Evolution of Television in

India (1959-75)
► 1959: Philips offered the Govt. of India transmitters at
reduced rates.
► UNESCO provided a grant of $20000 to the government to
purchase community TV sets.
► US offered some equipment for transmitting.
► Sept 15, 1959- Experimental TV station was set up in New
Delhi.
► Sept 15, 1959- Experimental TV station was set up in New Delhi.
❖ To discover how TV could achieve community development and
formal education.
❖ The transmitter range was limited to 40 km.
❖ 20 minutes program for two days per week.
❖ 21 television sets were used for community viewing
❖ AIR provided engineering and programming professional
❖ [community health, citizens’ duties and rights, and traffic and road
sense.]
► Oct 24, 1961- educational TV programs for the science teachers started.
(Secondary School Project)
► This project was the first educational project that targeted the schools of
Delhi.
► Objective: to improve the standard of teaching (shortage of Lab, Space,
Equipment and qualified teachers)
► Physics, Chemistry, English and Hindi- XI, XII
► Aug 1965- along with the social educational programs, daily news bulletins in
Hindi (Pratima Puri) were also started.
► A TV studio was set up in Delhi with help from the Republic of Germany
► Jan 26, 1967- Delhi Agricultural TV Project initiated a project ‘Krishi Darshan
(1969)’ – a weekly program for 20 minutes was telecasted.
► This was targeted for the farmers in 80 villages of Haryana, Delhi and Uttar
Pradesh.
► The programs were viewed with the help of community TV sets.
► The hypothesis that communication — television in particular — could lead to
the adoption of new agricultural practices was first tested through Krishi
Darshan
► 1970- Indians assembled TV sets in markets
► No of TV sets shoot up to one lakh because it became cheaper.
► Transmission was extended to three hours.
► Oct 2, 1972- Bombay TV Station was inaugurated
► Range of 7- 100 km.
► This was followed by the further setting of stations in Srinagar and
Amritsar in 1973, and in Calcutta, Madras and Lucknow in 1975
 • It was a joint venture between NASA and ISRO
• India signed the agreement with US govt. in 1969
Aug 1, 1975 to launch an application satellite (Application
Technology Satellite). It was launched in May
1974.
SITE (Satellite • This was the largest techno-social experiment in
human communication.
Instructional • SITE was targeted at six states across India
Television (Karnataka, Rajasthan, Odisha, Bihar, Madhya
Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh). It spread the
Experiment) messages across 2400 villages in these 6 states.
The villages selected were backward and
inaccessible parts
• This project demonstrated that the new
technology could reach people in the remotest
areas. This project was appreciated and
accepted by the people.
 Long Term Objectives of SITE Short Term Objectives of SITE
• Gain experience in the development • Educate the population about
of satellite instructional TV system the issues related to family
particularly in rural areas. planning, agricultural practices
• Demonstrate the potential value of and national integration
satellite technology. • Impart adult education to
• To develop mass communication improve the occupational skills
technology in developing countries • To improve the general health
like India. and hygiene.
• Stimulate national development. • To impart school education to
primary school education in
their respective regional
languages.
 • Instructional Television
• 1000 villages
• Programmes were produced by Space Application
Centre (SAC) and the Development and Education
Communication Unit
• Collaborated with extension agencies working in
Kheda dairying, health services, local banks, employment
exchanges, cooperatives and agriculture
Communication • Became one of the most important milk-producing
Project (1975) centres in India
• The primary coverage zone of this project was
about 35 km which covered most of the village
areas in Kheda district.
• 650 community TV sets
• Local villagers became part of programmes as
writers and actors
Kheda Communication Project (1975)
∙ Kheda TV had a definite purpose viz., to promote rural development and promote social change.
∙ Promote self-reliance among the individuals and the community. Implying improvising and an optimal
use of local resources.
∙ Necessitating a co-operative spirit and willingness to risks.
∙ Educate the community - particularly the deprived - about their duties and rights, including minimum
wages etc.
∙ Provide utility programmes in areas like agriculture, animal husbandry, health, family planning, crafts
and skills, functional literacy etc., so as to improve the social and economic condition of the masses.
∙ Inculcate a scientific temper among the younger generation by improving the educational level of
children, particularly in the areas of science and mathematics.
∙ The prime target audience was the lower classes/castes who are the most oppressed and who need the
catalytic input that will help them to help themselves. Accordingly, programmes content, presentation,
etc., will be designed keeping this audience in mind.”
Takeaway from KCP
• Local television media can act as an effective channel of two-way communication by taking the
problems and concerns of the audience to the decision makers.
• The involvement of the audience with the television medium and its credibility greatly increase
when the television medium deals with issues of immediate concern to the audience.
• Communication research can help in building a system sensitive to the audience’s needs. It also
helps in taking a systematic approach to programming, thereby increasing television
effectiveness.
• Organizing the community viewing situation is not easy. A number of problems including
maintenance, and social issues disrupt community viewing. However, community viewing appears
to work with homogeneous groups. It is advisable to organize community viewing around
homogeneous groups in the villages. This may necessitate providing more than one TV set in a
village.
• In 1985 the Kheda Communications Project received the IPDC-UNESCO prize for Rural
Communication.