Transcript
Commercialization Of The Indian Television Industry “Every generation needs a revolution” says Thomas Jefferson. Thestatement perfectly suits the revolution of television media in India. Frombeing an unaffordable, prestige – exhibiting show piece to being aninevitable and integral part of every Indian’s life, the small screen hasreflected the nation’s development in a mammoth way. Frombroadcasting programs twice a week and an hour a day to stepping intohalf of all Indian households, the journey of the television has beenremarkable. Television broadcasting, in India, started in the year 1959 from thenational capital Delhi. At that time the major broadcasting topicsincluded health awareness, rights and duties of a citizen, traffic and roadsense. It took 2 more years for entertainment programs, like music fromfilms, to join the line. Major revolution started in the year 1972 when asecond broadcasting station was opened in Bombay. Before the end of 1975, many major cities like Srinagar, Amritsar, Calcutta, and Madraswere blessed with the relay stations. Soon the media gained popularityand even drove the government to design its own domestic satelliteservice. Thus, the first ever Indian National Satellite, INSAT waslaunched in 1982.Equipped with a dedicated satellite service and, of course, the raisingdemands for new programs, the government conceived the first ever television channel doordarshan in the early 1800s. Being a country with rich religious and mythological background, it wont be that surprising toknow that the first ever television programs to get broadcasted wereRamayana and Mahabharatha. These two programs were a tremendoussuccess and also notched up the world record in viewership numbers for asingle program. On one hand there was a growing popularity of TVamong the Indian population and on the other, very soon, the programsthat were broadcasted reached saturation. Thus, to meet the growingdemand and urge for new programs, the government started another channel, alongside DD1. This channel was called DD2 and later DDMetro. It had a part of national and a part of regional broadcasting. Until1976, television had been funded through a combination of televisionlicenses and allocations from the annual budget. But in 1976, the conceptof advertising served as a driving force for the commercialization of theDoordarshan. Advertising, however, began in a very small way withunder 1% of Doordarshan's budget coming from advertising revenues in 1976-77. But the possibility of reaching a nation wide audience madetelevision look increasingly attractive to advertisers after the introductionof the National Programme in 1982. In turn, Doordarshan began to shiftthe balance of its programming from educational and informationalprograms to entertainment programs like dramas, musical programs, quizprograms etc. The popularity of advertising grew to such a proportionthat by 1990, Doordarshan's revenues from advertising were about $300million, accounting for about 70% of its annual expenditure.Slowly but surely, the Doordarshan’s srcinal mandate to support socialand economic development had clearly been diluted. Entertainment andcommercial programs took a big time elevation and advertising servedthe major source of funding for Doordarshan. Even until then, televisionbroadcasting was tied up with a single channel. Only metropolitan citieshad the luck to enjoy two channels.
