EVOLUTION OF TELEVISION

Television is far more than a box of electronic circuitry that delivers news updates and dramatic programming.Television has gradually become our culture”,Neil Postman.

•The origin of television dates back to the early 20 th century(1920’s)

•These initial experiments used a mechanical scanning disc that did not scan a picture rapidly enough

•1923:Invention of the iconoscope ,the electric television tube.

•A Scottish engineer,John Baird is generally credited with the invention of television who in 1924 in a improvised laboratory in his lodging in Hastings ,England succeeded in transmitting the form of pictures from one place to another

•1927,April:The American Telephone and Telegraph Company(AT&T)gave public demonstration in which a speech of the U.S Secretary of Commerce ,Herbert Hoover was broadcast form Washington and watched In New York by an invited audience

• 1930:launch of National Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) at New York

• The gulf war was the first time that the developments in communication technology provided civilians with an new ways of seeing and experiencing war from a distance with even greater immediacy and realism right into their homes.

• The war not only created a supply of news but also a demand for it.

• 2 November,1936:BBC initiated the first regular television service in the world.

• May,1937:The BBC televised the Coronation• 1937:Went to Wimbledon for the first time.• World War sets in. The potential of television was realized

and worked upon by major scientists Charles Jenkins, Hilo T.Farnwoth, Vladimir Zworykin)

• 1946:TV Broadcasting resumed after the wars

•In the flush of confidence and prosperity that followed the World War II,Americans rode a wave of progress and modernization.

•The massive manufacturing infrastructure that had geared up to support the war effort now turned it’s attention to the consumer Market. Increased sophistication in electronics was a by product of US involvement in the war and the television became the chief beneficiary.

•1948 : AT &T began installing intercity coaxial cable linking the east and the west coasts by 1951 which made national network television possible.Viewers had to work hard to get $400 to buy a TV set ,but investors had to invest considerably more money developing an infrastructure ,building station, purchasing equipment ,hiring staff, finding audiences large enough to attract advertisers, and acquiring enough programming to keep audiences tuned in.

•By 1950:Mass production had reached a stage in which television sets could be rolled off the assembly line at a greatly reduced cost when the price finally reached $99 a set. It was considered affordable to an average American household.

•1952:One third of all American household had a television had become a mass medium.

•Unlike print media ,radio and television were regulated by the government because they used public property, the airways to communicate. The government communications involved itself in television on many fronts. It was concerned with technical issues such as preventing stations signal from interfering with one another, standardizing equipment so that improvements in transmission and reception could be introduced and setting up an orderly process of granting broadcast licenses to qualified applicants.

•The regulation concerning ownership allowed an individual or company to own a maximum of seven stations .The purpose was to encourage broadcast media to be broadly owned to promote local ownership to serve the local community needs.

•1948 -49:Networks of television or television networking began.•The network owned their limit of seven stations but they also had agreements with other stations to carry their programming. By combining stations carrying the same programmes ,they created an audience large enough to attract enough sponsors to cover production costs and overhead to make a profit.Individual stations in turn received programmes to fill their schedules .

•In the early 1950’s television programme content mirrored radio’s game shows ,mysteries ,variety shows, soap operas, situation comedies and news. Early television was live, because video tapes did not exist and film was clumsy and slow. Even many commercials were live.•1949:Proctor and Gamble started it’s own TV production company•1951:Commedy shows were launched•1953:The United States launched the world’s first regular colour broadcast•1955:Eurovision networks were established linking the West European nations.•1955:soap operas were launched•Television has the potential to inform, entertain,educate and influence.•1962:The age of satellite communications dawned with the launching of Early Bird•1965 and 1971:The two big international satellite ,Intelsat and Intersputnik began operation.•1970:More sophisticated transmission techniques were invented employing fibre cable and computer technology•The audio visual cassette, video tape recorder, closed circuit tv, cable tv, pay tv and DTH have changed the course of Development of TV in new and unexpected ways.

In India :

•1956:The General Conference of UNESCO which was hosted by India in New Delhi made a provision of $20,000 to set up a pilot project to study the use of TV as a medium of education, rural uplift and community development.•1959:Philips offerd to the govt of India a transmitter at a reduced cost.•September 15,1959:Television was introduced in India Delhi Television centre•The range of the transmitter was forty kilometers round about delhi. Soon programmes began t o be beamed twice a week each of 20 minutes duration. The audience comprised of 180 tele clubs which were provide sets by UNESCO•Development of television broadcasting proceeded at a very slow pace in the first twenty years of existence in the country.•1961:Doordarshan was used as a support to middle and higher secondary school education. It's experiments in teaching of science ,mathematics, and language were proved most successful and received appreciation from many UNESCO experts.•August1964:In addition to social education programmes entertainment and information programmes were introduced .A TV production studio was set up with the help of the Federal Republic of Germany•April,1965:a general service was started. It was for one hour a day on four days of the week•15 th august,1965:service was made daily.

•January 26,1967:Krishi Darshan for rural viewers was inaugurated. It was inaugurated by Indira Gandhi and was telecasted on Wednesday and Fridays for 20 minutes each day, and served 80 villages around Delhi) provided with community sets. This pilot project was initiated by the Department of Atomic Energy in collaboration with the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. AIR, The Indian Agricultural Research Institute and the Delhi Administration. From July 15,970 the duration was increased to 30 minutes and the programme was also broadcasted on Mondays.

•The seventies saw major expansion •1972:DD,Bombay was commissioned •1973: DD,Srinagar was commissioned•1975:DD,Calcutta was commissioned•Subsequently DD Madras, Luck now, Amritsar, Jalandhar was formed.•August1 ,1975-76:SITE was launched(6 states-Karnataka, Andhra, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Rajasthan/2400 villages)•Jan 1,1976:Commercials came to be telecasted

•1st April,1976:Separation of Radio and Doordarshan•1977:Terrestrial transmitters were put up at Jaipur , Hyderabad, Raipur, Gulbara, Sambhalpur, and Muzaffarpur June 9,1981:India’s first satellite “APPLE" went into the orbit .•1982:Next phase of expansion :colour transmission was initiated in the ASIAD games.•1982:Launch of INSAT -1AIndia’s first domestic communication satellite (National programme relayed simultaneously from different centers/networking of the news channels / international coverage of events)•August,1983:Launch of INSAT 1 B,a regular INSAT service in six states of India-Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, Maharashtra,Gujrat,Bihar,and Uttar Pradesh.•1983:television expansion which envisaged establishment of high power transmitters and low power transmitters in various parts of the countryCommercial spots on television programmes increased.•Along with the entry of the commercials ,entertainment programmes came in•The next major development that was observed was the entry of the sponsored programmes for television.•1984:India’s First soap opera Humlog was introduced•The next in the row were programmes like Yeh Jo hain Zindagi /Khandan/ Idhar Udhar/ Ados Pados/ Buniyaad

•The religious epics like Mahabharata and the Ramayana which followed the soap opera format proved to be phenomenal success on the small screen.•Prime time talk shows ,film based programme and quiz programme were soon seen to be important genres of television.1984 and 1985:Introduction of the second channel of DD Delhi and Bombay•1985:DD teletext service known as INTEXT was started .It provided the viewers with news, rail and air timings, weather information and other data of common interest•May,1991:India started receiving Star TV/ CNN telecast•Oct,2,1992:Zee TV, Hindi service was started.•1993:The four terrestrial transmitters were linked through a satellite to provide more entertainment for urban audience.( DD Entertainment channel)•DD started regional language satellite channel. At present DD has 11 regional language satellite channels•1997:DD being autonomous after Prasar Bharti Act.