Mapping the development of Television in India

 

Mapping the development of Television in India

Abstract

The article traces the journey of Television in India which started as a tool of educating its mass on a variety of themes like family planning, conducting educational programmes, serving as an effective tool for ‘nation integration’ to shifting its attention towards entertainment with advertisers realizing the potential of television to reach a broader audience hence, commercialisation of television becomes inevitable. Doordarshan- the public service broadcaster enjoyed the monopoly in the Indian television market however, drastic changes took place in the media landscape with the advent of private channels transcending geographical borders- global content reaching to the hooks and corners of the Indian household. The article aims to look at the transition in the media landscape with the implementation of liberalization policies in 1991. The article also aims to contextualize Marshall McLuhan’s concept of ‘medium is the message’ and Theodore Adorno’s concept of ‘culture industry’ in contemporary Indian television.

The article aims to provide an overview of the changes in the functions performed by mass communication using television as a tool to reach its masses before and after the liberalization policies in India.

 

Keywords: Indian Television, Doordarshan, commercialization of media, liberalization, digitalization

 

 

Introduction

Of the different mass media tools like print media, newspapers, radio and others, the one that was introduced in the country with the intention of serving as an educational and developmental tool for the masses was the television. Television began in India in 1959 as an educational project supported by the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the Ford Foundation (Shitak, R.S., 2011). Television first arrived in India simply by accident, not by planning. Run by radio professionals who were simply experimenting with the new equipment, the initial broadcasts consisted of two one-hour transmissions a week. They were watched by ‘teleclubs’ installed within a 25-km radius in Delhi with the content of the programmes being focused on themes like : road sense, food adulteration, care of public property and manners.

The then Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru was skeptical of the use of broadcasting in the Indian scenario. The state’s attitude towards broadcasting during his premiership in the early years of Independence was to dismiss it as a luxury for the affluent. It was not Nehru, but his daughter Indira Gandhi and grandson Rajiv Gandhi who realized the potential of television as a medium for development and national integration. In 1959, television started its advent in India to discover the potentiality of the medium to foster community development and formal education with the government enjoying monopoly over all broadcasting. In retrospect, many observers feel that it was the hangover of  the colonial legacy of controlling the media and the fear of employing mass media as a tool to inflict social conflicts that prevented Indian policy makers to think creatively about radio and television in the country.

In Independent India, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) form and develop policies and regulations relating to information, broadcasting and that of the film sector in the country from time to time (Shitak, R.S., 2011). India’s Television encounter of the 1960s remained a developmental exercise and a medium that can be availed only by the bureaucrats, politicians and a few select localities in Delhi. Programming was primarily in India and much of the news and current affairs focused on Delhi- the seat of political power ( Johnson, 2000, Singhal and Rogers, 2001) and since, television was restricted to the hands of the only few and was under the control of the government many theorists stick to the view that television served as a mouthpiece for the government.

 

 

 

 Television at its inception stage (1959-1982) mainly carried out is educational function through the following programmes :

1. The media-oriented school education experimented in collaboration with Ford Foundation in 1961 in 151 schools in Delhi for an audience of 20,000 higher secondary school children which continued till 1965.
2. Understanding the need to educate farmers on the new methods of framing, ‘Krishidarshan’ was started in 1967
3. India experimented with the potentials of television in the biggest manner through SITE ( Satellite Instructional Television Experiment)- a one-year plan (1975-76) to carry out the transmission of educational programmes for children instructional programmes for the general audience. With SITE, India became the first country in the world to use a direct broadcast satellite to reach remote villages directly with educational information.

 

Television continued to run as an ad-hoc division of All India Radio until 1976.  In 1976, Indian television was separated from radio and given a new name- Doordarshan. The public service broadcaster- Doordarshan has effectively served as a tool to educate the masses on a variety of themes like- family planning, immunization, nutrition of the mother and the child and many more themes have been explored.

Carrying out educational functions is one such domain where Doordarshan has made immense contributions. Ever since the inception of television in India, one of the prior goals was to provide support for the education system in the country.

The country-wide classroom initiative of the University Grants Commission dedicated to higher education started its telecast on Doordarshan in 1984 with a one-hour educational programme (Ninnan, 1995).  Though the urban youth were unaware of these initiatives, the rural youth were able to enjoy access to these classroom initiatives.

With INSAT-1A, the first of the country’s domestic communication satellites became operational in 1982 and expanded the reach of television to all regional stations of Doordarshan. For the first time, Doordarshan could start what was called the 'National Programme’ which was fed from Delhi to all other stations.

The year 1982 was a landmark year in the growth of television communication with the launch of color television that coincided with the hosting of Asian Games in New Delhi. The first direct result of the Asian Games was the introduction of ‘color television’ and the creation of a ‘national service’ .

 It was in this backdrop that we could witness an expansion in the content of television- not just focusing solely on the function of disseminating information to the masses but also entertainment programmes through film songs, educational dramas, etc. paved their entry in television. Even till this period, the government exercised control over production and editorial content with no private enterprises allowed to enter the sector. The position of Doordarshan was questioned- since the government enjoyed the monopoly over broadcasting, decking on the content. Doordarshan had to face the critique that it served as the ‘propaganda machine” for the government disseminating its ideologies.

Television witnessed an exponential growth in the 1980s that was fuelled by commercialisation.

If the 1970s was the year to explore the potential of television for disseminating information and community development then, 1980s was the year that saw a shift in the function of television- took a deviation from its information function and intertwining with the entertainment function to attract more audiences leading to the generation of a new function of television- ‘infotainment’ thus, commercialisation of television paved its way. Entertainment programming paved its way in the early 1980s and it rode on the back of two related developments : the advent of commercials and the commissioning of programmes to independent producers.. While television became a commercialized mass medium, its programming still had to fulfill the primary objectives of acting as a medium for furthering the state’s developmental and cultural objectives. With the advent of commercialisation, Doordarshan adopted a twin-model approach catering to the entertainment needs of the middle classes and the state’s objectives.

However, the year 1990 was a landmark year that brought about drastic changes in the media landscape. With the implementation of Prasar Bharti Act, 1990 broadcasting was delinked from direct government control.

 

Indian Television goes Commercial

The commercialisation of Doordarshan began in 1976 when television services were separated from AIR and commercial spots were introduced. Advertising sponsorship followed in 1980. The proportion of entertainment programmes, film songs, commercials and sports coverage occupied the main focus while educational programmes and rural telecasts took a backseat. The introduction of commercial broadcasting in Doordarshan changed its very nature and fuelled the expansion of television in the 1980s. The potential of television as the medium for generating revenue and to reach a vast pool of masses, advertisements started to run in television- by the 1980s television proved itself to be an effective medium to reach to the hooks and corners of the Indian household, hence it became a prime choice on part of the advertisers to use this medium to promote their products. Television was also used by the political parties to educate masses of their campaigns or for that matter, to pass on their ideologies.

With advertisements paving its way in Doordarshan a gradual shift from its informational and cultural objectives to entertainment functions were observed. The telecast of the first soap opera, Hum Log in 1984-85 marked the first step towards sponsored programmes on Indian television. Hum Log started as an entertainment programme driven around the themes of- family planning, family harmony, etc. embedded in the storyline. The advertisement carried by Hum Log promoted a new product in India- maggi 2-minute noodles. The audience rapidly accepted this new consumer product, suggesting the power of television commercials. Advertisers began to purchase television time and this paved the way for commercialisation of Doordarshan with advertisers having a great influence over the content that would be broadcasted.

India witnessed a revolution in the television industry landscape following the shift in economic policies in 1991. With the implementation of liberalization policies in India, the capital market opened up to private enterprises granting operational freedom to these enterprises to attract foreign investment- the industry was transformed from a government-oriented single network to a multi-channel network.  Hence, the television communication landscape that was initially and for many years dominated by Doordashan granted operational freedom to private enterprises.

1991 saw the beginning of ‘transnational communication’, communication that transcends the geographical borders of countries using satellite broadcasting technology. With private enterprises entering the media landscape, viewers got the chance to view non-Doordarshan channels- cross-border channels. 

The public broadcaster- Doordarshan was forced to reflect on its strategies to attract audiences by the winds of privatization and liberalization. It started a parallel entertainment channel, put on more Hindi films than ever before, sold time slots to private producers and rationalized its advertising rates (Ninan, 1995: Mehta, 2008)- all because it was losing its dominant hold in the television landscape with the advent of satellite television. Doordarshan in its attempt to retain their unchallenged market share and advertising share gradually sacrificed the objectives with which it started and the focus being shifted to telecasting more entertainment programmes to retain its audience size. Sinha (1998) argues that in the wake of its biggest crisis of credibility and survival. Doordarshan tried to emulate the commercial satellite television channels rather than reinventing itself as a public broadcasting service.

By 1994, Doordarshan was asked by the Planning Commission to raise its own revenues for further expansion of services, thereby cementing the new dependence on advertising. Commercial revenues of the network almost doubled from 1991-92 to 1996-97 (Rodrigues, 2010). But on the flip side, whilst Doordarshan increased its appeal for middle-class urban viewers, it weakened its programme offer for rural areas, and educational programming suffered (Banerjee and Seneviratne, 2005).

The entry of private channels in the television landscape changed the very nature of broadcasting in India. The private channels mostly catered to the urban middle class and the rural population was almost non-existent to these channels, hence were never incorporated into their strategy to expand its reach to its audience. Western programmes and Indian-produced programmes on private channels conveyed consumerism and materialist values (Singhal and Rogers, 2001). In the space of two decades, the media in India has become the vanguard of consumerism. 

In the mid-1990s, cross border channels changed their strategy to reach audiences beyond a small, urban elite population which watched their foreign originated English programmes. STAR was the first to start the Hindi subtitles of Hollywood films. It also started telecasting locally-produced programmes in English and Hindi, thus initiating the policy of localization. Zee Network employs hybrid language ‘Hinglish’ for reaching both metropolitan and small cities, thereby enhancing its reach to the audience.

The transmissions from the sky threatened the monopoly of Doordarshan forcing it to change its strategy to reach its audience regarding the content of the programmes, its broadcasting pattern and the style of distribution. The public service broadcaster Prasar Bharti and its television Doordarshan had to compete with the private satellites in the television communication landscape in two ways- had to compete with the quality of the content for capturing audience and thereby keeping the audience rating points high to attract its advertisers since TV licensing was abolished and advertising was to fill the budgetary shortfall, a decision that intensified the commercialisation of Doordarshan.

 

 

 

With the advent of private satellite and commercialisation of Doordarshan, the function of television experienced a drastic shift from the state’s objectives of promoting community development and educational function to emphasis being placed on its entertainment function. Another significant change was that of media ownership- with the implementation of liberalization policies the monopoly that the government exercised over broadcasting ended and opened its market to private and transnational players. The power that media wields in a way proves Marshall Mcluhans’ saying ‘the medium is the message’ right. The television acts as a revolutionizing agent holding the power to fulfill the political and cultural objectives of the state having its reach to the hooks and corners of the Indian household hence, can shape and influence one’s perception of reality. McLuhan says that how a medium is the message itself and just by the power of information media can influence economic, socio-political and even cultural structure of any economy. That’s the power of the media- the message that we get from the medium has the potential to shape the user’s perception of the message,

Theodore Adorno’s concept of ‘culture industry’ holds much relevance in the media landscape. Adorno is of the view that culture- a unified set of values, beliefs are reflected through films, television, radio, etc. - the entertainment media and in the process, culture is manufactured and reproduced through media and is fed to the consumers who fall in line with the ideas and roles ascribed to them. Media wields the power to invade the minds of its audience with the content it broadcasts and enjoy consent from its audience which is necessary for the maintenance of status quo. For example, in the television serials women assume the responsibility of the housewives and men the bread earner of the family. This widespread homogenization of roles shown in the television serials are impressed upon the minds of the consumers because only then will the status quo be maintained- gender in TV serials being restricted to the binary divisions of male and females and the roles being ascribed to both the genders and these gender representations portrayed in the media platform invades the minds of the recipients serving as a great tool to establish consensus from the audience.

Audiovisual communication has assumed a powerful role in society having the potential to reach a large audience tailoring the minds of the recipients hence, it becomes extremely crucial to ensure that television is not used as a tool for releasing government propaganda of maintaining its hegemony in the Indian society and not reinforcing and reproducing old patriarchal ideologies.