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September 15, 1959, was a red-
letter day in India's entertain
ment history, when it witnessed the first telecast from New Delhi
by India's national television network (popularly known as Doordarshan
or DD), with the support of UNESCO. Later, Doordarshan activated regional channels in selected centers,
followed by DD-2 or DD Metro. The network was further expanded by the
setting up of numerous low-power transmitters which were linked through
satellite. In 1982, color transmission began during the Asian Games hosted
at New Delhi. However, until the liberalization drive in 1992, no private
players were allowed to set up TV stations or transmit any kind of TV signals
in India.
Television in India entered a new phase, with the restricted entry of
private and foreign players in 1992. The spiralling operating costs led
to channels reorienting themselves as pay channels and entering into
strategic alliances to become a part of larger networks. This resulted in
constant squabbles between cable operators and television networks over
repeatedly changing prices, which, in turn, resulted in the cable
operators facing customer complaints for frequently hiking cable rentals.
These regular disputes led to the idea of Conditional Access
System (CAS) in 2001, which was first rolled out on an experimental basis
in Chennai in 2003 on the basis of an amendment of the Cable TV
Networks (Regulation) Act in 2002. CAS was later extended to other
metros. CAS involved the transmission of cable television signals
through wires routed through a small device called Set Top Box (STB) and
customers needed to pay for only the channels they chose to view. CAS
system still has the limitation that the customer has to rely on the cable
operator for the service (in spite of better freedom of choice and lower
discrimination in pricing), which seems to be the deterrent in the
wholehearted acceptance of CAS in the cities of its launch. The CII-KPMG
Report of February 2007 gives the television penetration
data in India up to 2005. |
