Doordarshan Hindi , literally Tele-Vision is the public television broadcaster of India and a division of Prasar Bharati, a public service broadcaster nominated by the Government of India. It is one of the largest broadcasting organizations in the world in terms of the infrastructure of studios and transmitters. Recently, it has also started Digital Terrestrial Transmitters. In 1959, Philips India made an offer to the Government of a transmitter at a reduced cost. Earlier, Philips had demonstrated its use at an exhibition in New Delhi. The Government decided employing it on an experimental basis to train personnel, and partly to discover what TV could achieve in community development and formal education . A UNESCO grant of 20,000 for the purchase of community receivers and a United States offer of some equipment proved much too tempting to resist, and on 15th September 1959, the Delhi Television Centre went on air for half an hour, three days a week and inaugurated by Dr. Babu Rajendra Prasad, President of India from Vigyan Bhawan. The transmitter has a range of forty kilometers round about Delhi. Soon programmes began to be beamed twice a week, each of 20 minutes duration. The audience comprised members of 180 teleclubs which were provided sets free by UNESCO. The same organization concluded in a survey conducted two years later in 1961 that the teleclub programmes had made some impact . Entertainment and information programmes were introduced from August 1965, in addition to some social education programmes for which purpose alone TV had been introduced in the capital. The Federal Republic of Germany helped in setting up a TV production studio. By 1970, the duration of the service was increased to three hours, and included, besides news, information and entertainment programmes, two weekly programmes running to 20 minutes each for teleclubs , and another weekly programme of the same duration called Krishi Darshan for farmers in 80 villages. Krishi Darshan programmes began in January 1967 with the help of the Department of Atomic Energy, the Indian Agricultural Research Institute, the Delhi Administration and the State Governments of Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. The programmes could easily be picked up in these States, as the range of the transmitter was extended to 60 kilometers. By the end of the decade there were more than 200,000 sets in Delhi and the neighbouring states. From January 1,1976, commercials came to be telecast at all the centres. Another significant development during the same year was the separation of TV from All India Radio. As of today, Doordarshan operates 30 channels in 22 languages and is one of the largest Terrestrial Network in the World.
History Of Television India
