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- The Madras Radio Club: 31,
1924. Assembled by C. V. Krishttamurty Chetty who brought the components
from England on completion of studies there. Two and a half hours of
transmission consisting of music and talks was broadcast every evening.
- The service closed down in 1927
resumed the service on April 1, 1930 and continued it till AIR took over
in 1938. Amateurs
- The Radio Club of Bombay: June 1923 •
Calcutta Radio Club: November 1923.
- First station of the Indian
Broadcasting Company (IBC) was inaugurated at Bombay by the British
Viceroy of India Lord Irwin on July 23, 1927. • Five weeks later, on
August 26, 1927, the Calcutta station was inaugurated by the Governor of
Bengal, Sir Stanley Jackson. • The stations were operating on medium wave
and broadcasting by the end of the year to 3,594 licence holders. •
Chairman of the IBC was Sir Ibrahim Rahimtoola Managing Director was Sultan
Chenoy. • Both the stations at Bombay and Calcutta did much for
encouragement of music and drama.
- Controller of Broadcasting:
Lionel Fielden • On December, 1937, the Lahore, on April 2, 1938, the Lucknow
on June 16, 1938, the Madras stations started broadcasting. • From April
1, 1930, The government took over the stations at Bombay and Calcutta due
to financial crisis in IBC. • It was placed in the Department of
Industries and Labour under the designation ‘Indian Broadcasting Service’.
• The Delhi station of the Indian State Broadcasting service went on the
air on January 1, 1936.
- The Indian Agricultural
Research Institute at Allahabad started transmitting rural programmes for
the neighbourhood. • In September 1935, broadcasting began in the princely
state of Mysore with the name AKASHVANI (the voice from the sky) by Dr.
Gopalaswamy. • It continued with support from the public and the Mysore
Municipality till it was taken over by the Mysore State in 1941.
- The leaders of the ‘Quit India’
movement had no access to either radio or the press. • A group of young
Congress freedom fighters (Usha Mehta, Vithaldas Khakar, Chandrakant
Jhaveri) launched their shortlived Congress Radio on September 3, 1942
‘from somewhere in India’ • The broadcasts continued till November 11. •
The British police soon got wind of the underground broadcast centre the
young radio enthusiasts were soon arrested • Khakar was awarded a five
year prison term while the others were imprisoned for a year each.
- On October 24, 1941, All India
Radio was set up. • Ahmed Shah Bokhari was the Director- General till the
partition of the country.
- On June 3, 1947 Viceroy Lord
Louis Mountbatten, Jawaharlal Nehru, Mohammed Ali Jinnah made their
historic broadcasts on the partition of India. • The AIR network by then
had nine stations of which six--Deihi, Calcutta, Bombay, Madras, Luck-now
and Tiruchi remained with India; Lahore, Peshawar and Dacca having gone to
Pakistan. The transfer of power on the midnight of 14-15 August, 1947 was
broadcast live with Jawaharlal Nehru’s famous speech ’Tryst with destiny’
which is preserved in the archives of AIR • When the princely states were
integrated with India, low-power radio stations at Mysore, Trivandrum,
Hyderabad, Aurangabad and Baroda became a part of the network by 1950.
- Expansion was brought within
the ambit of planned development in 1951 with an allocation of 40 million
rupees, when India’s First Five Year Plan (1951-1956) was launched. •
During the first five-year plan period, six new radio stations were set up
and a number of low- power transmitters were up-graded. • On July 20, 1952
the first National Programme of Music went on the air. • In the same year
in October the first Radio Sangeet Sammelan was broadcast. • Sardar Patel
Memorial lectures and Radio news-reel also started in 1955.
- In 1955, J. C. Mathur a member
of the Indian Civil Service took over as Director-General of Air • The
first National Symposium of Poets, Sahitya Samaroh, the year long
celebration of Buddha Parinirvana, plays and features were also started in
the same year mainly under his direction. • While under his leadership,
culture got a much needed boost, the then Minister for Information and
Broadcasting (1953-61), Dr. B. V. Keskar did much for encouragement of
Indian classical music. • Dr. Keskar’s other contribution was induction
into AIR as ‘Producers’, of eminent writers, poets, musicians, and
dramatists, on staff-artists’ contract hitherto confined to ‘performers’.
- At the end of the First Five
Year Plan All India Radio had: • 26 stations with mw.• Covered 46% of the
population • Covered 31% of the area of the country. • While observing the
centenary of India’s freedom struggle, AIR recorded for its sound archives
reminiscences of a large number of freedom fighters. • On 3rd Oct 1957,
Vividh Bharati, which was being radiated from two 100 kw sw transmitters
located at Bombay and Madras to meet the growing demand for popular music
and light features. • On 1960, the External Service began its Nepali
service. • Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru’s speech at the UN General
Assembly was directly relayed from New York on Oct 3, 1960. EXPANSION
- The Third Five Year Plan
(1961-66) saw what was known as the medium wave expansion plan through a
number of auxiliarys with limited studio facilities provided in the
transmitter premises itself. At the end of the Third Five Year Plan (on
31-3-66), AIR network had • 54 centres with 82 medium-wave and • 28
short-wave transmitters • Covered on the medium wave 70% of the population
and 52% of the area of the country.
- The first ever independent
review of broadcasting was set up by the Government of India on December
4, 1964 under the chairmanship of Ashok K. Chanda ordered at the
initiative of Indira Gandhi, then Minister for Information and
Broadcasting. • The Committee recommended among other things the setting
up of two autonomous corporations for radio and television. This was found
unacceptable, but its recommendation for introduction of Commercial
Broadcasting was accepted. • So in 1967 commercial advertisements were
introduced in the Bombay-Pune-Nagpur chain of Vividh Bharati stations. •
Family planning broadcasts were recognised and intensified with the
creation of Family Planning Units at 22 stations to be paid for from the
budget of the Ministry of Health and Family Planning.
- Perhaps the most important
development of 1967 was the introduction of the nine-point code for
individual broadcasters. • The AIR Code, which was placed before
Parliament, was largely the handiwork of Ashok Mitra, the then Secretary
for Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. • Criticism of friendly
countries; • Attack on religion or communities; • Anything obscene or
defamatory; • Incitements to violence or anything against maintenance of
law and order; • Anything amounting to contempt of court; • As persion
against the integrity of the president governors and the judiciary, •
Attack on a political party by name; • Hostile criticism of any state or
the centre, and • Anything showing disrespect to the constitution or
advocating change in the constiution by violent means.” According to the
nine -point code: “Broadcasting on All India Radio by individuals will not
permit:
- In 1975 the SITE Programme was
inaugurated American Satellite ATS was used to transmit programmes to
nearly 2400 villages in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Karnataka,
Madhya Pradesh, Orissa and Rajasthan. SITE On 1969, a separate Yuv Vani
(Youth) channel was commissioned at Delhi by the Prime Minister Indira
Gandhi on, July 21. It was meant to cater to youth of the country with
encouraging participation in the programs.
- Indira Gandhi who was a
'liberal' IB Minister swung to the other extreme as a Prime Minister. •
She buried the Chanda Committee report • Openly questioned the need for
credibility for the Govt. media • Widely misused AIR for political
propaganda. • During Emergency famous singer Kishore Kumar was banned from
All India Radio (AIR) and Doordarshan, for refusing to sing at a Congress
rally in Mumbai.
- In 1977 The Janata Party in its
election manifesto promised to give genuine autonomy to Akashvani and
Doordarsan. When they took office, appointed a working group consisting of
twelve members under the chairmanship of B.G. Varghese. • It recommended
the creation of a National Broadcast Trust, `Akash-Bharati’, responsible
for both Akashvani Doordarsan. • The chairman should to be appointed by
the President on the advice of the Prime Minister recommended by Chief
Justice of India and the Chairman of the Union Public Service Commission.
• In 1979, when bill was passed, it was diluted and sought to create a
corporation with a Chairman appointed by the Government, rather than by
the President.
- Introduced by The Janata Party
government • Each political party recognised by the Commission (and given
a symbol) would be given equal opportunities to broadcast. Accordingly
each political party was allowed 15 minutes broadcast each in two rounds
from radio stations and one round only from Doordarsan Kendras in the
states where elections were held. • The Minister for Information and
Broadcasting in the Moraji Desai Cabinet, L. K. Advani (1977-79) also
introduced another innovation in that the Prime Minister at the centre,
and the Chief Ministers in the States may broadcast on anniversary of one
year of their governments to be followed by broad-casts by the leaders of
opposition.
- 19s Early 20s Prasar Bharati
Bill to grant autonomy to broadcast media was passed on 1997 and AIR
became autonomous under Prasar Bharathi. By 2008, AIR comprised a
country-wide network - of √ 219 Centres including • 32 Vividh
Bharati/Commercial Centres, • 73 local radio stations and • 114 regional
stations. √ An estimated 115 million radio transistor sets have access to
AIR programmes; Over 65 million of these sets in rural homes.
- With a network of 262 radio
stations, AIR today is accessible to almost the entire population and
nearly 92% of the total area. • A broadcasting giant, AIR today broadcasts
in 23 languages and 146 dialects catering to a vast spectrum of
socio-economically and culturally diverse populace. • Programmes of the
External Services Division are broadcast in 11 Indian and 16 foreign
languages reaching out to more than 100 countries. These external
broadcasts aim to keep the overseas listeners informed about developments
in the country and provide a rich fare of entertainment as well. CURRENT
SCENARIO
- The News Services Division, of
All India Radio broadcasts 647 bulletins daily in about 90
Languages/Dialects in Home, Regional, External and DTH Services. • 314
news headlines on hourly basis are also being mounted on FM mode from 41
AIR Stations. Mounts number of news- based programmes on topical subjects
from Delhi and its Regional News Units • AIR operates 18 FM channels,
called AIR FM Rainbow, targeting the urban audience in a refreshing style
of presentation. • Four more FM channels called, AIR FM Gold, broadcast
composite news and entertainment programmes from Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai
and Mumbai. CURRENT SCENARIO
- With the FM wave sweeping the
country, AIR is augmenting its Medium Wave transmission with additional FM
transmitters at Regional stations. • In keeping with the Government
decision for transition to the digital mode of transmission, AIR is
switching from analog to digital in a phased manner. With the target of
complete digitization by 2017, the listeners can look forward to highly
enhanced transmission quality in the near future. Future plans
- Doordarshan • For many in
India, television still means Doordarshan, the only visual Public Service
Broadcasting in India. • The emergence of television in India in 1959
kindled several prospects of making the medium a facilitator of public
education and social service since, in a country like India, a public
broadcasting can play a very crucial role in eradicating illiteracy and
social superstitions considering the multi-religious and multi-cultural
population it holds. • Public service broadcasting in its ideal form is
driven by a sincere vision of providing accessible, diverse, independent
and high-quality content to citizens.
- Inform freely, truthfully and
objectively the citizens of India on all matters of public interest,
national and international. • Provide adequate coverage to the diverse
cultures and languages of the various regions of the country through
appropriate programmes in the regional languages/dialects. • Promote
social justice, national consciousness, national integration, communal
harmony, and the upliftment of women, children and lesser privileged. •
Pay special attention to the fields of education, and spread of literacy,
agriculture, rural development, environment, health and family welfare and
science and technology. • To work towards the holistic social development
of the country.
- At first the government felt
that television is only a luxury that is not affordable for a nation like
India, which is only in its genesis to reach economically stable. • In
1958, Philips demonstrated the television usages in an exhibition at New
Delhi, the capital of India, who also put forward an offer to provide
Indian government with low cost transmitters. • UNESCO’s grant of $20,000
for the purchase of community receivers United States’ offer of some
equipment gave a green signal to it on an experimental basis. • But the
sole purpose was to inspect what a system like television can do to
developmental programmes and formal education in India.
- FIRST Television Centre • On
September 1959, under the department of AIR , a Television Centre was
established in New Delhi, having low power transmitter, the range of which
was only 40 Kilometers around Delhi. It was provided at about 180
‘teleclubs’, situated around New Delhi. • Social education programmes
began to be telecasted twice a week each of 20 minutes duration. • The
Federal Republic of Germany helped in setting up a movable studio at New
Delhi.
- The programmes were modest,
advising public about some hygienic activities. • On 1965 august, apart
from social education programmes, entertainment and information programmes
were introduced. • By 1967, the duration of the service was increased to 3
hrs and the range of transmitter too was extended to 60 Kilometers
encompassing more areas reaching to neighboring states like Haryana and
Uttar Pradesh. The most significant programme was ‘Krishi Darshan’ (1967)
nature of programmes
- The great man and visionary
behind the broadcasting development in India is Dr. Vikram Sarabhai, the
brain behind the Indian Space exploration. • He believed that satellite
television system could bring in further reach to social and economical
developments and make the communication system in India more potential. •
As per his vision, a National Satellite Communication Group (NASCOM) was
established in 1968. • It recommended a broadcasting system in which
communication satellites and ground based microwave relay transmitters
will be used. Dr. Vikram Sarabhai
- In 1969, Department of Atomic
Energy signed an agreement with NASA for the loan of a satellite free of
cost for a year for a pilot experiment project called SITE (Satellite
Instructional Television Experiment) which took off on August 1975. • The
service used NASA’s ATS- 6 satellite to broadcast programmes directly
through the satellite to the receivers or community sets installed at
schools (through earth transmitters) at 2400 villages, spread over six
states- Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh and
Karnataka. SITE (Satellite Instructional Television Experiment)
- The programmes on education,
agriculture, health and family planning, were broadcasted four hours a day
from earth stations at Delhi and Ahmedabad. • Programs were planned and
produced by AIR with the help of government representatives, academicians
and social workers at productions in Delhi, Hyderabad and Cuttack. • To
add with it, ISRO too set up its own Audio- Visual instruction Division to
plan and produce programmes according to schedule. nature of programmes Of
these four hours, one and a half period was aimed at children of primary
and pre-primary schools.
- A SITE evaluation Studies was
instituted by the Planning Commission and Space Application Centre,
Ahmedabad who concluded that there were no appreciable gains in the
adoption of agricultural practices or family planning methods. •
Technologically too, SITE encountered many problems. • By the first month
itself, half of the TV receivers were out of order giving valuable
learning experience for software and hardware people of the media. • But
despite its failure, SITE was the most ambitious step taken by the country
in the television broadcasting. Initial impact
- Indira Gandhi is the first
Minister who recognized the potentiality of television for political
propaganda. • It was during the emergency period that great developments
occurred as far as broadcasting is considered, even though it is
considered as the darkest period for print media and for the society at
large. By 1976, seven more transistors began to be operated in different
parts of India- Bombay, Srinagar, Amritsar, Pune, Calcutta , Madras and
Lucknow • Since its inception and mainly after independence, it had been
under the prejudices of Congress Party, who were ruling India for decades
after independence.
- On April 1, 1976 Television was
formally separated from All India Radio. • Unlike AIR, Doordarshan, since
its inception, relied on government fund and later on in commercials, even
though license was in currency until 1985. • The control of broadcasting
was completely vested upon government and hence left no chance of public
commitment. • By 1985, in the great television boom, advertising revenues
allowed the abolition of license fees on television enabling the expansion
of Doordarshan services. Separation From AIR
- B.G Varghese Committee(1977)
recommended an autonomous Trust called Akash Bharati which should be
independent, impartial and autonomous, also under an Act of Parliament. •
Ashok Chanda Committee (1966) recommended for an institutional change to
liberate the rigid financial and administrative procedures of the
government • According to them it is not possible for a creative medium
like broadcasting to flourish under a regime of departmental rules and
regulations. • It urged for a corporation set up by an Act of Parliament.
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- The introduction of colour
television prior to the Asian games in 1982 was an appreciating step taken
by the broadcasting ministry. • Nevertheless the sale of TV sets too
soared as the people wish to watch the games from their drawing rooms
itself. • But the Indian economy was still dwindling because of its policy
of ‘self reliance’, closing doors to the rest of the world in fear of
cultural imperialism. • This was in fact the best time for Doordarshan to
stamp its presence as a responsible public broadcaster by telecasting
everlasting developmental stories.
- It was a thunder hit for the
public broadcaster Doordarshan since the newly came channels concentrated
more on entertainment and refreshing programmes. • Doordarshan had failed
desperately in its agenda of social development and communication, when
the sudden inflow of satellite channels and foreign programmes conquered
the small screens. LPG Policy Satellite Boom • As a result of LPG
(Liberalization, Privitization Globalization) Policy in 1991, CNN was the
first private channel to operate in India through the live coverage of
Gulf war. • Subsequently, Star TV owned by the media mogul Murdoch went on
air with its four channels.
- In the wake of LPG Policy
itself, there were uprisings from the part of administrators and officials
to free the public broadcaster from the clutches of political
administration. • Even though the National Front Government introduced the
Prasar Bharati Bill in the first Parliamentary session in January 1990 to
grant autonomy to broadcast media, the Bill was kept quiescent until 1997.
• Witnessing the proliferation of satellite channels, thinking that
privatization will be the refreshing factor, government waved green signal
to the Act on September 1997. • But it became too late, as the media scene
became crowded with private satellite broadcasters, where Doordarshan
became a mere cacophony. Autonomy
- Doordarshan responded to the
proliferation of satellite channels through two ways- increasing the
number of channels and restructuring the contents. • Hence, its four
second channels operating in Delhi, Bombay, Madras and Lucknow operating
their regional services, were merged into a single national channel named
DD2 or DD Metro, which turned to be a pure entertainment channel with soap
operas, film based programmes, sit-coms, game shows etc. • Later on in the
subsequent months, the coverage of this new channel was extended to
include 18 more cities which now reach at almost everywhere in India. •
The DD 1 remained under the banner of development programming, along with
the news bulletins. Amidst the Satellite Boom
- In order to compete with the
growing popularity of STAR TV and Zee TV, Doordarshan started a 24 hr
satellite movie channel through INSAT 2B, dubbed ‘Movie Club’, showing
Hindi and English hit movies. However the channel was abolished four years
later since its viewership declined because of its regular broadcasting of
flop movies and its repeated telecasts. • DD 3, a channel launched for
current affairs and arts, also died off with political interruptions. The
remarkable shift in the content orientation of Public broadcaster began
when Doordarshan being unable to find programs to run 24 hour long in DD
2, leased time to private channels. As such MTV, the icon of western
culture, conquered that opportunity, swiftly moving from STAR TV to DD 2
in 1994. Amidst the Satellite Boom
- Doordarshan is presently
operating 35 satellite TV channels besides free-to-air (FTA) DTH service
and has a vast network of 67 studio centers and over 1400 terrestrial
transmitters. • Terrestrial transmission is presently available to
approximately 92 percent of the population of the country. • It has
already digitized all its satellite services. • On production side, 24 studio
centers are presently fully digital and digitization of 39 studio centers
is on a fast track. current scenario
- Doordarshan has planned
establishment of 630 digital transmitters across the country to offer the
present level of coverage as being provided by analog transmitters. • It
is also moving ahead in the direction of adopting HDTV. • It is presently
engaged in establishing various HDTV production facilities including
multicamera HD studios and OB vans at Delhi and Mumbai; HD field
production, post production, and preview facilities at the four metro
cities; and HD playout facility at Delhi besides terrestrial transmitters
for HDTV transmission in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, and Chennai. Future plans
- Prasar Bharati • Prasar Bharati
is India’s largest public broadcaster. • It is an autonomous body set up
by an Act of Parliament (passed in 1997) and comprises Doordarshan
television network and All India Radio which were earlier media units of
the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. • The Ministry of
Information and Broadcasting is responsible for the administration of
Prasar Bharati.
- OBJECTIVES • To uphold the unity
and integrity of the country and the values enshrined in the Constitution;
• To promote national integration; • To safeguard citizens’ rights to be
informed on all matters of public interest by presenting a fair and
balanced flow of information; • To pay special attention to the fields of
education and spread of literacy, agriculture, rural development,
environment, health family welfare and science technology; • To create
awareness about women’s issues and take special steps to protect the
interests of children, aged and other vulnerable sections of the society;
• To provide adequate coverage to diverse cultures, sports and games and
youth affairs; • To promote social justice, safeguarding the rights of
working classes, minorities and tribal communities. • To promote research
and expand broadcasting faculties development in broadcast technology
- Prasar Bharati Board • The
Corporation is governed by the Prasar Bharati Board, which comprises ØØ a
Chairman, ØØ an Executive Member (Chief Executive Officer), ØØ a Member
(FINANCE), a Member (Personnel), ØØ six Part-time Members, ØØ a
representative of the Ministry of Information Broadcasting and ØØ the
Directors General of AIR and Doordarshan as ex-officio Members. • The
Chairman is a part time member with a six year tenure. The Executive
Member has a tenure of five years, subject to the age limit of 65 years.
Member (Finance) and Member (Personnel) are whole time members with a six
year tenure, subject to the age limit of 62 years. • Dr. A. Surya Prakash
is the current chairperson of Prasar Bharati and Jawhar Sircar is the CEO.
Addl. Secretary is Shri J. S. Mathur, Ministry of IB. • The Prasar Bharati
Board meets at least six times in a year.
- Political interventions •
Management staffing inadequacies • Lack of enthusiasm or innovation •
Failure to reach to the audience • Failure to catch up with the trend •
News quality credibility back drop • Minimal quality of programmes •
Drawbacks in policy • Controversies Failures within THE Public
Broadcasting
