The Prestigious History of Indian Television
Television in India has been in existence for about four decades. For the first 17 years, it spread haltingly and transmission was usually in black and white. The thinkers and policy makers of the country, which had just been liberated from centuries of colonial rule, though television to be a luxurious element that Indians could do without. In 1955 a Cabinet decision was taken disallowing any foreign investments in print media which has since been followed religiously for nearly 45 years. Sales of TV sets, as reflected by licences issued to buyers were just 676,615 until 1977.The rapid expansion of television hardware in India increased the demand for developing more program software to fill the broadcast hours. Program production, previously a monopoly of Doordarshan, the government-run national television system in India, was then opened to the group of aspiring artists, producers, directors, and technicians. Most of the talented individuals got connected with the television industry.
The second turning point in the history of Indian television came in the early nineties with the broadcast of satellite TV by foreign programmers like CNN followed by Star TV and a little later by domestic channels such as Zee TV and Sun TV into Indian homes. Before this, Indian viewers had to make do with DD’s regulated fare which was non-commercial in nature and directed towards only education and socio-economic development. Entertainment programmes were few and far between. And when the solitary few soaps like Hum Log (1984), and mythological dramas like Ramayana (1987-88) and Mahabharata (1988-89) were televised, millions of viewers stayed glued to their sets. When, urban Indians learnt that it was possible to watch the international affairs on television, they gradually bought dishes for their homes. Others turned entrepreneurs and started offering the signal to their neighbours by connecting cable over treetops and verandahs. From the large metros satellite TV delivered through cable moved into smaller towns, spurring the purchase of TV sets and even the upgradation from black and white to colour televisions. Doordarshan responded to this satellite TV invasion by launching an entertainment and commercially driven channel and introduced entertainment programming on its terrestrial network. This again fuelled the purchase of sets in the remote regions where cable TV was not available.
In the mid-1960s, Dr Vikram Sarabhai, a farsighted technocrat and founder of India’s space program, began arguing in policy-making circles that a nationwide satellite television system could play a major role in promoting economic and social development. At Sarabhai’s initiative, a national satellite communication group (NASCOM) was established in 1968. Based on its recommendations, the Indian government permitted the concept of “hybrid” television broadcasting system consisting of communication satellites as well as ground-based microwave relay transmitters. Sarabhai envisioned that the satellite component would allow India to leap multiple steps into the state-of-the-art communication technology, speed up the development process, and take advantage of the lack of infrastructure (until 1972, there was only one television transmitter in India, located in Delhi).
