World Television Day:The Evolution of Television in India!

According to the United Nations, despite the advent of laptops and smartphones, television still constitutes the single largest source of video consumption. Therefore, World Television Day stands as a reminder of the power of visual media and how it helps in shaping public opinion and influencing world politics.

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The long road from analogue to digital

According to a study, the number of households which watch television was 1.63 million in 2017 and that number will only rise in the future to an astounding 1.74 billion by 2023. World Television Day was first celebrated on November 21 in 1996 and the United Nations General Assembly decided on this day to observe and acknowledge the role of broadcast media.The day is also a good time to reflect on the interaction between old and new forms of media and broadcast and use it to create greater awareness about the important issues facing our communities and our planet.

Television has experienced exceptional growth from large and cumbersome TV sets to more sophisticated and smart and sleek TVs. Even TV signals have undergone a transformation from analogue to digital. Televisions first entered our country in 1959 through experimental transmission from Delhi. These were the modest beginnings of television in India.

In 1961 we got television programmes for teachers and in 1965, one-hour daily news service was started. By 1967, Krishi Darshan which was a rural programme for farmers was introduced. And in 1975, cities like Calcutta, Chennai, Srinagar, Amritsar and Lucknow finally got their own TV stations. In 1975 the satellite Instructional Television Experiment brought TV to 2,400 villages in the most inaccessible and the rural areas. And on April 1, 1976, Doordarshan finally separated itself from All India Radio and was given a separate banner.  Doordarshan is an independent public service broadcaster that was funded by the Government of India.

In 2011 the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Amendment Act was passed that announced the mandatory switch from existing analogue cable TV networks to a digital system. This was done to achieve complete digitization of India's cable networks.

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