Television in India: Past, Present and Future

Published by Emil Abraham, September 6th, 2019

PAST

Television broadcasts started in India under All India Radio (AIR). 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. Imagine a television set working for only two hours a week. But, that was the case in the early years of television. All India Radio handled these initial broadcasts.

1959- Television began in India on an experimental basis.

The early programmes on these experimental broadcasts were generally educational programmes for school children and farmers. Several community television sets weresetup inDelhi’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.

1976: Doordarshan became a separate department independent of all india radio (AIR)

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. Was your state a part of the SITE programme? Ask your elders if community television sets were distributed in the neighbourhood during this period.

1975-1976: Satellite instructional television experiment (SITE)

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 important topics dealt with in these programmes. Entertainment was also included in these telecasts in the form of dance, music, drama, folk and rural art forms.

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1982: Doordarshan provided national coverage for the first time through the satellite INSAT 1A

A major milestone in the history of Indian television was the coverage of the Ninth Asian Games in 1982. Doordarshan 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 .

1983: Government sanctions huge expansion of Doordarshan

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.

1997: Establishment of Prasar Bharati

In 1997, Prasar Bharati, a statutory autonomous body was established. Doordarshan along with AIR was converted into government corporations under PrasarBharati. ThePrasarBharatiCorporationwasesablishedtoserveasthe 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, Prasar Bharati has not succeeded in shielding Doordarshan from government control.

Today, about 90 per cent of the Indian population can receive Doordarshan programmes through its network. From its humble beginning as a part of All India Radio, Doordarshan has grown into a major television broadcaster with around 30 channels. This includes Regional Language Satellite Channels, State Networks, International Channel and All India Channels like DD National, DD News, DD Sports, DD Gyandarshan, DD Bharati, Loksabha Channel and DD Urdu. Which channel of Doordarshan broadcasts in your regional language?

Quick recap

1959 - Television started in India as an experiment.

1975 - SITE programme starts

1976 - Doordarshan, which was AIR’s television arm, becomes a separate department

1982 - Coverage of Ninth Asian Games. Doordarshan starts national coverage and colour transmission for the first time.

1983 - Government sanctions a huge expansion of Doordarshan

1997 - EstablishmentofPrasarBharati

Emergence of private television channels

So you have seen how Doordarshan has evolved over the years. But 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. Let us see how satellites help in bringing your favourite television channels to your homes.

A satellite and a serial that you see in the cable network might seem completely unrelated. But, 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.

Star TV, Aaj Tak, NDTV, Zee etc are a few of the many television channels available to us today. It was not the same a couple of decades ago. This is because these private channels came 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.

1990s: Advent of private television channels in india

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.

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. Today almost all major Indian languages have television channels in 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.

PRESENT

The TV industry grew to INR 660 billion in 2017 and is expected to grow at 11.2% per annum. Advertising grew to INR267 billion while distribution grew to INR393 billion. Advertising comprised 40% of revenues, while distribution was 60% of total revenues.

The distribution segment in India has an estimated 60,000 local cable operators (LCOs) and more than 6,000 multi- service operators (MSOs). As on Oct 2017, 1,469 of these MSOs were registered with the MIB. There were six pay direct-to-home (DTH) operators and Doordarshan’s Free Dish free satellite service in operation. The DTH companies and 10 largest MSOs dominated the market, serving around 65% of pay TV homes. The number of licensed private satellite TV channels reached 877, of which 389 were news channels and 488 were non-news channels. 300 channels were pay channels, while 577 were free to air. 11 fresh channel licenses were issued during 2017.

Of the estimated 286 million households in India, TV penetration reached 64% taking the total number of TV viewing household to 183 millon in 2017, which is a 3.5% growth over 2016. This accounted for approximately 780 million viewers. 83% of the total TV households were paying households. The terrestrial TV network of Doordarshan covers about 92% of country’s population through a vast network of terrestrial transmitters. The pay TV sector consists of around 98.51 million Cable TV households, 67.533 million net active DTH subscribers and 1.5 million Head-end-in-the-sky (HITS) subscribers.

DD Free Dish, the state-run DTH provider, is the largest TV distribution company in the country with over 24m estimated subscribers. This is considerably higher than large national pay TV companies, which average 8m to 16m each. With over 80 channels currently, DD Free Dish plans to eventually reach 256 channels by 2020. The implementation of the Tariff Order of 2017 could further push the Free TV viewer base to 46 million by 202012

As per industry estimates, HD grew with digitization and has been estimated to cross 10 million, on the back of increased sale of large television screens of 40 inches and above, where the viewing experience requires higher quality content. In addition, many distributors are providing over 60 HD channels, including sports, which is a large incentive for subscribers. HD audiences contribute to higher revenues for distribution companies due to the premium pricing that such channels command.

Early in 2019, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) implemented a new regulatory framework for the television broadcast industry of India - the New Tariff Order (NTO). The NTO mandates that customers select the channels and bouquets they want to subscribe to and broadcasters are required to offer their pay channels on a standalone or a-la-carte basis. They would have to declare the monthly maximum retail price (MRP) of each channel with the condition that no pay channel which is a part of a bouquet is priced above INR19.

The key impact of the Order would be a possible reduction in channels to end consumers, closure of non-performing and under-performing TV channels, regulation of channel prices, level playing field for smaller distribution companies and more power to distribution companies to create bouquets. But it remains debatable as in some regions it is going to go up while some households could pay less. Some broadcasters believe that regulating their right to price their channels could impact their competitiveness and their ability to invest.

FUTURE

The fall in broadband prices could pose a threat to the cable and DTH industry. It could lead to increased viewership of TV content on larger screens, for more affluent customers, second television connections and nuclear families, who can move to OTT platforms for their TV consumption. As per estimates, by 2020, there would be around 4 million people who primarily depend on OTT platforms for their content. A number of distribution companies are investing in broadband to mitigate this risk, leading to increased ARPUs and margins.

There are challenges from three aspects: a. technology, b. television viewing practice, and c. content.

Technology: With the popularity of web enabled devices rising at a very fast pace (in fact in USA and Singapore, it has outpaced Television) Television needs to reposition itself as a convergence tool. The smart TVs are a step towards that.

TV Viewing Practice: The TV viewing practice is undergoing a drastic change. Gone are the days when TV viewing used to be a social/family activity. It is getting personal now. Therefore there is a growing demand of niche content.

Content: There will be myriad kinds of contents to cater to the demand of myriad kind of viewers across languages. Providing high quality niche content will be a challenge for the content producers. On the other hand user generated programmes could also be aired like it is done in web and social media.

Television industry and the Government in India are aware of the challenges and working to meet them as the trends show.

Digitization: Digitization continues to be a key growth driver for the industry. DTH achieved robust growth of 75 per cent in net subscriber base by adding 12 million subscribers in 2010. With the regulatory push on digitization, ongoing 3G rollouts, increasing mobile and broadband penetration, the market for digital distribution platforms is growing.

Regionalization: Backed by the increasing purchasing power across tier 2 and tier 3 cities, regional media consumption is expected to continue to rise. Realising the power of regional media, national and foreign players have ventured into regional markets and several others are likely to follow suit. Meanwhile regional players have achieved scale and are now looking to go national and build a pan India presence. Geographical expansion by existing players in television, print and radio is expected to intensify competition and leading to interesting times for these industries.

New Media: The past decade marked the convergence of media and technology; of user generated content, social media and new publishing models that have changed the way of media consumption. These changes in the way media is consumed are being driven by factors such as content pull from telecom service providers due to the 3G launch, emerging gaming platforms and innovation in technological devices such as tablets. The new breeds of smart TVs are offering excellent convergence opportunities.

Regulation to drive growth: The government’s thrust on digitization and addressability for cable television, is expected to increase the pace of digitization leading to tremendous growth in DTH and digital cable.

Niche formats: Increasing audience segmentation is driving content and delivery. Television showed signs of this growing trend through the launch of several new niche channel genres such as food, action movies etc. It has now become a business prerequisite to assess trends for continually changing customer preferences, lifestyles and media buying habits and incorporate the understanding in focused content, marketing and delivery strategies for each target audience segment.

Consumer Understanding: With increasing fragmentation and intensity of competition, a deeper understanding of cultural and social references through focused study groups will enable players to target their consumers specifically and build loyalty.

Innovation: It is becoming increasingly important for industry players to continuously innovate new formats and strategies in order to enable brand loyalty help expand the market.

Consolidation: Mature players are increasingly looking to build scale across the media value chain and explore cross media synergies. In addition, existing foreign players are looking to expand their Indian portfolio and several other are expected to make an entry into India. Inorganic growth is likely to be a preferred route for many of these players. With increased digitization and accountability, Indian media companies are also expected to generate greater interest from private equity players.

Television is expected to account for almost half of the Indian media and entertainment industry revenues, and more than twice the size of print, the second largest media sector.