Television in India
Encyclopedia
Television
is one of the major mass media of India
and is a huge industry and has thousands of programmes in all the states of India. The small screen has produced numerous celebrities of their own kind some even attaining national fame. TV soaps are extremely popular with housewives as well as working women. Approximately half of all Indian households own a television. As of 2010, the country has a collection of free and subscription services over a variety of distribution media, through which there are over 515 channels and 150 are pay channels.
on 15 September 1959 with a small transmitter and a makeshift studio. The regular daily transmission started in 1965 as a part of All India Radio
. The television
service was extended to Bombay (now Mumbai
) and Amritsar
in 1972. Up until 1975, only seven Indian cities had a television service and Doordarshan remained the sole provider of television in India. Television services were separated from radio in 1976. National telecasts were introduced in 1982. In the same year, colour TV was introduced in the Indian market. Indian small screen programming started off in the early 1980s. At that time there was only one national channel Doordarshan
, which was government owned. The Ramayana
and Mahabharata
(both Indian mythological stories) were the first major television series produced. This serial notched up the world record in viewership numbers for a single program. By the late 1980s more and more people started to own television sets. Though there was a single channel, television programming had reached saturation. Hence the government opened up another channel which had part national programming and part regional. This channel was known as DD 2 later DD Metro. Both channels were broadcast terrestrially.
PAS-1 and PAS-4 are satellites whose transponders help in the telecasting of DD programmes in half the regions of the world.An international channel called DD International was started in 1995 and it telecasts programmes for 19 hours a day to foreign countries-via PAS-4 to Europe,Asia and Africa,and via PAS-1 to North America.
. Under the new policies the government allowed private and foreign broadcasters to engage in limited operations in India. This process has been pursued consistently by all subsequent federal administrations. Foreign channels like CNN, Star TV and domestic channels such as Zee TV and Sun TV started satellite broadcasts. Starting with 41 sets in 1962 and one channel, by 1985 TV in India covered more than 70 million homes giving a viewing population of more than 400 million individuals through more than 100 channels.
There are at least five basic types of television in the India
: broadcast
, or "over-the-air" television, unencrypted satellite or "free-to-air
", Direct Broadcast Satellite
, cable television
, and IPTV
(internet protocol television).
Over-the-air and free-to-air TV is free with no monthly payments while Cable, Direct Broadcast Satellite, and IPTV require a monthly payment that varies depending on how many channels a subscriber chooses to pay for. Channels are usually sold in groups, rather than singly.
In 1992, the Indian government led by P. V. Narasimha Rao
started a series of economic reforms including the liberalization of the broadcasting industry, opening it up to cable television
. This led to an explosion in the Indian cable TV industry and saw the entry of many foreign players like Rupert Murdoch's Star TV Network
, MTV
, and others.
Following the liberalization of the broadcasting industry, the Hong Kong
-based Star TV Network
introduced five major television channels into the Indian broadcasting space that had so far been monopolised by the Indian government-owned Doordarshan
: MTV
, STAR Plus
, Star Movies
, BBC
, Prime Sports
and STAR Chinese Channel
. Soon after, India saw the launch of Zee TV
, the first privately-owned Indian channel to broadcast over cable followed by Asia Television Network (ATN). A few years later CNN
, Discovery Channel
, National Geographic Channel
made their foray into India. Later, Star TV Network
expanded its bouquet with the introduction of STAR World India
, STAR Sports
, ESPN
, Channel V
and STAR Gold
.
With the launch of the Tamil
-language Sun TV (India)
in 1992, South India
saw the birth of its first private television channel. With a network comprising more than 20 channels in various South Indian languages, Sun TV network recently launched a DTH
service and its channels are now available in several countries outside India. Following Sun TV, several television channels sprung up in the south. Among these are the Tamil-language channel The Raj Television Network and the Malayalam-language netwok Asianet Communications Limited
, both launched in 1994. These three networks and their channels today take up most of the broadcasting space in South India.
Throughout the 90s, along with a multitude of Hindi
language channels, several regional and English language
channels flourished all over India. By 2001, international channels HBO and History Channel started providing service. In 1999–2003, other international channels such as Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, VH1, Disney and Toon Disney entered the market. Starting in 2003, there has been an explosion of news channels in various languages; the most notable among them are NDTV
, CNN IBN
and Aaj Tak
. The most recent channels/networks in the Indian broadcasting industry include UTV Movies, UTV Bindass, Zoom, Colours, 9X and 9XM. There are several more new channels in the pipeline, including Leader TV.
In 1997, a joint industry body appointed TAM (backed by AC Nielsen) as the official recordkeeper of audience metrics. Due to the differences in methodology and samples of TAM and INTAM, both provided differing results for the same programs.
In 2001, a confidential list of households in Mumbai that were participating in the monitoring survey was released, calling into question the reliability of the data. This subsequently led to the merger of the two measurement systems into TAM. For several years after this, in spite of misgivings about the process, sample and other parameters, TAM was the defacto standard and monopoly in the audience metrics game.
(aMap
) was launched. Although initially, it faced a cautious uptake from clients, the TAM monopoly was broken.
What differentiates aMap
is that its ratings are available within one day as compared to TAM's timeline of one week.
The idea of CAS was mooted in 2001, due to a furore over charge hikes by channels and subsequently by cable operators. Poor reception of certain channels; arbitrary pricing and increase in prices; bundling of channels; poor service delivery by Cable Television Operators (CTOs); monopolies in each area; lack of regulatory framework and redress avenues were some of the issues that were to be addressed by implementation of CAS
It was decided by the government that CAS would be first introduced in the four metros. It has been in place in Chennai since September 2003, where until very recently it had managed to attract very few subscribers. It has been rolled out recently in the other three metros of Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata.
only 25 per cent of the people have subscribed the new technology. The rest watch only free-to-air channels. As mentioned above, the inhibiting factor from the viewer's perspective is the cost of the STB.
The information and broadcasting ministry set March 31, 2015 as the deadline for shift from analog to digital systems. Digitization, where the feed will be received through set-top boxes, is expected to be executed in phases and the four metros of Delhi
, Mumbai
, Kolkata
and Chennai
have to shift to digital addressability by March 31, 2012. Phase II will include 35 cities with population of more than one million, such as Patna
, Chandigarh
, Pune
and Bangalore
by March 31, 2013. All urban areas are expected to digitize by November 30, 2014 and the remaining areas by March 31, 2015.
from the state-owned Doordarshan
, News Corporation
owned STAR TV
, Sony
owned Sony Entertainment Television
, Zee TV
, Sun Network
and Asianet
. Direct To Home service is provided by Airtel Digital Tv
, BIG TV
owned by Reliance, DD Direct Plus
, DishTV, Sun Direct DTH
, Tata Sky
and Videocon D2H. DishTV was the first one to come up in Indian Market, others came only years later.
These services are provided by locally built satellites from ISRO such as INSAT 4CR, INSAT 4A, INSAT-2E, INSAT-3C and INSAT-3E as well as private satellites such as the Dutch-based SES, Global-owned NSS 6, Thaicom-2 and Telstar 10.
As of July 2011, India had roughly 35 million DTH subcribers.
DTH does not compete with CAS
. Cable TV and DTH are two methods of delivery of television content. CAS is integral to both the systems in delivering pay channels.
Cable TV is through cable networks and DTH is wireless, reaching direct to the consumer through a small dish and a set-top box. Although the government has ensured that free-to-air channels on cable are delivered to the consumer without a set-top box, DTH signals cannot be received without the set-top box.
India currently has 7 major DTH service providers and a total of over 35 million subscriber households in mid 2011. DishTV(a ZEE TV subsidiary), Tata Sky
, Videocon D2H
, Sun Network owned ' Sun Direct DTH', Reliance Digital TV,Bharti Airtel's DTH Service 'Airtel Digital TV
' and the public sector DD Direct Plus.As of 2010, India has the most competitive Direct-broadcast satellite market with 7 operators vying for more than 135 million TV homes. India is set to overtake the USA as the world's largest Direct-broadcast satellite market by 2012.
The rapid growth of DTH in India has propelled an exodus from cabled homes, the need to measure viewership in this space is more than ever; aMap
, the overnight ratings agency, has mounted a peoplemeter panel to measure viewership and interactive engagement in DTH homes in India.
Private Broadband provider Bharti Airtel also starts its IPTV service in Delhi,NCR region.
At present (2009/2010) IPTV in India is hardly making any impact in the market. But IPTV and Online Video Services in India are expected to expand. Screen Digest estimates broadband penetration of TV households to increase from 4.2 percent in 2009 to 13.4 percent in 2013.
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
is one of the major mass media of India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
and is a huge industry and has thousands of programmes in all the states of India. The small screen has produced numerous celebrities of their own kind some even attaining national fame. TV soaps are extremely popular with housewives as well as working women. Approximately half of all Indian households own a television. As of 2010, the country has a collection of free and subscription services over a variety of distribution media, through which there are over 515 channels and 150 are pay channels.
History
Terrestrial television in India started with the experimental telecast starting in DelhiDelhi
Delhi , officially National Capital Territory of Delhi , is the largest metropolis by area and the second-largest by population in India, next to Mumbai. It is the eighth largest metropolis in the world by population with 16,753,265 inhabitants in the Territory at the 2011 Census...
on 15 September 1959 with a small transmitter and a makeshift studio. The regular daily transmission started in 1965 as a part of All India Radio
All India Radio
All India Radio , officially known since 1956 as Akashvani , is the radio broadcaster of India and a division of Prasar Bharati. Established in 1936, it is the sister service of Prasar Bharati's Doordarshan, the national television broadcaster. All India Radio is one of the largest radio networks...
. The television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
service was extended to Bombay (now Mumbai
Mumbai
Mumbai , formerly known as Bombay in English, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the most populous city in India, and the fourth most populous city in the world, with a total metropolitan area population of approximately 20.5 million...
) and Amritsar
Amritsar
Amritsar is a city in the northern part of India and is the administrative headquarters of Amritsar district in the state of Punjab, India. The 2001 Indian census reported the population of the city to be over 1,500,000, with that of the entire district numbering 3,695,077...
in 1972. Up until 1975, only seven Indian cities had a television service and Doordarshan remained the sole provider of television in India. Television services were separated from radio in 1976. National telecasts were introduced in 1982. In the same year, colour TV was introduced in the Indian market. Indian small screen programming started off in the early 1980s. At that time there was only one national channel Doordarshan
DoorDarshan
Doordarshan is an Indian public service broadcaster, a division of Prasar Bharati. It is one of the largest broadcasting organizations in India in terms of the infrastructure of studios and transmitters. Recently, it has also started Digital Terrestrial Transmitters. On September 15, 2009,...
, which was government owned. The Ramayana
Ramayan (TV series)
Ramayan is a highly successful Indian television series created, written, and directed by Ramanand Sagar. The 78-episode series originally aired weekly on Doordarshan from January 25, 1987, to July 31, 1988, on Sundays at 9:30 a.m...
and Mahabharata
Mahabharata
The Mahabharata is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India and Nepal, the other being the Ramayana. The epic is part of itihasa....
(both Indian mythological stories) were the first major television series produced. This serial notched up the world record in viewership numbers for a single program. By the late 1980s more and more people started to own television sets. Though there was a single channel, television programming had reached saturation. Hence the government opened up another channel which had part national programming and part regional. This channel was known as DD 2 later DD Metro. Both channels were broadcast terrestrially.
PAS-1 and PAS-4 are satellites whose transponders help in the telecasting of DD programmes in half the regions of the world.An international channel called DD International was started in 1995 and it telecasts programmes for 19 hours a day to foreign countries-via PAS-4 to Europe,Asia and Africa,and via PAS-1 to North America.
Television channels and networks
The central government launched a series of economic and social reforms in 1991 under Prime Minister Narasimha RaoNarasimha Rao
Narasimha Rao or Narasimharao is one of the Indian names.* Pamulaparthi Venkata Narasimha Rao served as the 10th Prime Minister of India.* Modireddy Venkat Narasimha Rao, is a former Indian cricketer....
. Under the new policies the government allowed private and foreign broadcasters to engage in limited operations in India. This process has been pursued consistently by all subsequent federal administrations. Foreign channels like CNN, Star TV and domestic channels such as Zee TV and Sun TV started satellite broadcasts. Starting with 41 sets in 1962 and one channel, by 1985 TV in India covered more than 70 million homes giving a viewing population of more than 400 million individuals through more than 100 channels.
There are at least five basic types of television in the India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
: broadcast
Terrestrial television
Terrestrial television is a mode of television broadcasting which does not involve satellite transmission or cables — typically using radio waves through transmitting and receiving antennas or television antenna aerials...
, or "over-the-air" television, unencrypted satellite or "free-to-air
Free-to-air
Free-to-air describes television and radio services broadcast in clear form, allowing any person with the appropriate receiving equipment to receive the signal and view or listen to the content without requiring a subscription or one-off fee...
", Direct Broadcast Satellite
Direct broadcast satellite
Direct broadcast satellite is a term used to refer to satellite television broadcasts intended for home reception.A designation broader than DBS would be direct-to-home signals, or DTH. This has initially distinguished the transmissions directly intended for home viewers from cable television...
, cable television
Cable television
Cable television is a system of providing television programs to consumers via radio frequency signals transmitted to televisions through coaxial cables or digital light pulses through fixed optical fibers located on the subscriber's property, much like the over-the-air method used in traditional...
, and IPTV
IPTV
Internet Protocol television is a system through which television services are delivered using the Internet protocol suite over a packet-switched network such as the Internet, instead of being delivered through traditional terrestrial, satellite signal, and cable television formats.IPTV services...
(internet protocol television).
Over-the-air and free-to-air TV is free with no monthly payments while Cable, Direct Broadcast Satellite, and IPTV require a monthly payment that varies depending on how many channels a subscriber chooses to pay for. Channels are usually sold in groups, rather than singly.
Cable television
As per the TAM Annual Universe Update - 2010, India now has over 134 million households (out of 223 million) with television sets, of which over 103 million have access to Cable TV or Satellite TV, including 20 million households are DTH subscribers. In Urban India, 85% of all households have a TV and over 70% of all households have access to Satellite, Cable or DTH services. TV owning households have been growing at between 8-10%, while growth in Satellite/Cable homes exceeded 15% and DTH subscribers grew 28% over 2009. (However, some analysts place the number of households with television access at closer to 180 million since roughly a third of all rural families may watch television at a neighboring relatives home, and argue that Cable TV households are probably closer to 120 million owing to a certain percentage of informal/unregistered Cable Networks that aren't counted by mainstream surveys). It is also estimated that India now has over 500 TV channels covering all the main languages spoken in the nation.In 1992, the Indian government led by P. V. Narasimha Rao
P. V. Narasimha Rao
Pamulaparti Venkata "Narasimha Rao" was the ninth Prime Minister of India . He led an important administration, overseeing a major economic transformation and several home incidents affecting national security of India. Rao accelerated the dismantling of the Licence Raj. He is often referred to as...
started a series of economic reforms including the liberalization of the broadcasting industry, opening it up to cable television
Cable television
Cable television is a system of providing television programs to consumers via radio frequency signals transmitted to televisions through coaxial cables or digital light pulses through fixed optical fibers located on the subscriber's property, much like the over-the-air method used in traditional...
. This led to an explosion in the Indian cable TV industry and saw the entry of many foreign players like Rupert Murdoch's Star TV Network
STAR TV (Asia)
Satellite Television Asian Region is an Asian TV service owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation.In 2009, News Corporation restructured STAR Asia into four units – STAR India, STAR Greater China, STAR Select and Fox International Channels....
, MTV
MTV India
MTV India is the Indian version of MTV , a channel specialising in music and youth culture programming. It was launched in 1996 and is now part of the Viacom 18 Media Pvt. Ltd based in Mumbai. . "MTV India" is one of the oldest Music Television Networks in Asia...
, and others.
Following the liberalization of the broadcasting industry, the Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
-based Star TV Network
STAR TV (Asia)
Satellite Television Asian Region is an Asian TV service owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation.In 2009, News Corporation restructured STAR Asia into four units – STAR India, STAR Greater China, STAR Select and Fox International Channels....
introduced five major television channels into the Indian broadcasting space that had so far been monopolised by the Indian government-owned Doordarshan
DoorDarshan
Doordarshan is an Indian public service broadcaster, a division of Prasar Bharati. It is one of the largest broadcasting organizations in India in terms of the infrastructure of studios and transmitters. Recently, it has also started Digital Terrestrial Transmitters. On September 15, 2009,...
: MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
, STAR Plus
STAR Plus
STAR Plus is a Hindi language general entertainment television channel based in India. The channel is part of the STAR TV network's bouquet of channels...
, Star Movies
STAR Movies
STAR Movies is an Asian movie channel owned by STAR TV and Fox International Channels, subsidiaries of News Corporation.-History:STAR Movies was launched on 1 May 1994...
, BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
, Prime Sports
Prime Sports
Prime Sports Asia is a cable sports network owned by STAR TV and Prime Network. It is available in Philippines, Hong Kong, Brunei Darussalam, Malaysia and Singapore, India and other Asian Territories....
and STAR Chinese Channel
STAR Chinese Channel
STAR Chinese Channel is the Mandarin general entertainment channel in Taiwan. Its programming features drama, news, lifestyle, and talk shows in Mandarin.-History:...
. Soon after, India saw the launch of Zee TV
Zee TV
Zee TV is an India-based satellite television channel owned by Zee Entertainment Enterprises based in Mumbai, Maharashtra, which broadcasts various programmes in Hindi and other regional languages of India. Broadcasting is also present in various nations of South Asia, Europe, the Middle East,...
, the first privately-owned Indian channel to broadcast over cable followed by Asia Television Network (ATN). A few years later CNN
CNN
Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
, Discovery Channel
Discovery Channel
Discovery Channel is an American satellite and cable specialty channel , founded by John Hendricks and distributed by Discovery Communications. It is a publicly traded company run by CEO David Zaslav...
, National Geographic Channel
National Geographic Channel
National Geographic Channel, also commercially abbreviated and trademarked as Nat Geo, is a subscription television channel that airs non-fiction television programs produced by the National Geographic Society. Like History and the Discovery Channel, the channel features documentaries with factual...
made their foray into India. Later, Star TV Network
STAR TV (Asia)
Satellite Television Asian Region is an Asian TV service owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation.In 2009, News Corporation restructured STAR Asia into four units – STAR India, STAR Greater China, STAR Select and Fox International Channels....
expanded its bouquet with the introduction of STAR World India
STAR World India
STAR World India is an English language television channel, part of the STAR World network, owned by Star TV broadcast in India. It syndicates popular shows from U.S. and U.K. to appeal to the English-speaking population of India and other South Asian countries...
, STAR Sports
STAR Sports
STAR Sports is a cable sports network owned by STAR TV and ESPN. It shows sports programs. In partnership with ESPN, its corporate name is ESPN STAR Sports. They are the official Asian station of the Barclays Premier League...
, ESPN
ESPN
Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, commonly known as ESPN, is an American global cable television network focusing on sports-related programming including live and pre-taped event telecasts, sports talk shows, and other original programming....
, Channel V
Channel V
Channel [V] is the brand name for multiple international music television networks owned by STAR TV and Fox International Channels, fully owned subsidiaries of News Corporation.-Channel [V] International:...
and STAR Gold
STAR Gold
STAR Gold is a Hindi movie channel that is part of the STAR TV network and is owned by News Corporation. It features a mix of contemporary as well as classic movies from the 1950s to the present time...
.
With the launch of the Tamil
Tamil language
Tamil is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by Tamil people of the Indian subcontinent. It has official status in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and in the Indian union territory of Pondicherry. Tamil is also an official language of Sri Lanka and Singapore...
-language Sun TV (India)
Sun TV (India)
Sun TV is a regional Indian cable television station. It is the flagship channel of the Chennai-based Sun Network. It was founded and currently owned by Kalanidhi Maran. It was the first fully privately owned television channel in India when it emerged in 1992...
in 1992, South India
South India
South India is the area encompassing India's states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu as well as the union territories of Lakshadweep and Pondicherry, occupying 19.31% of India's area...
saw the birth of its first private television channel. With a network comprising more than 20 channels in various South Indian languages, Sun TV network recently launched a DTH
DTH
DTH may refer to:* The Daily Tar Heel, a student newspaper at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill* Dance Theatre of Harlem, New York City* Danmarks Tekniske Højskole, a previous name for the Technical University of Denmark...
service and its channels are now available in several countries outside India. Following Sun TV, several television channels sprung up in the south. Among these are the Tamil-language channel The Raj Television Network and the Malayalam-language netwok Asianet Communications Limited
Asianet
Asianet Communications Limited is an Indian media conglomerate jointly owned by STAR TV and Jupiter Entertainment. Formed in 1991 and headquartered in the city of Thiruvananthapuram in the south Indian state of Kerala, the company owns several television channels including Asianet, the first...
, both launched in 1994. These three networks and their channels today take up most of the broadcasting space in South India.
Throughout the 90s, along with a multitude of Hindi
Hindi
Standard Hindi, or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi, also known as Manak Hindi , High Hindi, Nagari Hindi, and Literary Hindi, is a standardized and sanskritized register of the Hindustani language derived from the Khariboli dialect of Delhi...
language channels, several regional and English language
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
channels flourished all over India. By 2001, international channels HBO and History Channel started providing service. In 1999–2003, other international channels such as Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, VH1, Disney and Toon Disney entered the market. Starting in 2003, there has been an explosion of news channels in various languages; the most notable among them are NDTV
NDTV
NDTV is an Indian commercial broadcasting television network founded in 1988. It was founded by Prannoy Roy, an eminent journalist and current chairman and director of NDTV Group. NDTV currently has more than 1,000 employees producing news from over twenty locations in India...
, CNN IBN
CNN IBN
Cable News Network-Indian Broadcasting Network is an English-language Indian television news channel. The network is a partnership between Global Broadcast News and Turner International in India . Rajdeep Sardesai is the Editor-in-Chief of the network...
and Aaj Tak
Aaj Tak
Aaj Tak is a 24-hour Hindi news television channel owned by TV Today Network Ltd. Aaj Tak loosely translates as "Till Today" or "Up to the Minute". Watched by some 45 million viewers in India’s cable and satellite universe, Aaj Tak is one of India’s largest privately owned news channels...
. The most recent channels/networks in the Indian broadcasting industry include UTV Movies, UTV Bindass, Zoom, Colours, 9X and 9XM. There are several more new channels in the pipeline, including Leader TV.
Audience Metrics
Television Metrics in India have gone through several phases in which it fragmented, consolidated and then fragmented again.DART
During the days of the single channel Doordarshan monopoly, DART (Doordarshan Audience Research Team) was the only metric available. This used the notebook method of recordkeeping across 33 cities across India. DART continues to provide this information independent of the Private agencies. DART till this date is the only rating system that still measures audience metrics in Rural India.TAM & INTAM
In 1994, claiming a heterogeneous and fragmenting television market ORG-MARG introduced INTAM (Indian National Television Audience Measurement). Ex-officials of DD (Doordarshan) claimed that INTAM was introduced by vested commercial interests who only sought to break the monopoly of DD and that INTAM was significantly weaker in both sample size, rigour and the range of cities and regions covered.In 1997, a joint industry body appointed TAM (backed by AC Nielsen) as the official recordkeeper of audience metrics. Due to the differences in methodology and samples of TAM and INTAM, both provided differing results for the same programs.
In 2001, a confidential list of households in Mumbai that were participating in the monitoring survey was released, calling into question the reliability of the data. This subsequently led to the merger of the two measurement systems into TAM. For several years after this, in spite of misgivings about the process, sample and other parameters, TAM was the defacto standard and monopoly in the audience metrics game.
aMap
In 2004, a rival ratings service funded by American NRI investors, called Audience Measurement Analytics LimitedAudience Measurement and Analytics Ltd. (Amap)
Audience Measurement & Analytics Limited is the only overnight TV Audience Measurement System that provides data on Television in India on multiple dimensions like demographics, ownership, viewership etc...
(aMap
Audience Measurement and Analytics Ltd. (Amap)
Audience Measurement & Analytics Limited is the only overnight TV Audience Measurement System that provides data on Television in India on multiple dimensions like demographics, ownership, viewership etc...
) was launched. Although initially, it faced a cautious uptake from clients, the TAM monopoly was broken.
What differentiates aMap
Audience Measurement and Analytics Ltd. (Amap)
Audience Measurement & Analytics Limited is the only overnight TV Audience Measurement System that provides data on Television in India on multiple dimensions like demographics, ownership, viewership etc...
is that its ratings are available within one day as compared to TAM's timeline of one week.
Broadcast Audience Research Council
An even newer industry body called the Broadcast Audience Research Council seeks to setup an almost real-time audience metrics system. Plans for this was announced in march 2008 and work is said to be in progress.Conditional Access System
CAS or conditional access system, is a digital mode of transmitting TV channels through a set-top box (STB). The transmission signals are encrypted and viewers need to buy a set-top box to receive and decrypt the signal. The STB is required to watch only pay channels.The idea of CAS was mooted in 2001, due to a furore over charge hikes by channels and subsequently by cable operators. Poor reception of certain channels; arbitrary pricing and increase in prices; bundling of channels; poor service delivery by Cable Television Operators (CTOs); monopolies in each area; lack of regulatory framework and redress avenues were some of the issues that were to be addressed by implementation of CAS
It was decided by the government that CAS would be first introduced in the four metros. It has been in place in Chennai since September 2003, where until very recently it had managed to attract very few subscribers. It has been rolled out recently in the other three metros of Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata.
only 25 per cent of the people have subscribed the new technology. The rest watch only free-to-air channels. As mentioned above, the inhibiting factor from the viewer's perspective is the cost of the STB.
The information and broadcasting ministry set March 31, 2015 as the deadline for shift from analog to digital systems. Digitization, where the feed will be received through set-top boxes, is expected to be executed in phases and the four metros of Delhi
Delhi
Delhi , officially National Capital Territory of Delhi , is the largest metropolis by area and the second-largest by population in India, next to Mumbai. It is the eighth largest metropolis in the world by population with 16,753,265 inhabitants in the Territory at the 2011 Census...
, Mumbai
Mumbai
Mumbai , formerly known as Bombay in English, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the most populous city in India, and the fourth most populous city in the world, with a total metropolitan area population of approximately 20.5 million...
, Kolkata
Kolkata
Kolkata , formerly known as Calcutta, is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal. Located on the east bank of the Hooghly River, it was the commercial capital of East India...
and Chennai
Chennai
Chennai , formerly known as Madras or Madarasapatinam , is the capital city of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, located on the Coromandel Coast off the Bay of Bengal. Chennai is the fourth most populous metropolitan area and the sixth most populous city in India...
have to shift to digital addressability by March 31, 2012. Phase II will include 35 cities with population of more than one million, such as Patna
Patna
Paṭnā , is the capital of the Indian state of Bihar and the second largest city in Eastern India . Patna is one of the oldest continuously inhabited places in the world...
, Chandigarh
Chandigarh
Chandigarh is a union territory of India that serves as the capital of two states, Haryana and Punjab. The name Chandigarh translates as "The Fort of Chandi". The name is from an ancient temple called Chandi Mandir, devoted to the Hindu goddess Chandi, in the city...
, Pune
Pune
Pune , is the eighth largest metropolis in India, the second largest in the state of Maharashtra after Mumbai, and the largest city in the Western Ghats. Once the centre of power of the Maratha Empire, it is situated 560 metres above sea level on the Deccan plateau at the confluence of the Mula ...
and Bangalore
Bangalore
Bengaluru , formerly called Bengaluru is the capital of the Indian state of Karnataka. Bangalore is nicknamed the Garden City and was once called a pensioner's paradise. Located on the Deccan Plateau in the south-eastern part of Karnataka, Bangalore is India's third most populous city and...
by March 31, 2013. All urban areas are expected to digitize by November 30, 2014 and the remaining areas by March 31, 2015.
Satellite television
As of 2010, over 500 TV Satellite television channels are broadcasted in India. This includes channelsfrom the state-owned Doordarshan
DoorDarshan
Doordarshan is an Indian public service broadcaster, a division of Prasar Bharati. It is one of the largest broadcasting organizations in India in terms of the infrastructure of studios and transmitters. Recently, it has also started Digital Terrestrial Transmitters. On September 15, 2009,...
, News Corporation
News Corporation
News Corporation or News Corp. is an American multinational media conglomerate. It is the world's second-largest media conglomerate as of 2011 in terms of revenue, and the world's third largest in entertainment as of 2009, although the BBC remains the world's largest broadcaster...
owned STAR TV
STAR TV
Satellite Television Asia Region is an Asian TV service owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. It is headquartered in Hong Kong, with regional offices in mainland China, Taiwan....
, Sony
Sony
, commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan and the world's fifth largest media conglomerate measured by revenues....
owned Sony Entertainment Television
Sony Entertainment Television (India)
This article is about the SET channel in India. For the Indian version broadcasted worldwide, see Sony Entertainment Television Asia.Sony Entertainment Television, or SET, is a Hindi-language based general entertainment television channel in India. It was launched in October 1996 and is owned by...
, Zee TV
Zee TV
Zee TV is an India-based satellite television channel owned by Zee Entertainment Enterprises based in Mumbai, Maharashtra, which broadcasts various programmes in Hindi and other regional languages of India. Broadcasting is also present in various nations of South Asia, Europe, the Middle East,...
, Sun Network
Sun Network
Sun TV Network is an Indian media company based in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India, part of Kal Media Services, Sun Group. It has been named as Asia's most profitable media corporations and the largest TV network. Established on April 14, 1993, it created and owns a variety of television channels and...
and Asianet
Asianet
Asianet Communications Limited is an Indian media conglomerate jointly owned by STAR TV and Jupiter Entertainment. Formed in 1991 and headquartered in the city of Thiruvananthapuram in the south Indian state of Kerala, the company owns several television channels including Asianet, the first...
. Direct To Home service is provided by Airtel Digital Tv
Airtel digital TV
Airtel digital TV is an Indian direct broadcast satellite service provider owned and operated by Bharti Airtel. Its satellite service, launched on 2008, transmits digital satellite television and audio to households in India. It uses MPEG-4 digital compression with DVB-S2 technology, transmitting...
, BIG TV
BIG TV
Reliance Digital TV is one of the largest Indian pay TV providers, providing direct broadcast satellite service—including satellite television, audio programming, and interactive television services—to commercial and residential customers in India. It uses MPEG-4 digital compression technology,...
owned by Reliance, DD Direct Plus
DD Direct Plus
DD Direct+ is an Indian free-to-air digital satellite television owned by Doordarshan. Which provides digital video and audio programming to households and businesses in India. It offers a satellite alternative to the free-view service on digital terrestrial television, with a broadly similar...
, DishTV, Sun Direct DTH
Sun Direct DTH
Sun Direct is an Indian direct broadcast satellite service provider. Its satellite service, launched on 2005, transmits digital satellite television and audio to households in India. Sun Direct uses MPEG-4 digital compression technology, transmitting on INSAT 4B at 93.5°E. and MEASAT-3 at 91.5°E...
, Tata Sky
Tata Sky
TATA Sky is a direct broadcast satellite television provider in India, using MPEG-2 digital compression technology, transmitting using INSAT 4A at 83.0°E....
and Videocon D2H. DishTV was the first one to come up in Indian Market, others came only years later.
Direct to Home
DTH is defined as the reception of satellite programmes with a personal dish in an individual home.As of July 2011, India had roughly 35 million DTH subcribers.
DTH does not compete with CAS
Conditional access
Conditional Access is the protection of content by requiring certain criteria to be met before granting access to this content...
. Cable TV and DTH are two methods of delivery of television content. CAS is integral to both the systems in delivering pay channels.
Cable TV is through cable networks and DTH is wireless, reaching direct to the consumer through a small dish and a set-top box. Although the government has ensured that free-to-air channels on cable are delivered to the consumer without a set-top box, DTH signals cannot be received without the set-top box.
India currently has 7 major DTH service providers and a total of over 35 million subscriber households in mid 2011. DishTV(a ZEE TV subsidiary), Tata Sky
Tata Sky
TATA Sky is a direct broadcast satellite television provider in India, using MPEG-2 digital compression technology, transmitting using INSAT 4A at 83.0°E....
, Videocon D2H
Videocon d2h
Videocon d2h is one of the largest Indian pay TV provider, providing direct broadcast satellite service—including satellite television, audio programming, and interactive television services—to commercial and residential customers in India...
, Sun Network owned ' Sun Direct DTH', Reliance Digital TV,Bharti Airtel's DTH Service 'Airtel Digital TV
Airtel digital TV
Airtel digital TV is an Indian direct broadcast satellite service provider owned and operated by Bharti Airtel. Its satellite service, launched on 2008, transmits digital satellite television and audio to households in India. It uses MPEG-4 digital compression with DVB-S2 technology, transmitting...
' and the public sector DD Direct Plus.As of 2010, India has the most competitive Direct-broadcast satellite market with 7 operators vying for more than 135 million TV homes. India is set to overtake the USA as the world's largest Direct-broadcast satellite market by 2012.
- Dish TV
- Tata Sky
- Airtel Digital TV
- Sun Direct
- Reliance Big TV
- Videocon d2h
- DD Direct +
The rapid growth of DTH in India has propelled an exodus from cabled homes, the need to measure viewership in this space is more than ever; aMap
Audience Measurement and Analytics Ltd. (Amap)
Audience Measurement & Analytics Limited is the only overnight TV Audience Measurement System that provides data on Television in India on multiple dimensions like demographics, ownership, viewership etc...
, the overnight ratings agency, has mounted a peoplemeter panel to measure viewership and interactive engagement in DTH homes in India.
Internet Protocol Television (IPTV)
IPTV launched only in some cities around 2006-2007 by Mtnl/Bsnl later Expands to many urban areas and still expanding.Private Broadband provider Bharti Airtel also starts its IPTV service in Delhi,NCR region.
At present (2009/2010) IPTV in India is hardly making any impact in the market. But IPTV and Online Video Services in India are expected to expand. Screen Digest estimates broadband penetration of TV households to increase from 4.2 percent in 2009 to 13.4 percent in 2013.
See also
- List of Indian Television Channels
- Indian soap operaIndian soap operaIndian soap operas are soap operas written, produced, filmed in India, with characters played by Indians , with episodes broadcast on Indian television channels/channel chains that are not often limited to the Republic of India itself: often many “serials,” as they’re more commonly referred to as,...
- DTH Operators in India
- Digital Cable Operators in India
- Multi System operatorMulti system operatorA Multiple System Operator or Multi System Operator is an operator of multiple cable television systems. A cable system in the United States, by Federal Communications Commission definition, is a facility serving a single community or a distinct governmental entity, each with its own franchise...
- Web Multi System operator