Indian television in the era of globalization

Résumé du document

Since its birth in 1959, it seems that Indian television has developed in a way that is similar to most of the world's broadcasting sectors. Conquered by technological progress, particularly by the major advance that the introduction of satellite transmissions represents, the Indian television sector broke with its old practices to enter the era of globalization to which the opening to foreign players, the competition regime and the respect of commercial requirements are essential components. The successive evolution's that Indian television underwent seem to confirm Marshall McLuhan's theory of a "global village", which describes how the world has been contracted into a homogenized space by the media revolution.

However, this simplistic vision denies the specificities of India as a culture and as a country, which became the specificities of Indian television. With 22 official languages, an enormous and heterogeneous population, one of the world's largest territories and a tendency to continuously swing between tradition and modernity, India admittedly adapted its television sector to the globalized context but also imposed its restrictions and particularities. How did Indian television become integrated to the globalized media system while protecting its identity and imposing its requirements?

Extraits

[...] Like most of the Indian population that is currently facing globalization, they have to adapt their cultural identity in order to overcome the incoherencies between India's culture and the western way of life. For the Indian diaspora, television, as well as Bollywood movies, is a tool that is essential to protect the link it sustains with the mother nation. As such, diaspora television programs represent a real unifying factor and a way for these heterogeneous communities to gather together around the virtual proximity with India that they relay. [...]

[...] DEPREZ C., La télévision indienne : un modèle d'appropriation culturelle, De Boeck p to 46 centers7. What also allowed the network's further development is the creation of Prasar Bharati: set up by an Act of the Indian Parliament enacted in 1997, it is an autonomous body that comprises Doordarshan television network and All India Radio. By establishing this broadcasting corporation, the Indian television sector got definitely separated from the State and its media unit of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. [...]

[...] and MORINIAUX V. (dir.), La mondialisation, Editions du temps 235-256. JULURI V., Music television and the invention of youth culture in India in Sage Journals vol no 367-386. KUMAR S., Gandhi meets primetime : globalization and nationalism in Indian television, University of Illinois Press RANGANATHAN M., RODRIGUES U. M., Indian media in a globalised world, Sage publications SINCLAIR J., HARRISON M., Globalization, nation and television in Asia : the cases of India and China in Sage Journals vol no 41-54. [...]

[...] In 1984, Rajiv Gandhi succeeded his assassinated mother at the head of India. Under his leadership, the country made its first steps towards economic liberalism. As the population started to purchase consumer goods, the number of TV sets jumped from 2 million to 23 million within a single decade3. The educational and informational goal of Doordarshan got competed with a strong demand for entertainment: this led to the creation of DD Metro, an general channel entirely devoted to entertainment. The 1980s also saw the massive development of television advertising which proved to be an incredible source of income for the public sector. [...]

[...] The success of Star India and Zee Telefilms opened up the way to the Indian television sector for all kinds of companies. Other profitable experiments are made such as the introduction of the Japanese network Sony Entertainment Television into the Indian broadcasting space in 1995: it is nowadays the third most popular private broadcasting network in India6. In order to face the increasing competition with private channels, Doordarshan needed to initiative reforms and completely its network. In a first place, the network enriched its programming offer : it launched several channels in regional languages and changed its austere style of programming by introducing topics such as entertainment, sport, information and culture in it. [...]