Channels of the Sun TV network are also available outside India. Today it has around 20 television channels in the four South Indian languages, namely Malayalam, Kannada, Tamil and Telugu. Sun TV (India) was launched in 1992 as the first private channel in South India. Presently, Indian television is on an uproar with private television channels. The emergence and notification of the HDVSL standard as a home grown Indian digital cable standard shall open an era of interactivity on private networks. The industry of private television channels exploded in India, during the early 1990s when the broadcast industry was liberalised and saw the entry of many foreign players like Rupert Murdoch's Star TV Network in 1991, MTV, and others. The overall Cable TV market in India is growing at a robust rate of 8-10%. India has more than 130 million homes with television sets, of which nearly 71 million have connection to cable TV. It must be focused that private television entertainment in India is one of the cheapest in the world. A large relatively unexploited market, easy accessibility of relevant technology and a variety of programmes are the main reasons for rapid expansion of Television in India. Starting with 41 sets in 1962 and one channel known as the Audience Research unit in 1991 presently private channels in India cater to more than 70 million homes. This process has been pursued consistently by all subsequent centralised administrations.įoreign privatised channels like CNN, Star TV and domestic channels, such as, Zee TV and Sun TV started satellite broadcasts. Under the new policies the government allowed private and foreign broadcasters to get engage in limited operations of private channels in India.
The central government realised the requirements and launched a series of economic and social reforms in 1991 under Prime Minister Narasimha Rao. Indian Private Channels cater to the multiplying demand for entertainment of the Indian audience.