from the state-owned
Doordarshan Doordarshan (), abbreviated as DD, is India's State-owned enterprise, state-owned public broadcasting, public television broadcaster. Established by the Government of India on 15 September 1959, it is owned by the Ministry of Information and B ...
, The Walt Disney Company India, Disney India owned
Star A star is a luminous spheroid of plasma (physics), plasma held together by Self-gravitation, self-gravity. The List of nearest stars and brown dwarfs, nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked eye at night sk ...
, Sony owned
Sony Entertainment Television Sony Entertainment Television (abbreviated as SET) is an Indian Hindi-language general entertainment pay television channel that was launched in 1995 and is owned by Culver Max Entertainment, a division of Sony Pictures. History This chann ...
,
Zee TV ZEE TV also known as Z TV is an Indian Hindi language general entertainment pay television channel owned by Zee Entertainment Enterprises. It was launched on 1 October 1992 as the oldest privately owned television channel in India. History ...
,
Sun TV Network Sun TV Network Limited is a Indian media company, headquartered in Chennai. It is a part of Sun Group and was established on 14 April 1993 by Kalanithi Maran. It owns a variety of television channels and radio stations in multiple languages ...
and
Asianet Asianet may refer to: JioStar channels * JioStar, is an Indian media conglomerate wholly owned by Disney India. ** Asianet, a Malayalam language general entertainment channel ** Asianet Plus, a Malayalam language general entertainment channel ** As ...
. Direct To Home service is provided by Airtel digital TV, Airtel Digital TV,
DD Free Dish DD Free Dish (formerly known as DD Direct Plus) is an Indian state-owned free-to-air satellite television provider owned and operated by Public Service Broadcaster Prasar Bharati. It was launched in December, 2004. In March 2022, It has a reac ...
, DishTV, Sun Direct, Tata Play and Videocon Dish TV, D2H. Dish TV was the first one to come up in Indian Market, others came only years later. These services are provided by locally built satellites from ISRO such as INSAT 4CR, INSAT 4A, INSAT-2E, INSAT-3C and INSAT-3E as well as private satellites such as the Dutch-based SES, Global-owned NSS-6, Thaicom-2 and Telstar 10. Satellite television, DTH is defined as the reception of satellite programmes with a personal dish in an individual home. As of December 2012, India had roughly 54  million DTH subscribers. DTH does not compete with Conditional access, CAS. Cable TV and DTH are two methods of delivery of television content. CAS is integral to both systems in delivering pay channels. Cable TV is through cable networks and DTH is wireless, reaching direct to the consumer through a small dish and a set-top box. Although the government has ensured that free-to-air channels on cable are delivered to the consumer without a set-top box, DTH signals cannot be received without the set-top box. India currently has 6 major DTH service providers and a total of over 54  million subscriber households as of December 2012. Dish TV, DishTV (a ZEE TV subsidiary), Tata Play, Dish TV, d2h, Sun Network owned ' Sun Direct DTH', Bharti Airtel's DTH Service 'Airtel digital TV, Airtel Digital TV' and the public sector
DD Free Dish DD Free Dish (formerly known as DD Direct Plus) is an Indian state-owned free-to-air satellite television provider owned and operated by Public Service Broadcaster Prasar Bharati. It was launched in December, 2004. In March 2022, It has a reac ...
. As of 2012, India has the most competitive Direct-broadcast satellite market, with 7 operators vying for more than 135  million TV homes. India overtook the US as the world's largest Direct-broadcast satellite market in 2012. The rapid growth of DTH in India has propelled an exodus from cabled homes, and the need to measure viewership in this space is more than ever; Audience Measurement and Analytics Ltd. (aMap), aMap, the overnight ratings agency, has mounted a people meter panel to measure viewership and interactive engagement in DTH homes in India.


Internet Protocol Television (IPTV)

There are IPTV Platforms available for subscription in India in the main cities as broadband in many parts of the country, they are
iControl IPTV
A joint venture between Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited, MTNL and BSNL also in association wit
Aksh Optifiber
a company that also provides Fiber to the x, FTTH and Voice over IP, VoIP services available in some of the main cities in India such as Mumbai which has about 200 television channels on offer with time shifting in several basic and premium Packages including Movies on Demand offered at various basic, premium and pay-per-view rates and other services such as an interactive karaoke channel, The IPTV operator uses the UTStarcom, UTStarcom Rolling Stream IPTV Solution as its end-to-end Delivery Platform. *Airtel IPT is available in some of the main cities in India such as New Delhi and Bangalore which have about 175 television channels on offer with time shifting in several TV packages and a small number of television channels offered on premium subscription rates including Movies on Demand offered at premium and pay-per-view rates SVOD and other services such as Digital Radio and Games, The IPTV Operator uses the UTStarcom, UTStarcom RollingStream IPTV Solution as its end-to-end delivery platform. *Smart TV group also operates an Internet Protocol television (IPTV) platform based on the Sea-Change International IPTV and Cisco IPTV standards in many parts of India with the following services: :*185 TV channels on various basic and premium packages :*40 TV channels Video on demand (VOD) service :*250 hours Digital video recorder (DVR) :*A 5000+ hour movie library :*Digital Radio and Karaoke Service The service is available to Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited, MTNL and Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited, BSNL broadband Internet customers. *Andhra Pradesh State FiberNet Limited, APSFL is an IPTV service provider. It was launched in 2016 and offers over 250 channels, out of which 49 are in HD. It is currently only available in Andhra Pradesh.


Programming

Indian television drama is by far the most common genre on Indian television. Fiction shows (including thriller dramas and sitcoms) are extremely popular among Indian audiences. There are thousands of television programmes in India, all ranging in length, air time, genre and language. Major sports networks include Star Sports India, Star Sports, Sony Sports Network, Eurosport (Indian TV channel), Eurosport, 1Sports and DD Sports.


Advertising

India has a huge advertising industry. In 2021, India's advertising sector generated revenue worth ₹74,600 crore, which included type types advertising. Traditionally organisations and manufacturing industries used to advertise through Television due to its vast reach. Indian TV and print media frequently run advertisements are often types of Surrogate advertisings, False advertisings etc. Alcohol advertising is illegal in India but brands frequently run surrogate advertising campaigns. The Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA), the consumer rights protection body of the Consumer Affairs Ministry issued guidelines against surrogate advertising.


Audience metrics

Television metrics in India have gone through several phases in which it fragmented, consolidated and then fragmented again. One key difference in Indian culture is that families traditionally limit themselves to owning only one screen.


DART

During the days of the single-channel Doordarshan monopoly, DART (Doordarshan, Doordarshan Audience Research Team) was the only metric available. This used the notebook method of recordkeeping across 33 cities across India. DART continues to provide this information independent of the Private agencies. DART is one of the rating systems that measure audience metrics in Rural India.


TAM and INTAM

In 1994, claiming a heterogeneous and fragmenting television market ORG-MARG (Operations Research Group - Multiple Action Research Group) introduced INTAM (Indian National Television Audience Measurement). Ex-
Doordarshan Doordarshan (), abbreviated as DD, is India's State-owned enterprise, state-owned public broadcasting, public television broadcaster. Established by the Government of India on 15 September 1959, it is owned by the Ministry of Information and B ...
officials claimed that INTAM was introduced by vested commercial interests who only sought to break the monopoly of DD and that INTAM was significantly weaker in both sample size, rigour and the range of cities and regions covered.Why is TRP a contentious issue?
Screen India
In 1997, a joint industry body appointed TAM (backed by Nielsen Corporation) as the official recordkeeper of audience metrics.Why is TRP a contentious issue?
Screen India
Due to the differences in methodology and samples of TAM and INTAM, both provided differing results for the same programmes. In 2001, a confidential list of households in Mumbai that were participating in the monitoring survey was released, calling into question the reliability of the data. This subsequently led to the merger of the two measurement systems into TAM. For several years after this, despite misgivings about the process, sample and other parameters, TAM was the de-facto standard and monopoly in the audience metrics game.


AMAP

In 2004, a rival ratings service funded by American Non-residential Indian, NRI investors, called Audience Measurement Analytics Limited (AMAP) was launched.
[Audience Measurement and Analytics Ltd. (aMap), aMap brings TV ratings online ''Business Line''
Ratings cos fight for market share
''Business Standard''
Although initially, it faced a cautious uptake from clients, the TAM monopoly was broken. What differentiates Audience Measurement and Analytics Ltd. (aMap), aMap is that its ratings are available within one day as compared to TAM's timeline of one week.


BARC India

Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) India is an industry body set up to design, commission, supervise and own an accurate, reliable and timely television audience measurement system for India. It currently measures the TV Viewing habits of 183 million TV households in the country, using 30,000 sample panel homes. This will go up to 50,000 in the next couple of years, as mandated by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (India), Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB). As per the Broadcast Audience Research Council's Broadcast India (BI) 2018 Survey released in July 2018, based on a sample of 3 lakh homes in the country, TV homes in the country have seen a 7.5% jump, outpacing the growth of homes in India which grew at 4.5%. India currently boasts 298 million homes, of which 197 million have a TV set, having an opportunity to almost 100 more TV homes in the country. Guided by the recommendations of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) and Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (India), Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) notifications of January 2014, BARC India brings together the three key stakeholders in television audience measurement – broadcasters, advertisers, and advertising and media agencies, via their apex bodies. BARC India is committed to establishing a robust, transparent and accountable governance framework for providing data points that are required to plan media spending more effectively. The role of television media was especially crucial in 2020 as citizens were asked to stay home to fight the pandemic in India. Talking about how media was used as a tool to instil fear and discipline among the public in India during the lockdown, an article in the Doing Sociology blog discusses how television has so become part and parcel of life, the audio-visual platform was used for image-building and influence by the ruling dispensation on one hand, and utilized by popular brands for keeping the consumer culture up on the other.


Effect of OTT on the Indian television industry

Online video streaming, also known as Over-the-top media service, Over-the-top (OTT) services gained popularity in India after 2015. It created a threat to the Indian television industry. TV viewers have to follow the schedule of TV channels to watch their favourite programmes. On the other hand, OTT service providers allow their users to watch their favourite content whenever they want. Moreover, penetration of Internet access in India helps OTT users to access content from anywhere. This convenience of OTT has helped it to gain popularity among young internet users in India. The usage of OTT significantly increased during the national lockdown period (From March 2020 onwards) after the COVID-19 pandemic in India. More people began to watch OTT platforms for foreign content and their spending on TV was significantly reduced.


See also

*Surrogate advertising - Deceptive advertising tactic by ill-legal Gambling companies, mobile apps in India *Lists of television channels in India, List of television stations in India *List of HD channels in India (HD Feed) *Cinema of India, Entertainment industry in India *Digital television transition in India


References

{{India topics Television in India, Entertainment in India Cultural history of India Television by country, India