Television penetration in India: antecedents of growth

Abstract

In Developing countries Television is one of the most effective medium of information and communication. It plays an important role in societal development. Access to televisionempowers socially excluded people to participate in development process. Availability of required infrastructure and widespread access to broadcasting services is fundamental for empowerment of socially disconnected community. Though evidence are there that access to information and communication technology (ICT) can have a direct impact on raising living standard and quality of life of the poor yet in India lack of access to information and communication technology has not been viewed as critical as lack of food, basic health care and shelter have been. To optimise the benefit of broadcasting services, the policy matter is the easy accessibility of broadcasting medium and availability of Television receivers at affordable rates.On the supply side of television service, India has made a good progress and multiple service delivery platforms like terrestrial free-to-air, cable and satellite broadcasting and IPTV have improved drastically along with time. Now television service, in India, is almost universally available (100% penetration). However on the demand side only 60 percent of total households of the country are having televisions sets. TV penetration varies from State to State as well as city to city. Major cities of the country are having television penetration even beyond 80%. On the other hand the television penetration, in some States, is very low in spite of reasonable economic growth and falling prices of electronics over the years. Bihar, for example, has only 14.5% penetration. In developing country like India where most of the people are still poor or socially disadvantaged in some or the other way, television is the strongest and cheapest media for decimation of information. Television programmes are a principal source of news, information and entertainment for illiterate segments of the population. Its potential to provide content relevant to local cultures and languages makes it an effective means to reach rural, isolated and tribal communities. It plays an effective role in development and capacity building of indigenous people who are marginalized. The indirect impact of television on poverty alleviation, through health care and other socio-economic development leading to growth and productivity is an interesting area to study.The objectives of the paper are to:? Looking for the influencing factors which will contribute to increasing the television penetration in the country. ? Suggest policy interventions to increase the Television penetration in the countrySummary of findingsThe influencing factors which will contribute to increasing the television penetration in the country.While looking for the influencing factors which will contribute to increasing the television penetration in the country, it has been observed that the household percentage usingelectricity and population density are significant factors for TV penetration. However, income is not the significant factor to explain the lack of access to television. It is found income and literacy are having less impact than the electricity on television penetration. Statistically, there is less of a relationship between household television ownership and income than there is with electricity. Thus the results indicate that that income and literacy are not significant for television penetration. With increasing economic growth in the country for last two decades and simultaneously falling electronic prices it may now be feasible to own the TV sets for a large section of population and the deprived classes on account of this may not be significantly in different in States. As regards literacy not being significant, the reason could be that earlier there was a single channel and now there are variety of programmes on TV. A large number of entertainment and informative programs are available in local languages now. Therefore, it be possible even for illiterate population to enjoy the benefits of the TV and hence literacy may not be a significant factor. Policy interventions to increase the Television penetration in the countryIt has emerged from the analysis that the electricity penetration is one of the most important factors in enhancing the TV penetration in India. The relationship between electricity and TV can be understood from the fact that TV is one of the prime reason (after lighting) that households opt for electricity. Infrastructure improvement of power supply distribution in rural area will give the direct impact in increasing the television penetration.The policy intervention to augment the electrical penetration will also support the other emerging Information and communication technologies (ICT). . The increased electricity penetration will also enable lighting, charging of mobile phones, powering the PC and other gadgets in the household. Therefore, Government should try to make electricity supply available first rather than distributing free televisions as has been done in some States Another significant factor emerged is Population density in the State. Cable distribution is not being economical in less populated or sparsely populated area. Accordingly cable distribution network is the most popular medium for receiving television signal in metro and other major cities of India where population density is high. Households can go for alternate platform like DTH but it have higher costs of entry as well as higher subscription charges. Interoperability of DTH set-top boxes is another hurdle in making DTH a popular medium for television viewing. However Free-to-air DTH is the emerging as well accepted platform for television viewing in rural and remotely located areas. Government intervention to promote alternate platforms like DTH and also work towards lowering the entry and others costs of acquisition and subscriptions through TRAI will help to create competitive environment. Inter-operability of set-top box will force the DTH operators to deliver cost effective quality services to its customers.