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when did television come to india

Television officially came to India on 15 September 1959 , when experimental TV broadcasts began in New Delhi under All India Radio (later Doordarshan).

Quick Scoop: Key Facts

  • First TV telecast in India: 15 September 1959 , Delhi, as an experimental service.
  • Run by: All India Radio’s television wing, which later became Doordarshan.
  • Nature of early broadcasts: Very limited, a few hours a week, focused on education and development topics like health, farming, and civic awareness.
  • Regular daily transmission: Started in 1965.
  • Expansion beyond Delhi: Services extended to Mumbai and Amritsar in 1972.
  • Colour TV in India: Introduced in 1982 during the Asian Games in Delhi.

A Tiny Experiment That Changed Everything

When TV came to India in 1959, it wasn’t a mass entertainment medium yet, but more like a social experiment. The government, with support from UNESCO , set up a small station in Delhi to see if television could help with education and national development.

Early programmes were simple:

  • Lessons on community health and hygiene
  • Information about citizen rights and duties
  • Content on road safety and agriculture

These broadcasts aired only a couple of times a week and reached a very small urban audience, because TV sets were rare and expensive at the time.

How It Grew After 1959

Once the initial experiment showed promise, television in India slowly expanded in phases.

  1. 1959–1965: Experimental phase
    • Limited hours, limited reach, mostly instructional content.
  1. 1965: Daily service begins
    • Regular daily telecasts started from Delhi as part of Akashvani/All India Radio.
  1. 1970s: Expansion and rural education
    • TV services extended to other cities including Mumbai and Amritsar in 1972.
 * Major educational initiatives, including school and rural education projects, used TV as a development tool.
  1. 1976: Birth of Doordarshan as a separate department
    • Television was carved out of All India Radio and Doordarshan became the dedicated national broadcaster.
  1. 1982: Colour and big sports
    • Colour television launched with the 1982 Asian Games in Delhi , turning TV into a true mass medium and status symbol in Indian homes.

Why 1959 Matters So Much

The 15 September 1959 launch is remembered as the birth of Indian television , even though:

  • There were earlier technical demonstrations of TV technology in India in the early 1950s (like a public demo in Chennai in 1950), but these were not regular broadcasting services.
  • The 1959 Delhi station was the first official, scheduled television broadcast service in the country, backed by the Government of India.

From that one experimental station, India’s TV landscape has grown into thousands of satellite and digital channels, but the origin point most historians and media scholars mark is Delhi, 15 September 1959.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.