Television in India has been in existence for about four decades. For the first 17 years, it spread haltingly and transmission was usually in black and white. The thinkers and policy makers of the country, which had just been liberated from centuries of colonial rule, though television to be a luxurious element that Indians could do without. In 1955 a Cabinet decision was taken disallowing any foreign investments in print media which has since been followed religiously for nearly 45 years. Sales of TV sets, as reflected by licences issued to buyers were just 676,615 until 1977.The rapid expansion of television hardware in India increased the demand for developing more program software to fill the broadcast hours. Program production, previously a monopoly of Doordarshan, the government-run national television system in India, was then opened to the group of aspiring artists, producers, directors, and technicians. Most of the talented individuals got connected with the television industry.
More and more people set up television cable networks until there was a time in 1995-96 when an estimated 60,000 cable operators existed in the country. Some of them had subscriber bases as low as 50 to as high as in the thousands. Most of the networks could relay just 6 to 14 channels as higher channel relaying capacity demanded heavy investments, which cable operators were unable to make. The multi-system operators (MSOs) started buying up local networks or franchising cable TV feeds to the smaller operators for a typical fee. This phenomenon led to resistance from smaller cable operators who joined forces and started functioning as MSOs. The net outcome was that the number of cable operators in the country fell to 30,000. The rash of players who rushed to set up satellite channels discovered that advertising revenue was not large enough to support them. Gradually, at least half a dozen either folded up or aborted the high-flying plans they had drawn up, and started operating in a restricted manner. Some of them also converted their channels into basic subscription services charging cable operators a specific carriage fee.
The government started taxing cable operators in a proposal to generate revenue. The rates varied in the 26 states that go to form India and ranged from 35 per cent upwards. The authorities moved in to regulate the business and the Cable TV Act, which was passed in 1995. The Supreme Court passed a judgment that the air waves are not the property of the Indian government and any Indian citizen wanting to use them should be permitted to do so.
