According to National Readership Survey (NRS), in 2006 the growth of satellite television in India has been phenomenal. It reaches 230 million individuals up from 207 million in 2005 who watch TV in an average week – a growth of 3.2 per cent. Homes with access to cable and satellite (C&S) have increased by 12 per cent from 61 m to 68 m in the same period. Thus C&S reach has now penetrated 61 per cent of all TV homes. Not surprisingly, the southern States, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, dominate the markets with TV reach of 76.2 per cent, 76.2 per cent and 78 per cent respectively. These States also have high penetration of C&S at 60 per cent, 53 per cent and 59 per cent respectively.
Thanks to the explosion of FM, radio now reaches almost as many print media consumers. In an average week, 27 per cent of the population, that is, 119 m people listen to a station in 2006, up from 23 per cent last year –- a 55 per cent increase in a year.
In fact, its impact is felt even in print media: Films and TV serials come after news, politics and sports in terms of reader interest.
A bit of history
SITE or Satellite Instructional Television Experiment, was a demonstration in India of the United States’ Applications Technology Satellite (ATS-F) system. The technology enabled direct TV reception by simple, low-cost receiving system (Broadcast Journalism in the 21st Century, K.M. Shrivastava, New Dawn Press, Inc.). That’s when it all began, in 1975-76.
The Indian Satellite System (INSAT) continues with that system.
All the radio
Radio arrived quite early in India. The Radio Club of Bombay broadcast its first programme in June 1923.
The venture failed quite soon. The Indian Broadcasting Company took over the operations with a nominee from the colonial government taking his place in the board of directors. IBC too failed. The government then took over the operations in 1930.
Public monopoly
The Indian National Congress in 1938 under the presidentship of Subhas Chandra Bose set up the communication subcommittee chaired by Sir Rahimatuallah Chinoy. The Chinoy Committee opined that broadcasting entities in India “should be public monopolies and should be run on commercial lines and developed intensively, subject to the paramount consideration that they are social services and as such agents in the task of national development”. The committee also “recommended the setting up of a statutory corporation for radio broadcasting with an advisory council consisting of the public and experts attached to it.â€
Focus on post-Independence broadcast policy had to wait for Indira Gandhi, who after her father’s death became the Information and Broadcasting Minister, appointed the A.K. Chanda Committe. The committee recommended the creation of a separate public corporation for Akashvani (radio) and Doordarshan (TV). But it wasn’t to be. Indira Gandhi as Prime Minister in 1969 took the Chanda Committee report up in the Cabinet and felt that the time was not ripe for giving autonomy to these two entities.
Various committees later, India’s public broadcasting system boasts of Doordarshan and All India Radio. The two organisations are now under Prasar Bharati. The two wings have had a significant impact on the media culture of India.
Useful links:
The Hindu Business Line stories on Radio and TV