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The Asian Television Network (ATN) was the first [1] independent television channel in India. ATN broadcast by satellite and was owned by businessman Siddharta Srivastava.
Siddharta Srivastava had a prior experience with cable networks as far back as 1982. [2]
ATN was founded in November 1991 using the Russian Gorizont Statsionar-41 satellite to broadcast its signals. [3] Alliances with film producers enabled the channel to build its back catalog of over 2,000 Hindi feature films and 10,000 Hindi film songs, as well as hundreds of films in other regional languages. [2] Broadcasts started in August 1992, weeks ahead of Subhash Chandra's Zee TV. The launch and development of the channel were hampered by problems from cable operators, who had to install a second satellite dish to receive its programming, which aired only a few hours at night. The launch of Zee TV saw its potential to be wasted, but it had quickly gained a foothold of eight million viewers, over two channels on the Russian satellite, by January 1994. [4]
In 1993, ATN started housing the Tamil-language satellite network Sun TV after receiving a rejection from Zee TV for an afternoon slot. [1]
In early 1994, ATN was structured thusly:
ATN also planned to air Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam services over two further channels. [5]
ATN's existence was very unstable, and in 1995, its channels were taken off the air, resuming its broadcasts in mid-1996. This time, the channel had moved to PanAmSat's PAS-4 satellite, enabling a wider audience reach of 77% of India's population, compared to Zee TV's 85% and Star TV's 82%. [4] The migration from Gorizont to PAS-4 was rooted in non-payment dues to the Russian company, estimated to have been of nearly US$1 million as of April 1996. [6] At the time of resumption (July 1996), Srivastava promised a new version of the channel. [7]
Still in 1995, ATN received a warning from Mumbai cable movie tycoon Dharubai Shah, under the grounds that it infringed cable rights, as ATN promised 21 movies free-to-air. The scandal erupted when Shah was also involved in a conflict with the newly launched Zee Cinema. [8] [9]
Original programming during the second half of the 1990s included Superhit Hungama, Maine Dekha, Gune Dekha, Movie Magic, Starana, Tarana, Chill-Out Zone, Right On, Andaz Apna Apna, Once More, Sitaron Ke Sang, Mere Geet, Geet Mala, Gunjan, and a half-hour Hindi news bulletin. ATN also planned to diversify its businesses, by entering the audio cassette and film production business; the latter had involvement from two leading US studios. [2]
Zee TV is an Indian Hindi language general entertainment pay television channel owned by Zee Entertainment Enterprises. It was launched on 1 October 1992, as the oldest privately owned Television channel in India. The defunct and unsuccessful Asia Television Network started earlier.
Star World is an English language entertainment television channel originally launched on 15 December 1991 by Star TV in Hong Kong as the old iteration of Star Plus. Originally available in Southeast Asia and Hong Kong, as well as India and South Asia, since 2024 it is only available in the Middle East and North Africa after the closure of the Indian and Taiwanese feeds.
Doordarshan is an Indian state-owned public television broadcaster founded by the Government of India, owned by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and one of Prasar Bharati's two divisions. As one of India's largest broadcasting organisations in studio and transmitter infrastructure, it was established on 15 September 1959. Doordarshan, which also broadcasts on digital terrestrial transmitters, provides television, radio, online and mobile services throughout metropolitan and regional India and overseas.
Asian Television Network (ATN) is a publicly traded Canadian broadcasting company, with 54 television channels in 9 languages, serving the South Asian cultural communities in Canada. ATN operates a South Asian Radio service on XM, available in Canada and the United States. Headquartered in Markham, Ontario, the company has been in operation since 1997, and is headed by Indo-Canadian broadcaster Shan Chandrasekar.
The television industry in India is very diverse and produces thousands of programs in many Indian languages. Nearly 87% Indian households own a television. As of 2016, the country had over 900 channels of which 184 were pay channels. National channels operate in Hindi and English, in addition to channels in several other languages including Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, Bengali, Marathi, Odia, Punjabi, Assamese, Gujarati, Urdu, Bhojpuri, Kashmiri, Konkani and Haryanvi, among others. The Hindi, Telugu and Tamil language television industries are by far the largest television industries in India.
Disney Networks Group Asia Pacific was a Hong Kong-based commercial broadcasting company operating multiple specialty television channels. The company was founded in 1991 by Hong Kong businessman Richard Li.
StarPlus is an Indian Hindi language general entertainment pay television channel operated by Disney Star, a subsidiary of Disney India. Its programming consists of family dramas, comedies, youth-oriented reality shows, shows on crime and television films.
Sony Entertainment Television is an Indian Hindi-language general entertainment pay television channel that was launched in 1995 and is owned by Culver Max Entertainment, a division of Sony Pictures.
Indian television dramas are dramatic television programs written, produced, and filmed in India, with characters played by Indian actors and episodes broadcast on Indian televisions.
ATN Channel was a Canadian Category A specialty channel, owned by Asian Television Network (ATN). It is the flagship channel of the Asian Television Network and features programming from &TV as well as Canadian content in several South Asian languages.
ATN Movies is a Canadian Category B Hindi language specialty channel owned by Asian Television Network (ATN).
ATN Bangla, 'ATN' being the acronym of the unused Asian Television Network, is a Bangladeshi Bengali-language satellite and cable television channel owned by Multimedia Production Company. It is based in the Kawran Bazar neighborhood of Dhaka. ATN Bangla is the first privately owned television channel and the first to broadcast on satellite in Bangladesh. The channel began broadcasting on 15 July 1997. ATN Bangla is broadcast in over 130 countries worldwide.
Hyderabad, in India, has a well-developed communication and media infrastructure, and the city is covered by a large network of optical fiber cables. The city's telephone system is serviced by four landline companies: BSNL, Tata Indicom, Reliance and Airtel. There are a number of mobile-phone companies: Aircel, BSNL, Airtel, Hutch Idea Cellular, Uninor, MTS, Virgin Mobile, Tata Indicom, Tata DoCoMo and Reliance. Several companies offer broadband internet access.
DD National is an Indian state-owned entertainment television channel founded by the Government of India, owned by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. It is the flagship channel of Doordarshan, launched on 15 September 1959. India's public service broadcaster, and the oldest and most widely available terrestrial television channel in India.
The Zee Horror Show is an Indian horror weekly television series presented by Ramsay Brothers and that aired on Zee TV from 1993 to 2001.
Television is one of the most popular forms of media and information in Bangladesh. It was one of the first countries in South Asia to introduce television on 25 December 1964, in the then East Pakistan under the state-owned television network Pakistan Television Corporation in its capital, Dhaka. After the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971, the Dhaka television station of PTV was renamed to Bangladesh Television, which had a monopoly on the country's television industry until 1997, with the launch of ATN Bangla on satellite television. Since then, the number of privately owned television channels saw a tremendous rise in the Bangladeshi television market.
Star World Philippines was a 24-hour English language cable and satellite television network owned by STAR TV and Fox Networks Group, fully owned subsidiaries of 21st Century Fox. The channel is the successor of STAR Plus, a subsidiary of 21st Century Fox. Star World syndicates several popular shows from the United States, United Kingdom and sometimes from Australia to appeal to the English-speaking population of the Philippines.
A discretionary service is a Canadian specialty channel which, as defined by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, may be carried optionally by all subscription television providers. It replaces the previous category A, category B, category C, and premium classifications.
Television in the Tamil language traces its origins back to the 1990s.
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