Television - Maitreyee Karambelkar 9409

1. Television - MaitreyeeKarambelkar 9409

9. History of Television • John Logie Baird (August 13, 1888 – June 14, 1946) a Scottish engineer, is known as the inventor of the first working television system. • In his first attempts to invent television, Baird experimented with the Nipkow disk and demonstrated that a semi-mechanical analogue television system was possible with the transmission of a static image of a ventriloquist's dummy in London in February 1924.

10. History of Television • Although the development of television was the result of work by many inventors (including Baird, Paul Gottlieb Nipkow and Boris Rosing) Baird is one of its foremost pioneers. He is generally credited with being the first person to produce a discernible television image, and went on to produce other advances in the field. 

12. History of Television • Experiments in television broadcasting were initiated during the 1920s in the US and Europe. • These experiments used a mechanical disc that did not scan a picture rapidly enough. • In 1923,however, came the invention of the iconoscope, the electric television tube.

14. The inventions of the kinoscope or picture tube, the electronic camera and TV home receivers arrived in rapid succession during the next few years. • By the 1930s, the National Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) had set up a TV station in New York and BBC a TV station in London offering regular telecast programmes.

15. By the late 1940s and early 1950s, television had become a regular feature of life in most developed countries. • 1962- The Age of Satellite Communication • 1970s- more sophisticated transmission employing optical cable fibre and computer technology invented.

16. The early television broadcasts were all black and white. The first successful programme in colour was transmitted by Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) in USA in 1953. • The television set became one of the important mediums of entertainment with the advent of several popular shows. Television gradually matured as a medium during the next two decades. From being ‘radio with pictures’ it acquired a unique style of its own. As a result of this, this phase is often called the ‘golden age’ of television.

17. In today’s world, television has become one of the most powerful means of mass communication .It can impart education, information and entertainment. Television has become an integral part of our lives.

18. History of TV in India • Television began in India on 15th September 1959 as an experiment. There were only two one-hour programmes a week, each of one hour duration. • All India Radio handled these initial broadcasts. • The early programmes on these experimental broadcasts were generally educationalprogrammes for school children and farmers. Several community television sets were set up in Delhi’s rural areas and schools around Delhi for the dissemination of these programmes. By the 1970s, television centers were opened in other parts of the country also. In 1976, Doordarshan, which was All India Radio’s television arm until then became a separate department.

19. Several community television sets were distributed as a part of one of the important landmarks in the history of Indian television, the Satellite Instructional Television Experiment (SITE). It was conducted between August 1975 and July 1976. Under this programme, the Indian government used the American satellite ATS-6 to broadcast educational programmes to Indian villages. Six states were selected for this experiment and television sets were distributed in these states.

20. SITE (1975-76) • SITE was an important step taken by India to use television for development. • The programmes were mainly produced by Doordarshan which was then a part of AIR. The telecasts happened twice a day, in the morning and evening. Other than agricultural information, health and family planning were the other importanttopics dealt with in these programmes. Entertainment was also included in these telecasts in the form of dance, music, drama, folk and rural art forms.

21. A major milestone in the history of Indian television was the coverage of the Ninth Asian Games in 1982. • Doorsarshan provided national coverage for the first time through the satellite INSAT 1A. Also, for the first time, the transmission was in colour. In addition to the domestic transmission, Doordarshan was also providing content for the broadcasters of many other countries. After 1982,there was a huge increase in the live coverage of sports by Doordarshan.

22. By 1983, government sanctioned a huge expansion of Doordarshan. Several new transmitters were set up throughout the country. Thus towards the end of 80s around 75 per cent of the population could be covered by the transmitters. Many of the programmes of Doordarshan like Hum Log, Buniyaad and Nukkad were immensely popular.

23. ESTABLISHMENT OF PRASAR BHARATI • In 1997, PrasarBharati, a statutory autonomous body was established. Doordarshan along with AIR was converted into government corporations under PrasarBharati. • The PrasarBharati Corporation was esablished to serve as the public service broadcaster of the country which would achieve its objectives through AIR and DD. This was a step towards greater autonomy for Doordarshan and AIR. However, PrasarBharati has not succeeded in shielding Doordarshan from government control.

24. Television and National Development • Public television in India has the following social objectives: • To act as a catalyst for social change • To promote national integration • To stimulate a scientific temper in the minds of people • To disseminate the message of family planning as a means of population control and family welfare

25. To provide essential information and knowledge in order to stimulate greater agricultural production • To promote and preserve environmental and ecological balance • To highlight the need for social welfare measures including welfare of women children and the less privileged • To promote interest in games and sports • To create values of appraisal of art and our cultural heritage

26. Hum Log • S.S. Gill- Secretary in the I&B Ministry. Later appointed Chief Executive Officer of Prasar Bharati. • Got together with producer Shobha Doctor, director P.Kumar Vasudev, executive producer Satish Garg and script writer Manohar Shyam Joshi to produce India’s first indigenous soap opera, Hum Log. • 156 episodes of the serial were telecast twice a week from July 7, 1984 to December 17,1985.

27. Hum Log

28. The product was launched with the serial and is today extremely popular in urban households. • Told the story of the ups and downs in the life of a North Indian lower middle class joint Indian family, tackling problems like smuggling, political corruption and underworld activities. • Ashok Kumar, a respected film actor wound up each episode with a message.

29. Several changes were incorporated in the show over its course. • Feedback from viewers and their suggestions were the basis of changes in plot and characterization. • Proclaimed by the media and advertisers to be a phenomenal success.

30. Much popularity among the middle and lower income people than among the upper middle class who made up the large majority of TV viewers. • Success of Hum Log, and more significantly of Maggi Noodles led advertisers to promote indigenous soaps on TV and to spend more time on television advertising.

31. The cast of Hum Log- pioneer of Indian TV soaps

32. Prior to Hum Log, few advertisers had faith in television as an advertising medium. • However, by the time the first TV soap came to an end, advertisers were forced to queue up for commercial slots. • Doordarshan’s revenue from advertising soared.

33. The sponsorship of Indian serials provided a spurt to production which was sometimes taken up by advertising agencies themselves. • There was a surge in soap operas like Khandaan and Buniyaad, sitcoms like Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi, chidren’s shows like Vikram Aur Betaal, women’s shows like Chehere etc.

34. By 1987, over 40 serials had been produced. • Politically bolder news and current affairs programmes such as Newsline, Sach Ki Parchiyan were introduced, then dropped without warning. • Foreign serials were edged out gradually.

35. Influence of Cinema on TV • Low budget directors like Basu Chaterjee, Ray, Benegal, Saeed Mirza and Govind Nihalani went to television to express themselves. • Chaterjee’s ‘Rajani’ left a mark on the new medium, so did Mirza’s politically and socially challenging ‘Nukkad’, and Nihalani’s story of the partition, ‘Tamas’.

36. But, it was the commercial film-makers who succeeded in taking television by storm. • With their reverential and solemn versions of the religious epics like the ‘Ramayana’ and ‘Mahabharata’ of Ramanand Sagar. • Little gems like ‘Malgudi Days.’

37. Emergence of Private TV channels • Today, we have many channels other than Doordarshan. You may have heard the term ‘satellite channels’. • Generally satellites are used for communication or research purposes. • Man made satellites are objects which are launched to orbit the earth or any other celestial body.

38. Let us see how satellites help in bringing your favourite television channels to your homes. • Communication satellites are instrumental in bringing the serial to your home. • Have you ever owned a television set with an antenna which had to be positioned exactly to catch the signal? A heavy rain or rough weather can disrupt your television viewing in such a case. The introduction of communication satellites has improved the situation greatly.

40. Private television channels like Zee, Star, AajTak, CNN have come into the Indian television scene quite recently. • In the earlier days, Doordarshan had a monopoly as it was the only channel available to the Indian television audience. • This changed in the 1990s with the arrival of private channels. The coverage of the Gulf War by the American news channel, Cable News Network (CNN) propelled the arrival of satellite television in India. Satellite dishes were used to catch the CNN signals and cable operators took to satellite broadcasting immediately.

41. Hong Kong based STAR (Satellite Television Asian Region) entered into an agreement with an Indian company and Zee TV was born. It became the first privately owned Hindi satellite channel of India. • The agreement between STAR and Zee did not last long. But the Indian television audience was waiting for a shift from the monopoly of Doordarshan and soon a number of private channels emerged.

42. The Supreme Court ruling of 1995 which stated that the airwaves are not the monopoly of the Indian government boosted their growth. Several regional channels also came into being during this period. Sun TV (Tamil), Asianet (Malayalam) and Eenadu TV were a few of them. • Apart from the regional channels, a host of international channels like CNN, BBC and Discovery are also available to the Indian television audience. With different categories of channels like 24 hour news channels, religious channels, cartoon channels and movie channels, there is something for everyone to watch.

43. The Impact of Satellite Television on News and Society • Satellites have changed the way news is distributed and received around the world. • Privatization of news media has allowed global news networks, namely CNN and the BBC, to break up longstanding government monopolies.  • Continuous news has found a global audience, both for convenience and the most updated story details.

44. Breaking news relies on up to the minute updates, and every second counts in the competitive global news arena.  • Effects of global news include a surge in the local news market and an overall increase in news appetite. • Marshall McLuhan's vision of a global village, however, is becoming increasingly possible as reception costs fall and more media hungry individuals than ever are able to access satellite broadcasts

45. Today, what used to be the pride of the wealthy in the society has become of little consequence to the poor and depraved among men. • Thanks to satellite TV service proliferation and competitiveness among providers. It is a common phenomena to see very small apartments ( sometimes even mud houses) in the remote villages in some developing nations having very small dishes(about 0.35m diameter) hanging either on the wall or on small metallic poles (of about 2m high and 0.1m diameter) providing satellite TV services to the occupants of the houses. Some of the houses do not have dishes but specialized antennas for receiving signals from the base stations of their service providers.

46. In the fall of 1991, as hundreds of unregulated cable TV operations flourished in urban areas, new channels began appearing on Indian televisions courtesy of Hong Kong-based STAR-TV, including MTV, an all-day sports channel for the cricket-hungry South Asian fans, two entertainment channels carrying a heavy dose of American programming, and BBC World, which the British Broadcasting Corporation launched, no doubt, as its answer to CNN.

47. Practically overnight, millions of Indian television viewers, long used to DD's staid educational programming and dramas based on Indian mythology, found themselves tuning in to the likes of "Baywatch," "Dallas" and "Dynasty." In a land where kissing has never been allowed in Indian movies or television programming, TV viewers could now experience the "sex and violence" culture long decried even in the West.

48. In early 1999, there were 20 million cable households in India, including at least two million multiple-TV households, and the reach of television was expanding fast. The more than 40 channels observed by this writer in the northern Indian city of Chandigarh in summer 1999 included SONY Entertainment, STAR-World, STAR-Plus, STAR-Movies, STAR-News, MTV, [V] Music, Music Asia, ZEE-Cinema, ZEE-Drama, Fashion-TV from France, BBC World, CNN, Cartoon Network, National Geographic Channel, and TB-6 from Russia, in addition to the three news and variety channels of DD and many other Indian and international entertainment, sports and news channels. 

49. The next wave in the Indian television industry was expected to arrive in the country by early 2000 in the form of direct-to-home (DTH) television planned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation and Indian broadcasters. • Although Indians of all ages have been fascinated with Western television, a variety of articles and ratings surveys indicate that the youth of India are particularly enamored with Western television and cultural values that it projects. Ratings indicate that MTV is the most popular channel among teenagers in India followed by other music channels and channels carrying dramas and movies, both Indian and Western.

50. Satellite Television as a Factor in Sexual Behavior • Satellite Television as a Factor in Violence • Satellite Television as a Factor in Drug Use • Satellite Television and Sociological Benefits