Media of India

consist of several different types of Indian communications media: television, radio, cinema,
newspapers, magazines, and Internet-based Web sites. Many of the media are controlled by
large, for-profit corporations which reap revenue from advertising, subscriptions, and sale
of copyrighted material. India also has a strong music and film industry. India has more than
70,000 newspapers and over 1600 satellite channels (more than 400 are news channels) and is
the biggest newspaper market in the world - over 100 million copies sold each day.[1]
The first Indian media were established in the late 18th century with the newspaper Hicky's
Bengal Gazette, founded in 1780. Auguste and Louis Lumière moving pictures were screened
in Bombay during July 1895; and radio broadcasting began in 1927.[2] Indian media—private
media in particular—have been "free and independent" throughout most of their history.[3] The
period of emergency (1975–1977), declared by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, was the brief
period when India's media were faced with potential government retribution.[3][4]
The French NGO Reporters Without Borders compiles and publishes an annual ranking of
countries based upon the organisation's assessment of its Press Freedom Index. In 2011-12
India was ranked 131st out of 179 countries, which was a setback from the preceding year,
[5]
while Freedom house, a U.S. based NGO rates India, in its latest report, as "Partly Free".[6]

Overview[edit]
The traditional print media, but also the television media, are largely family-owned and often
partake in self-censorship, primarily due to political ties by the owner and the establishment.
However, the new media are generally more professional and corporate-owned, though these,
too, have been acquired or affiliated with established figures. At the same time, the Indian
media, viewed as "feisty," have also not reported on issues of the media itself.[7]

Broadcasting[edit]
Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee (office: 19 March 1998 – 22 May 2004) placed the development of
Information Technology among his top five priorities and formed the Indian National Task Force on
Information Technology and Software Development.

Radio broadcasting was initiated in 1927 but became a state responsibility only in 1930.[14] In
1937 it was given the name All India Radio and since 1957 it has been called Akashvani.
[14]
Limited duration of television programming began in 1959, and complete broadcasting
followed in 1965.[14] The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting owned and maintained the
audio-visual apparatus—including the television channel Doordarshan—in the country prior to
the economic reforms of 1991.[15] The Government of India played a significant role in using the
audio-visual media for increasing mass education in India's rural swathes.[3] Projected television
screens provided engaging education in India's villages by the 1990s.[3] In 1997, an autonomous
body was established in the name of Prasar Bharti to take care of the public service
broadcasting under the Prasar Bharti Act. All India Radio and Doordarshan, which earlier were
working as media units under the Ministry of I&B became constituents of the body.
Following the economic reforms satellite television channels from around the world—
including BBC, CNN, CNBC, and other foreign television channels gained a foothold in the
country.[16] 47 million household with television sets emerged in 1993, which was also the year
when Rupert Murdoch entered the Indian market.[17] Satellite and cable television soon gained a
foothold.[17] Doordarshan, in turn, initiated reforms and modernisation.[17] With 1,400 television
stations as of 2009, the country ranks 4th in the list of countries by number of television
broadcast stations.[18]
On 16 November 2006, the Government of India released the community radio policy which
allowed agricultural centres, educational institutions and civil society organisations to apply for
community based FM broadcasting licence. Community Radio is allowed 100 Watt Effective
Radiated Power (ERP) with a maximum tower height of 30 metres. The licence is valid for five
years and one organisation can only get one licence, which is non-transferable and to be used
for community development purposes.

Motion pictures
The history of film in India begins with the screening of Auguste and Louis Lumière moving
pictures in Bombay during the July 1895.[30] Raja Harishchandra, a full-length feature film, was
initiated in 1912 and completed later.[30] Alam Ara (released 14 March 1931), directed
by Ardeshir Irani, was the first Indian movie with dialogues.[31]
Indian films were soon being followed throughout Southeast Asia and the Middle East—where
modest dressing and subdued sexuality of these films was found to be acceptable to the
sensibilities of the audience belonging to the various Islamic countries of the region.[32] As
cinema as a medium gained popularity in the country as many as 1, 000 films in
various languages of India were produced annually.[32] Hollywood also gained a foothold in India
with special effects films such as Jurassic Park (1993) and Speed (1994) being specially
appreciated by the local audiences.[32] Expatriates throughout the United Kingdom and in the
United States continued to give rise to an international audiences to Indian movies, which,
according to The Encyclopædia Britannica (2008) entry on Bollywood, "continued to be
formulaic story lines, expertly choreographed fight scenes, spectacular song-and-dance
routines, emotion-charged melodrama, and larger-than-life heroes".[33] Present day India
produces the most films of any country in the world.[34] Major media investors in country are Yash
Raj Films, Dharma Productions, Aamir Khan Productions, UTV Disney, Reliance Entertainment.
Most of these productions are funded by investors since there is limited banking and credit
facilities maturity in India for motion picture industry. Many international corporations, such
as Disney (UTV), Viacom (Network18 Studio), and Fuse Global(AKP) have entered the nation's
media industry on a large scale.

Digital and online media[edit]

The early 2000s saw the advent of online and digital publishing in India. Traditional print dailies
were the first adapt and introduce their own digital versions of their print dailies and magazines.
Today, India is home to many online publications including digital-only newspapers, magazines,
news portals and publishing houses.

Complaints Some Indian media, controlled by businessmen, politicians,

andgovernment bureaucrats, are facing criticism for biased, motivated reporting, and selective
presentation. After the devastating Earth quake in Nepal on 25 April 2015, in spite of India
helping, tweets from Nepal trended effectively saying, "Go home, Indian media".[35] Disturbed by
corruption, Delhi chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal suggested on 3 May 2015 to have a public trial of
Indian media.[36][37][38] On 8 May 2015, I & B Minister, Arun Jaitley echoed similar saying "Flood of
channels but dearth of facts".[39][40] Of late a lot of mainstream media channels have been
accused of printing and telecasting unverified and biased news which they retracted later. In a
few instances content from Twitter's parody accounts were cited as a source. The Indian
mainstream media has often been accused of showing sensationalized news items.[41][42][43]

All India Radio (AIR)

officially known since 1956 as Ākāshvāṇī (Sanskrit: आकाशवाणी; "Voice from the Sky"), is the
national publicradio broadcaster of India and a division of Prasar Bharati. Established in 1930,
[2]
it is the sister service of Prasar Bharati's Doordarshan, the national public television
broadcaster. AIR has covered more than 99% of the Indian population as per the latest
information given by Minister of Information and Broadcast. All India Radio is the largest radio
network in the world. Its headquarters is at the Akashvani Bhavan in New Delhi. Akashvani
Bhavan houses the Drama Section, the FM Section and the National Service. Akashvani
Bhavan hosts Doordarshan Kendra (Delhi).

Etymology[edit]
Main article: Akashvani (term)

Ākāśavāni (आकाशवाणी) is a Sanskrit word meaning "celestial announcement," or "voice from the
sky/heaven". In Hindu, Jain and Buddhist holy traditions, Akashvanis often featured in stories as
a medium of communication from the heavens to mankind.
"Akashvani" was first used in the context of radio by M. V. Gopalaswamy after setting up the
nation’s first private radio station in his residence, "Vittal Vihar" (about 200 yards from AIR’s
current location in Mysore) in 1936.[3] Akashvani seemed to be an appropriate name for a radio
broadcaster and was later adopted as All India Radio's on-air name in 1957.

History[edit]
During the British Raj, broadcasting began in July 1923 with programmes by the Bombay
Presidency Radio Club and other radio clubs. According to an agreement of 23 July 1927, the
private Indian Broadcasting Company LTD (IBC) was authorized to operate two radio stations;
the Bombay station began on 23 July 1927, and the Calcutta station followed on 26 August
1927. However, on 1 March 1930, the company went into liquidation. The government took over
the broadcasting facilities, beginning the Indian State Broadcasting Service (ISBS) on 1 April
1930 on an experimental basis for two years, and then permanently in May 1932. On 8 June
1936, the ISBS was renamed All India Radio.[2]
On 1 October 1939, the External Service began with a broadcast in Pushtu; it was intended to
counter radio propaganda from Germany directed to Afghanistan, Iran and the Arab nations.
When India became independent in 1947, the AIR network had only six stations
(in Delhi, Bombay, Calcutta, Madras, Lucknow, and Tiruchirappalli); three radio stations
at Lahore, Peshawar and Karachi fell in the share of Pakistan. The total number of radio sets at
that time was about 275,000 in India. On 3 October 1957, the Vividh Bharati Service was
launched, to compete with Radio Ceylon. Television broadcasting began in Delhi in 1959 as part
of AIR, but was split off from the radio network as Doordarshan on 1 April 1976.[4] FM
broadcasting began on 23 July 1977 in Chennai, and was expanded during the 1990s.[5]

Domestic services[edit]
AIR has many services in a number of languages, each serving different regions across India.
Vividh Bharati[edit]
Vividh Bharati is one of the best-known services of AIR. Its name roughly translates as "Diverse
Indian", and it is also known as the Commercial Broadcasting Service (CBS). It is the
commercially most accessible of the AIR networks and is popular in Mumbai and other large
cities. Vividh Bharati offers a wide range of programmes including news, film music and comedy
programs. It operates on different medium wave-band frequencies for each city.
Some programs broadcast on Vividh Bharati are:

 Hawa-mahal: Radio plays based on novels and plays

 Santogen ki mehfil: Comedy
Baluchi Programme on AIR[edit]
AIR is planning to produce programmes in the Baluchi language, sources claim.[6]

Other services include[edit]

 Primary Channel [1]
 National Channel[7]
Regional services[edit]
The headquarters of the Regional Deputy Directors General are located at Delhi and
Chandigarh (NR), Lucknow and Bhopal (CR), Guwahati (NER), Kolkata (ER), Mumbai and
Ahmedabad (WR), Chennai and Bangalore (SR).[8] All frequencies are in kHz, unless otherwise
noted.

External services[edit]
The external services of All India Radio broadcast in 27 languages to countries outside India—
primarily via high-power shortwave band broadcasts, although medium wave is also used to
reach neighbouring countries. In addition to broadcasts targeted at specific countries by
language, there is a General Overseas Service broadcasting in English with 8¼ hours of
programming each day aimed at a general international audience. The external broadcasts
were begun on 1 October 1939 by the British government to counter the propaganda of the
Nazis directed at the Afghan people. The first broadcasts were in Pushto, beamed to
Afghanistan and the North-West Frontier Province. Soon broadcasts began in other languages
including Dari, Persian, Arabic, English, Burmese, Japanese, Chinese, Malay and French. The
external services broadcast in sixteen foreign and eleven Indian languages, with a total
programme output of 70¼ hours per day on medium- and shortwave frequencies.
Two high powered FM stations of All India Radio are under installation in Amritsar and Fazilka in
Punjab to supplement the programs put out from transmitters operating from Jalandhar, New
Delhi, Chandigarh and Mumbai and to improve the broadcast services during disturbed weather
conditions in the border regions of Punjab.
Today, the External Services Division of All India Radio broadcasts daily in 57 transmissions
with almost 72 hours covering over 108 countries in 27 languages, out of which 15 are foreign
and 12 Indian. The foreign languages are Arabic, Baluchi, Burmese, Chinese, Dari, French,
Indonesian, Persian, Pushtu, Russian, Sinhala, Swahili, Thai, Tibetan and English (General
Overseas Service). The Indian languages are Bengali, Gujarati, Marathi, Kokani, Kashmiri,
Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Nepali, Punjabi, Saraiki, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu.
The longest daily broadcast is the Urdu Service to Pakistan, around the clock on DTH and on
short- and mediumwave for 12¼ hrs. The English-language General Overseas Service are
broadcast 8¼ hours daily. During Hajj, there are special broadcasts beamed to Saudi Arabia in
Urdu. The external services of AIR are also broadcast to Europe in DRM (Digital Radio
Mondiale) on 9950 kHz between 1745-2230 UTC.
The transmissions are broadcast by high-power transmitters located at Aligarh, Bengaluru,
Chennai, Delhi, Gorakhpur, Guwahati, Mumbai and Panaji on shortwave and from Jalandhar,
Kolkata, Nagpur, Rajkot and Tuticorin on mediumwave. Soon All India Radio Amritsar will start a
booster service on FM band too. Some of these transmitters are 1000 kW (1 MW) or 500 kW.
Programs are beamed to different parts of the world except the Americas and received in very
good Reception Quality in the Target areas. In each language service, the program consists of
news, commentary, a press review, talks on matters of general or cultural interest, feature
programmes, documentaries and music from India and the target region. Most programs
originate at New Broadcasting House on Parliament Street in New Delhi, with a few originating
at SPT Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Jalandhar, Kolkata, HPT Malad Mumbai,
Thiruvananthapuram and Tuticorin.
The External Services Division of AIR is a link between India and rest of the world, especially in
countries with Indian emigrants and people of Indian origin. It broadcasts the Indian point of
view on matters of national and international importance, and demonstrates the Indian way of
life through its programs. QSL cards (which are sought-after by international radio hobbyists)
are issued to radio hobbyists by AIR in New Delhi for reception reports of their broadcasts.

Other services[edit]
Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM)[edit]
Details of the transmissions and frequencies are as follows: 0130 - 0230 UTC on 11715 kHz
Nepali (Nepal) 0315-0415 UTC on 15185 kHz Hindi, (E.Africa, Mauritius) 0415-0430 UTC on
15185 kHz Gujarati, (E.Africa, Mauritius) 0430-0530 UTC on 15185 kHz Hindi(E.Africa,
Mauritius) 1300 - 1500 UTC on 15050 kHz Sinhala (Sri Lanka) 1615-1715 UTC on 15140 kHz
Russian (E. Europe) 2245-0045 UTC on 11645 GOS-I English (NE Asia)
Above transmissions are in addition to following existing DRM txn's: 0900-1200 on 6100 Vividh
Bharati, DRM NVIS 1745-1945 UTC on 9950 English W. Europe) 1945-2045 UTC on 9950
Hindi (W. Europe) 2045-2230 UTC on 9950 English (W. Europe)

News-on-phone service[edit]
All India Radio launched news-on-phone service on 25 February 1998 in New Delhi; it now has
service in Chennai, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Indore, Patna and Bangalore. The service is
accessible through STD, ISD and local calls. There are plans to establish the service in 11 more
cities: Ahmedabad, Bhopal, Guwahati, Gwalior, Jabalpur, Jaipur, Kolkata, Lucknow, Ranchi,
Shimla and Thiruvananthapuram. English and Hindi hourly news bulletins may be heard live.
[9]
News in MP3 format may be directly played from the site, and filenames are time-stamped.
AIR news bulletins are available in nine regional languages (Tamil, Kannada, Gujarati, Bengali,
Marathi, North East, Punjabi, Telugu and Urdu).

Direct-to-home service[edit]
Direct-to-home service is the one in which a large number of channels are digitally compressed,
encrypted, uplinked and beamed down over a territory from a very high power satellite. The
DTH signals can be received directly at homes with the help of a small sized dish receive unit
containing a Dish Antenna installed at the building’s roof-top or on the wall facing clear south
and one indoor.[10] DTH service is offered on 21 channels via Insat.

Documentaries[edit]
There is a long tradition of documentary features on AIR. There is great interest in radio
Sdocumentaries, particularly in countries like India, Iran, South Korea and Malaysia. The doyen
of English Features was Melville De Mellow and of Hindi Features was Shiv Sagar Mishra. This
format has been revived because of its flexibility, cost-cutting capacity, messaging potential and
creative potential with producers employed with AIR, all across the nation.

Central Drama Unit[edit]

AIR's Central Drama Unit is responsible for the national broadcast of plays. Plays produced by
the CDU are translated and produced by regional stations. Since its inception in the 1960s the
unit has produced more than 1,500 plays, and the CDU is a repository of old scripts and
productions. The National Programme of Plays is broadcast by the CDU of AIR the fourth
Thursday of each month at 9.30 pm. On the National Programme of Plays, the same play is
produced in 22 Indian languages and broadcast at the same time by all regional and national
network stations. The CDU also produces Chain Plays, half-hour dramas broadcast in
succession by a chain of stations.

Social Media Cell[edit]

News Service Division's Social Media Cell is responsible for providing AIR news on new media
platforms viz. websites, Twitter, Facebook and SMS. Social Media Cell was established on 20
May 2013.

Television in India
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Television in India is a huge industry which has thousands of programs in many languages. The
small screen has produced numerous celebrities. More than half of all Indian households own a
television.[1] As of 2016, the country has a collection of over 857[2] channels of which 184 are pay
channels.[3][4]

Broadcast mediums[edit]
There are at least five basic types of television in India: broadcast or "over-the-air" television,
unencrypted satellite or "free-to-air", Direct-to-Home (DTH), cable television, and IPTV.
Over-the-air and free-to-air TV is free with no monthly payments while Cable, DTH, 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 or a la carte. All television service providers are required by law
to provide a la carte selection of channels.
Broadcast television[edit]
In India, the broadcast of free-to-air television is governed through state-owned Prasar
Bharati Corporation, with the Doordarshan group of channels being the only broadcaster. As such,
cable television is the primary source of TV programming in India.and then private channels were
started since about 1995.
Cable television As per the TAM Annual Universe Update - 2015,[6] India now has over 167
million households (out of 234 million) with television sets, of which over 161 million have access to
Cable TV or Satellite TV, including 84 million households which are DTH subscribers. Digital TV
households have grown by 32% since 2013 due to migration from terrestrial and analog broadcasts.
TV owning households have been growing at between 8-10%. Digital TV penetration is at 64% as of
September 2014. The growth in digital broadcast has been due to the introduction of a multi-phase
digitisation policy by the Government of India. An ordinance was introduced by the Govt. of India
regarding the mandatory digitization of the Cable Services. According to this amendment made in
the section 9 of the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Amendment Ordinance, 1995, the I&B
ministry is in the process of making Digital Addressable System mandatory. As per the policy,
viewers would be able to access digital services only through a set top box (STB).[7] It is also
estimated that India now has over 823 TV channels covering all the main languages spoken in the
nation.
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 and 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 Sun TV in 1992, South India saw the birth of its first private television
channel. With a network comprising more than 20 channels in various South Indianlanguages, 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 channel Raj Television and the Malayalam channel Asianet, both launched in 1993.
These three networks and their channels today take up most of the broadcasting space in South
India. In 1994, industrialist N. P. V. Ramasamy Udayar launched a Tamil channel
called GEC (Golden Eagle Communication), which was later acquired by Vijay Mallya and renamed
as Vijay TV. In Telugu, Telugu daily newspaper Eenadu started with its own channel called ETV in
1995 later diversified into other Indian languages. The same year, another Telugu channel
called Gemini TV was launched which was later acquired by the Sun Group in 1998.
Throughout the 1990s, 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.
Conditional access system[edit]
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.
As of April 2008 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.
Analog switchover[edit]
The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting issued a notification on 11 November 2011, setting 31
March 2015 as the deadline for complete shift from analogue to digital systems. In December 2011,
Parliament passed The Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Amendment Act to digitise the cable
television sector by 2014.[8][9] Chennai, Delhi, Kolkata, and Mumbai had to switch by 31 October
2012.[10] The second phase of 38 cities, including Bangalore, Chandigarh, Nagpur, Patna, and Pune,
was to switch by 31 March 2013. The remaining urban areas were to digitise by 30 November 2014
and the rest of the country by 31 March 2015..
Phase I[edit]
From midnight on 31 October 2012, analogue signals were switched off in Delhi and
Mumbai. Pirated signals were available in parts of Delhi even after the date.[12] In Kolkata, on 30
October 2012, the state government refused to switch off analogue signals citing low penetration of
set-top boxes (STBs) required for receiving digital signals. The I&B Ministry did not push for
switching off of analogue signals in Kolkata. After approximately the Centre estimated that 75% of
Kolkata households had installed STBs, the ministry issued a directive to stop airing analogue
channels in some parts of the city beginning 16 December and completely switch off analogue
signals after 27 December.[13] On 17 December 2012, the West Bengal government openly defied the
directive and stated that it would not implement it.[14] The state government then announced that it
would extend the deadline to 15 January 2013.[15][16][17] The I&B ministry had initially threatened to
cancel the license of multi system operators (MSOs) in Kolkata if they did not switch off all analogue
channels. However, the ministries softened their stand following a letter from MSOs, explaining how
it they were sandwiched between divergent orders from the Central and State Governments.
In Chennai, the deadline was extended twice to 5 November by the Madras High Court.[18] The
extension was in response to a petition filed by the Chennai Metro Cable TV Operators Association
(CMCOA), who argued at the beginning of November that only 164,000 homes in Chennai had the
proper equipment, and three million households would be left without service.[19] When a week later
only a quarter of households had their set-top boxes, the Madras High Court further extended the
deadline to 9 November. The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting stated that it would allow an
additional extension to 31 December.[20][21] As of March 2013, out of 3 million subscribers, 2.4 million
continued to be without set-top boxes.[22]
A similar petition, filed by a local cable operator (LCO), to extend the deadline in Mumbai was
rejected by the Bombay High Court on 31 October 2012.[23]
Phase II[edit]
In the second phase, 38 cities in 15 states had to digitise by 31 March 2013. Of the
38, Maharashtra has 9 cities, Uttar Pradesh has 7 and Gujarat has 5.[24][25][26]
About 25% of the 16 million households covered did not have their equipment installed before the
deadline. Secretary Uday Kumar Varma extended a 15-day grace period.[9] The I&B ministry
estimated that as of 3 April 2013, 25% of households did not have set-top boxes.[27] Enforcement of
the switchover varied from city to city.[28] Vishakhapatnam had the lowest rate of conversion to the
new system at 12.18 per cent. Other cities that had low figures included Srinagar (20 per cent),
Coimbatore (28.89 per cent), Jabalpur (34.87 per cent) and Kalyan Dombivli (38.59 per cent).[29]
Satellite television
As of 2016, over 1600 TV satellite television channels are broadcast in India. This includes channels
from the state-owned Doordarshan, News Corporation owned STAR TV, Sonyowned 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. Dish TV was the first one to come up in Indian Market, others came only
years later.

Tata Sky Dish India

These services are provided by locally built satellites from ISRO such as[30] 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.
DTH is defined as the reception of satellite programs with a personal dish in an individual home. As
of December 2012, India had roughly 54 million DTH subcribers.
DTH does not compete with CAS.[citation needed] 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 54 million subscriber
households in as of December 2012. 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 2012, India has the most competitive Direct-broadcast
satellite market with 7 operators vying for more than 135 million TV homes. India overtook the USA
as the world's largest Direct-broadcast satellite market in 2012.[31]
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.[32]
Internet Protocol Television (IPTV)[edit]
There are currently five IPTV Platforms available for Subscription in India in the main cities
as Broadband Internet penetration is confined to urban areas of the country, They are

 IPTV A joint venture between MTNL and BSNL also in association with Aksh Optifiber a
company that also provides FTTH and VoIP services available in some of the main cities in India
such as Mumbai which has about 200 Television Channels on offer with Time Shift TV in a
number of Basic and Premium Packages including Movies on Demand offered at various Basic,
Premium and Pay Per View Rates and other services such as an Interactive Karaoke channel,
The IPTV Operator uses the UTStarcom RollingStream IPTV Solution as its end-to-end Delivery
Platform.
 Airtel IPT available in some of the main cities in India such as New Delhi and Bangalore which
has about 175 Television Channels on offer with Time Shift TV in a number of TV Packages and
a small number of Television Channels offered on Premium Subscription Rates including Movies
on Demand offered at Premium and Pay Per View Rates SVOD and other services such as
Digital Radio and Games, The IPTV Operator uses the UTStarcom RollingStream IPTV
Solution as its end-to-end Delivery Platform.
 Smart TV Group also Operates an IPTV Platform based on the Sea-Change International IPTV
and Cisco IPTV Standards in many parts of India with the following services:
  185 TV channels on various basic and premium packages
 40 TV channel Catch up TV service
 250 Hour Personal Video Recorder
 A 5000+ Hour Movie Library
 Digital Radio and Karaoke Service
The service is available to MTNL and BSNL Broadband Internet customers.

 Reliance IPTV is an IPTV service Operated by Reliance Communication the Telco uses
the Microsoft Mediaroom IPTV Middleware Software as its end-to-end delivery Platform, with
around three TV packages on offer. the service is currently only available in Mumbai.

Programming[edit]
The typical Indian soap opera is by-far the most common genre on Indian television. Fiction
shows (which also includes thriller dramas and sitcoms) are extremely popular among Indian
audiences, as they reflect real family issues portrayed in a melodramatic fashion.
There are thousands of television programs in India, all ranging in length, air time, genre and
language. The Hindi television industry is by far the biggest. However, some have much greater
influence on the audiences, and therefore make the annual list of the best Hindi shows. The
present status follows.

Audience metrics[edit]
Television metrics in India have gone through several phases in which it fragmented,
consolidated and then fragmented again.
DART[edit]
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.[34] DART continues to provide this information
independent of the Private agencies. DART is one of the rating system that measures audience
metrics in Rural India.[35]
TAM & INTAM[edit]
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.[36]
In 1997, a joint industry body appointed TAM (backed by AC Nielsen[37]) as the official
recordkeeper of audience metrics.[36] 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.[36][38][39] This subsequently led
to the merger of the two measurement systems into TAM.[40] For several years after this, in spite
of misgivings about the process, sample and other parameters, TAM was the de facto standard
and monopoly in the audience metrics game.[41]
aMap[edit]
 In 2004, a rival ratings service funded by American NRI investors, called Audience
Measurement Analytics Limited (aMap) was launched.[42][43][44] 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.[43]
Broadcast Audience Research Council[edit]
An even newer industry body called the Broadcast Audience Research Council seeks to set up
an almost real-time audience metrics system. Plans for this was announced in March 2008 and
work is said to be in progres

social impact
The sequencing of content in a broadcast is called a schedule. As with all technological
endeavors, a number of technical terms and slanghave developed. A list of these terms can be
found at List of broadcasting terms.[10] Television and radio programs are distributed through
radio broadcasting or cable, often both simultaneously. By coding signals and having a cable
converter box with decoding equipment in homes, the latter also enables subscription-based
channels, pay-tv and pay-per-view services. In his essay, John Durham Peters wrote
that communication is a tool used for dissemination. Durham stated, "Dissemination is a lens—
sometimes a usefully distorting one—that helps us tackle basic issues such as interaction,
presence, and space and time...on the agenda of any future communication theory in general"
(Durham, 211).[11] Dissemination focuses on the message being relayed from one main source to
one large audience without the exchange of dialogue in between. It is possible for the message
to be changed or corrupted by government officials once the main source releases it. There is
no way to predetermine how the larger population or audience will absorb the message. They
can choose to listen, analyze, or simply ignore it. Dissemination in communication is widely
used in the world of broadcasting.
Broadcasting focuses on getting a message out and it is up to the general public to do what they
wish with it. Durham also states that broadcasting is used to address an open-ended destination
(Durham, 212). There are many forms of broadcasting, but they all aim to distribute a signal that
will reach the target audience. Broadcasters typically arrange audiences into entire assemblies
(Durham, 213). In terms of media broadcasting, a radio show can gather a large number of
followers who tune in every day to specifically listen to that specific disc jockey. The disc jockey
follows the script for his or her radio show and just talks into the microphone.[12] He or she does
not expect immediate feedback from any listeners. The message is broadcast across airwaves
throughout the community, but there the listeners cannot always respond immediately,
especially since many radio shows are recorded prior to the actual air time.