25 years of privatisation in Indian Television industry Television was started by UNESCO in 1959 for educating the illiterate Indian masses. Later on it went on to become a monopoly of the government-owned DoorDarshan till 1991 with the advent of Star Network, ZEE TV, CNN etc.… 2016 is celebrated for 25 years of privatisation in the Indian Television industry. My first eBook discussed about the 25 year journey of private/foreign players on Indian soil. Table of Contents Preface ------------------------------------------------- 03 Liberation of Indian Economy -------------------- 05 How did it start -------------------------------------- 06 The rise of Indian channels ----------------------- 07 Indian TV b/w 1990 and 2000 -------------------- 09 Then came 2000 – the new millennium that changed everything --------------------------------- 11 From 2000 to 2008 ---------------------------------- 12 2008 and beyond ------------------------------------ 15 Second GEC ------------------------------------------- 20 Down South ------------------------------------------- 22 Milestone shows on Indian Television ---------- 24 References (Websites) ----------------------------- 51 References (Images) ------------------------------- 54 SHASHANK KAMATH 3 Preface This eBook was on cards since I launched my blog https://awordtotheworld.com in February 2016. Almost 75% of the work on the book was done in the month of May but was waiting for the right time to publish the book on my blog (i.e. 25+ posts on the platform) which I achieved last week (29th August 2016). This book is the journey of Indian Television in 25 years since liberation was done in the Indian economy in 1991 to 800+ private channels in India in 2016 Date: 08 Sept 2016 SHASHANK KAMATH 4 Liberalisation of Indian economy, 1991 India was in deep trouble in 1991. After the assassination of Our Honourable Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in May 1991, we were asked to deposit gold with the IMF for a loan which was physically carried to the IMF offices through aircraft in June 1991. We had lost economic credibility in the world and P V Narasimha Rao assumed office after Rajiv Gandhi in 1991. The then Finance Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh to bring back the country on track liberated the economy by various measures like 5 kg of gold was allowed to be imported without duty, 15% interest rate on deposits for NRIs, etc.… Among all these was allowing 51% FDI in the television industry, making way for new transnational networks like Star (News Corp) and CNN to invest in India challenging the likes of government-owned DoorDarshan. SHASHANK KAMATH 5 How did this start…. Cable News Network (abbreviated as CNN) started telecast of the Gulf War in February, 1991 in India. The urban elite went on running to get dishes to catch signals of the reporting done by CNN. A Hong Kong based STAR (Satellite Television Asian Region) network started relaying signals from Asiasat1 satellite in India with five channels, namely Plus (Star Plus), Prime Sports (Star Sports), Movies (Star Movies), BBC and MTV (tie up with Viacom) along with the feed of STAR Chinese Channel. Initially STAR had intentions of only in China (but later burnt their hands in China) as they felt there wasn’t money in India. Rupert Murdoch purchased a major stake in the STAR Network in 1993. SHASHANK KAMATH 6 The rise of Indian channels ZEE TV was launched on October 2, 1992 which became India’s first private TV channel actually started its journey on 14 December 1991 by leasing the transponder on the AsiaSat1 satellite for $5 million (today’s 26 crores) which was around four times higher than the usual price of $1.2 million. Optimistic Subhas Chandra broke-even with the channel’s operations within a year. Sun TV rose in South India owned by Kalanithi Maran (the grand nephew of DMK chief M Karunanidhi on April 14, 1993. The channel is currently the most watched channel Indian television across all genres in 2016 and Star Plus is a distant second to it. It then went on to launch channels in different southern languages and also acquired Gemini TV (Telugu) in 1998. Raj TV was launched on 14th October, 1994 catering Tamil population like Sun TV. SHASHANK KAMATH 7 The rise of Indian channels (cont….) Eenadu newspaper based in Hyderabad launched Eenadu TV on 27th August 1995 in Telugu. The network later expanded its portfolio in other southern languages later got acquired by Network 18 controlled by India’s richest man Mukesh Ambani. Asianet Communications came up with the first private- Malayalam channel under the parent name on 30th October 1993 by using a Russian satellite. Japan’s Sony owned (60%) Sony Pictures Network launched their flagship channel Sony Entertainment Television in October 1995 marking the entry of another prominent transnational player in India. Many other channels like Discovery, National Geographic, Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, Disney, etc… made foray in Indian television in the late 1990s. SHASHANK KAMATH 8 Indian TV b/w 1990 and 2000 ZEE TV was launched in 1992 and became a favourite channel by the urban masses with months of its launch. With interactive reality shows and new-age soaps, ZEE TV took no time to get to the Numero UNO position. In 1993 Star came to India with regained energy with News Corp exercising more control over the network’s Asian operations. It underwent a pact with ZEE TV that Star Plus would do with English content and ZEE TV would do the Hindi programming, both would promote each other’s programs but not enter each other’s domain. Later on Star Plus broke the pact, and by 1997 it became an 100% Hindi channel. Despite that Star Plus was a distant third in the market with 3% market share way behind Sony (11%) and ZEE (12%) SHASHANK KAMATH 9 Indian TV b/w 1990 and 2000(cont…) Sony Entertainment Television quickly adapted to Hindi programming and went on to become an upmarket urban-oriented channel in the late 1990s. Star Plus reported losses till 1999 making the media mogul Rupert Murdoch to re-think about his network’s operations in India. It was in talks to sell the network to ZEE but the deal couldn’t be snapped ZEE lost its Numero UNO position to Sony TV in early 2000, while Star Plus was re-thinking its strategy by changing the core- TG from class to the masses. SHASHANK KAMATH 10 Then came 2000 – the new millennium that changed everything This year turned out to be fruitful for Star Plus which pushed it to number one position in Hindi GEC space, which it still continues to hold. Kaun Banega Crorepati was launched by Star Plus on July 3, 2000 as the official adaptation of “Who wants to be a Millionaire” in India with Superstar Amitabh Bachchan as the host of the quiz show. Balaji Telefilms launched Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi on Star Plus which grabbed the time-slot after KBC on the channel launched on the same date. Despite criticism of KBC being a weekday reality show, the channel in no-time became the number one channel in Indian Television history. SHASHANK KAMATH 11 From 2000 to 2008 Sahara One was launched by Sahara India Parivar controlled by Subrato Roy. It went on to become a popular channel in the Hindi GEC space in the 2000s, but lost prominence to new channels like SAB TV, Star One and Colors. SAB TV was launched by Sri Adhikari Brothers in 2000 as a comedy channel with popular shows like Office Office and Yes Boss, the channel got stable viewership. It sold its GEC to Sony Pictures Network in 2005. Star One was launched as an upmarket urban channel by Star India in 2004. Came with a promise of delivering season-based shows, got huge success with the launch of Sarabhai V/s Sarabhai, Instant Khichdi, Special Squad, The Great Indian Laughter Challenge, etc… SHASHANK KAMATH 12 From 2000 to 2008(cont…) Star Plus, ZEE TV and Sony Entertainment Television also did their part to remain prominent players during this period. While Star Plus was riding on the success of KBC, Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi, Kasautii Zindagi Kay, etc… ZEE had a troubled time in between. ZEE TV reacted to KBC launch by launching home-grown Sawaal Dus Crore Ka and Kam Ya Zyaada, both of which failed miserably. Due to lack of research on what the Indian consumers want, ZEE faced the brunt. They went on launching daily soaps until they got success with Saat Phere in 2005 followed by Kasamh Se in 2006 by which ZEE scripted its own success story without foreign adapted reality shows and only home-grown shows like Sa Re Ga Ma Pa and Antakshari backed with daily soaps SHASHANK KAMATH 13 From 2000 to 2008(cont…) Sony TV also reacted to KBC by launching Jeeto Chappar Phhad Ke in 2001 hosted by Bollywood star Govinda, which didn’t bring much success to the channel like KBC did for Sony. They went on to launch Kkusum in 2001 and Jassi Jaisi Koi Nahi (adaptation of Ugly Betty) in 2003 which turned out to become a huge success for the channel. But when these two shows went off air in 2005 and 2006 respectively, Sony was in trouble. Bad GRPs and no match to the tier-I channels like Star Plus and ZEE TV, CID came to the rescue to the channel. From 2006 to 2008 CID proved to the bread and butter for the channel, ran for very long hours on the channel helped it sail down the troubled phase. SHASHANK KAMATH 14 2008 and beyond This year like 1992 and 2000 marked the turning point in Indian television history. NDTV Imagine was launched by the NDTV group on January 21, 2008 headed by Sameer Nair, who had helped Star Plus to get the Numero UNO position in 2000 with KBC and Kyunki.