I am fascinated by amazing growth of Indian Television Industry in past 3 decades.

Although television has existing in India since 60’s it was mainly considered luxury for the rich and main stream people never really accepted it.

First memoirs of watching TV as a child was in late 70’s / early 80’s.Television programs were broadcasted in black and white back then. One of programs I vividly remember watching was called “Chhayageet” or Chitrahaar which was basically videos of popular Indian films songs played for about an hour. Since our family didn’t have T.V back then, as was the case with major households in urban India, we used to go to neighbor’s house to watch that program. Watching a program on Television would be a major social event during those times as all neighborhood kids as well as elders would get together in one neighborhood household to watch the event.As very few households had privilege of owning television then.

In the 1980’s when color TV was introduced by state-owned broadcaster Doordarshan (DD) timed with the 1982 Asian Games which India hosted. It then proceeded to install transmitters nationwide rapidly for terrestrial broadcasting. In this period no private enterprise was allowed to set up TV stations or to transmit TV signals.

Second major event I remember watching was the 1983 Cricket World Cup finals between India and West-Indies. Although they didn’t transmit any other matches, they just showed finals live since India was in the finals. I have vivid images of Indian bowling session’s play firstly I remember Indian captain and now legend Kapil Dev running behind and taking a spectacular catch to dismiss Vivian Richards. And secondly Mohinder Amarnath bowling slow medium and taking 3 wickets and thus paving a way for India to win their only world cup so far. No Indian cricket fan can ever forget black and white images of Kapil Dev opening up champagne bottle and holding the 1983 Cricket world cup.

Entertainment programs were few and far between. And when the solitary few soaps like Hum Log (1984), and mythological dramas: Ramayana (1987-88) and Mahabharata (1988-89) were televised; millions of viewers stayed glued to their T.V. sets.

Such was the following of those program that whenever those Serials were being televised, Mumbai streets which were usually hustling-bustling with activity, would have a deserted look. People stopped whatever they were doing and were glued to their Television sets.

Same was true when a Cricket match was being played as well. Specially between two arch rivals India and Pakistan.One match I still remember watching was this nail bitting match between India and Pakistan during 1985 Sharjah cup finals.This was one in which Javed Miadad hit six on a final ball of Chetan Sharma’s over to win the match. I was watching that match in my neighbors house, although we had Television back then but still watching a cricket match along with kids from the neighborhood was great fun.

During those days watching Television was more of social event when entire family, the extended family or even perhaps entire community used to huddle around a television box and watch the programs which were immensely popular too like a cricket match being played or one of the immensely popular television soaps.

In 1987 Reliance Cricket World Cup which was hosted in India was another major event broadcasted live by Doordarshan that led to an increase in the number of Television viewers although by then Television had reached many household in urban India.

Some of popular Indian Television soap operas during 80’s which come to my mind are Wagle ki Duniya, Malgudi days, Rajni, Nukkad , Humlog , Ramayana , Mahabharata

Commercials were very simple and sometimes got very popular too , whoever watched Indian Television during 80’s should still remembers most of them by heart , some commercials like Nirma Washing powder , Vicco vagradanti, Dabur chavanprash, Maggi noodles, Rasna were popular.

The third spark came in the early nineties with the broadcast of satellite TV by foreign programmers like CNN followed by Zee TV and a little later by domestic channels such as Star TV and Sun TV into Indian homes. This turned out to be a catalyst effect and led to a huge increase in the number of viewers for Indian Television.

I would say in between 1990 and 2000 more and more people started adopting Television and Television channels had found its place in Indian household and drawing rooms.These 10 years were also important for Indian viewers for developing an appetite to watch tele-soaps.

Let’s fast forward to early 2000 when Balaji Telefilms launched its first tele soap “Kyu Ki Saans bhi kabhi bahu thi” which was run away success and Asia’s #1 Most Watched and Awarded show till present day. Soap opera revolved around the lives of the fictitious Virani family. The show went off-air in November 2008 due to its falling popularity. However, the show had been the longest running serial in Indian Television. It also made records of getting the highest Television Rating Point for multiple years.

Another reality show Kaun Banegā Karoṛpati popularly known as KBC) was an Indian reality/game show based on the U.S game show “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” The show first aired in 2000 and was hosted by Amitabh Bachchan. This show was immensely popular with Indian audience and had many firsts to its credit, It was first major reality show on Indian Television. It was also first appearance of Bollywood legend Amitabh Bachchan on Indian Television.

Both the above program were leaders in their respective categories a) tele soaps and b) reality shows and leads to increase in such programs across various channels on Indian Television.

Today still same three things sell on Indian Television but perhaps flavors might be different

1) Cricket (as of now Indian Premier league new version of 20 over cricket match is huge hit with Indian audience)
2) Reality shows (Dance shows , Music shows or Game shows)
3) Soap opera stories based on portraying day to day life saga of extended Indian families where uncle, aunties, grandpas & grandmas stay in single household and entertainment in is form of how their lives unfold..

This lead to increasing in demand for Television soap artists and they started making big money. A rumor mill has it that Smriti Irani of “KYU KI SAANS bhi kabhi bahu thi” fame is charging $2000 per day for acting. This also started bringing small time actor/actress from Indian Film industry to either become Judges in Tele shows or host their own Television shows. Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan, Shekhar Suman, Arshad Warsi, Abhisek Bachaan and many others have joined the fray.

The number of cable and satellite (C&S) homes in the country. As the graph below indicates, this number has more than doubled during the last 10 years, from lesser than 40 million C&S subscribers to nearly 85 million subscribers today.

Source:
Media Partners Asia, Indiantelevision.com estimates

Graph of increase in viewership of Indian Television audience