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Business of Electronic Broadcast Media

(Individual Assignment)

- Tarun K. Saxena
2009 110 B

Essay on the working, use and usefulness of the Electronic Broadcast Media,
mentioning how Radio can be used as an important tool in educating the rural
Indians on the issues of health, hygiene and environment.

Electronic Broadcast Media in India

The Indian media was initiated since the late 18th century with print media started
in 1780, radio broadcasting initiated in 1927, and the screening of Auguste and
Louis Lumière moving pictures in Bombay initiated during the July of 1895.

Indian media—private media in particular—has been free and independent

throughout most of its history. The period of emergency (1975–1977), declared by
Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, was the brief period when India's media was faced
with potential government retribution. V.P. Singh's National Front government
sponsored the Prasar Bharati (Indian Broadcasting) Act, which Parliament
considered in 1990, to provide greater autonomy to Doordarshan and All India
Radio. The changes that resulted were limited. The bill provided for the
establishment of an autonomous corporation to run Doordarshan and All India
Radio.

Since the 1980s, India has experienced a rapid proliferation of television

broadcasting that has helped shape popular culture and the course of politics.
Although the first television program was broadcast in 1959, the expansion of
television did not begin in earnest until the extremely popular telecast of the
Ninth Asian Games, which were held in New Delhi in 1982. Realizing the popular
appeal and consequent influence of television broadcasting, the government
undertook an expansion that by 1990 was planned to provide television access to
90 percent of the population.

Since then, India has seen a very rapid growth in the area of electronic broadcast
media, with hundreds of TV channels coming in and many radio stations, mostly
FM, being opened up.

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Television Industry in India

After liberalization era, the television sector has seen a very rapid growth in India.
Various broadcasters started showing a lot of enthusiasm in seizing the market
share of this growing media industry. This fervor caused acceleration in the rate of
growth of TV industry. The number of TV channels grew from 1 channel in 2000 to
394 channels in 2009. The number of non-news & current affairs TV channels has
grown from 0 to 183 and that of news & current affairs TV channels has grown
from 1 to 211.

A number of foreign broadcasters are down linking their channels into India. A
total of 67 TV channels, uplinked from abroad, have been permitted registration to
be down linked in India during the years 2006-2009.

Direct to home services also started in India with DD Direct+ being the first one.
DD Direct+ service was provided by the public broadcaster Prasar Bharati. Then a
number of private players entered the DTH space which fueled the growth of TV
industry a lot. Apart from Prasar Bharati, Dish TV India Ltd., Tata Sky Ltd, and Sun
Direct TV Pvt. Ltd., Reliance Big TV Pvt. Ltd., Bharti Telemedia Ltd and Bharat
Business Channel Ltd have also been granted license for operating DTH services.

Thus the major events that triggered the growth of television industry in India are:

 Liberalization
 Entry of foreign broadcasters
 Digitalization of cable services
 Beginning of DTH services
 The much anticipated IPTV and Mobile TV

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The television industry stood at a staggering 5.65 billion US dollars in the year
2009. The same year, the growth rate registered was 6.8 per cent in the sector.
The projected rate of growth of the industry is a CAGR of 15.5 and it is expected
to reach around 12 billion US dollars by the end of 2014.

Radio Industry in India

Radio broadcasting was initiated in 1927 but became state responsibility only in
1930. In 1937 it was given the name All India Radio and since 1957 it has been
called Akashvani. Today, the public broadcaster broadcasts a number of national
and local stations in over 15 languages. It still has a monopoly over news and
current affairs.

India’s commercial radio industry has only emerged in the last 15 years with two
phases of FM licensing (in the late 1990s and 2006/07). The industry’s birth was
damaged by a licensing process which encouraged overbidding and an annual fee
structure which has ultimately proved unsustainable. Whilst these issues were
resolved by the time of the second phase of licensing, the industry has struggled
with building sustainable profitability – primarily due to heavy investment in brand
building and a tight regulatory regime which has restricted the industry’s ability to
reduce costs through networking content and ownership of multiple licenses in
each city.

In 2009, Indian radio industry stood at 171.38 million US dollars and is expected to
grow at a CAGR of 16 % over 2010-14 and reach a size of 360.32 million US dollars
by 2014.

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Use and Usefulness of Electronic broadcast media in India

Television is the most widely used telecommunications medium for transmitting

and receiving moving images. With the advent of DTH and IPTV, television now
reaches a huge number of people in the country. Even the radio, as a medium, has
become quite popular. The increasing number of FM channels with the phase 2 and
3 licensing will ensure more and more people having reach to FM stations. Both
these media, TV and Radio, are quite effective in influencing the masses and have
been doing so since the time of their inception.

The major uses of these media are as follows:

 Keeping masses aware:

Both TV and radio have played an important role in keeping the masses
updated about the happenings in the country. As the state control over both
has been reduced, they have started acting as a vigilant of various issues
prevalent. The media has also helped shaking the judicial system many a
times.

 Information distribution:
The various shows and news updates keep the people informed. Apart from
these, the infomercials and other commercial advertisements help the
people in knowing about the market offerings and in making an informed
decision. The government also advertises about its schemes through these
media.

 Information Database:
With the modern technologies and data storage devices, these broadcast
media also act as an archive of information. Today, any show can be
retrieved anytime as per the requirements.

 Education:
The electronic broadcast media has also acted as an educator. There have
been many education shows both on TV and radio. The programs of the likes
of Krishi Darshan, Chaupal, Tarang (by CIET), etc. were very popular in their
times and were quite educational too.

 Entertainment:
The TV and Radio have indeed been a great source of entertainment over
the ages. All the GECs and FM stations are going after the entertainment
quotient. After a whole day of hard work, people look forward to some rest
and entertainment that these TV and radio channels provide them.

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Radio as a tool of educating rural Indians

Print and radio are two most widely distributed media in India. But as a huge
portion of rural India stills remains illiterate, radio becomes that much more
important in connecting with this rural audience.

Radio, though being a mass medium, can have highly localized content. Radio can
talk to the local people in their own language and dialect. Also, as not many
people in rural India can afford TV sets, radio becomes their only means to reach
out to the outer world.

The major characteristics that make radio a preferred medium for rural folk are:

 Not very expensive

 Highly localized content
 No language barrier
 Ease of access
 Ease of carrying around
 No high power requirements

The Government of India has been taking a lot of steps to educate the rural Indians
on the issues of health, hygiene and environment using radio as the major tool.
Radio has, for a very long time, acted as a distance learning medium. It has been
used as a step towards improving the quality of education and bridging the social
and educational gap.

The major steps taken in the field of rural education using radio are:

 All India Radio:

All India Radio, being the state run broadcaster, has always broadcasted the
government approved programs. Some of them have proved quite useful in
educating the illiterate and poor rural people on various issues like health
and hygiene. There are many news bulletins, sports bulletins and other issue
specific bulletins being broadcast daily on AIR. Apart from these, there are
some dramas in regional languages that target many community problems,
folk performances on various issues close to the people etc.

 Community Radio:
The Government of India also has a Community Radio broadcasting policy.
This policy was designed to have local community run radio channels
focusing on local problems and issues. These Community radios were
supposed to focus on educating the local folk on the issues of agriculture,
hygiene, health and environment. Being participatory in nature, the
community radios have proven to be quite successful.

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 NGOs
Many NGOs have also entered the Radio space and used it as a medium to
spread their messages and use it for their community works. Many of these
NGOs have devised quite innovative ways to reach out to the rural audience
using radio as a medium. Some of these initiatives are as follows:
o KMVS (Kutch Mahila Vikas Sangathan) uses radio as a medium for
educating adolescent girls on health issues.
o Use of characters with locally familiar names like Chaube Ji Panwale,
Lakkhan Mama, etc. to connect to the audience, and at the same
time sending out the intended message.
o The local Aanganwadi Kendra in the Sisarma village in Rajasthan uses
a local radio station to talk on issues like:
 Mother and child care
 Vaccination
 Government heath policies
 Other schemes by the government, etc.

Conclusion

The broadcast media is indeed the most popular media to reach out to people.
While in urban India, it is losing its significance to the youth because of the advent
and rapid growth of internet and other technologies, in rural India, it is still very
popular. The government and various other agencies have initiated many
educational and community specific projects using broadcast media, especially
radio. But because of lack of sustained enthusiasm and the prevalence of
bureaucracy in government agencies, these media have still not utilized their full
potential. There is a huge need to utilize these media in a lot of contemporary
issues where they can prove to be quite useful and bring about revolutionary
changes.

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Resources used

 http://www.mib.nic.in
 http://www.country-data.com/cgi-bin/query/r-6126.html
 http://www.indiainbusiness.nic.in/industry-infrastructure/service-
sectors/media-entertainment.htm
 http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m6836/is_1_53/ai_n31506691/
 http://www.g2mi.com/

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