Table Of ContentWHEN THE DISH KNOCKED DOWN THE ANTENNA
How television digitization is impacting low income viewers and
public broadcasting
Podhamundi Village, Kalahandi, Odisha
A FIVE STATE STUDY
By
THE MEDIA FOUNDATION
NEW DELHI
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WHY THIS STUDY
A technology switch in television affects different income groups
differently. In India the digitization of TV signals is putting an end to
the free-to-air telecast regime. This study,the first of its kind,goes to
working class TV viewers, people at the bottom of the income
pyramid, to discover how digitization is impacting them.
Has it increased or reduced their access to television? What are
people’s entertainment and information needs? Has digitization
served those needs?
And for the most deprived sections of the population, are there
barriers to the use of television itself?
The Media Foundation presents this study primarily as a data
report, conveying snapshots from the ground in five states, in an
attempt to answer the questions cited above. It goes to districts like
Kalahandi, Kandhamal, Dantewada, Bastar, Narmada, Adilabad
and Krishna, among others, to gauge the changes brought by
digitisation.
It also looks at how digitization has impacted access to public
broadcasting, and examines the relevance of the programming on
the public broadcaster for the lives of the rural and urban poor.
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Part 1
TELEVISION DIGITIZATION AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PYRAMID
How the poor in rural and urban India are being impacted by television
digitization
Part 2
THE CONTOURS OF PUBLIC BROADCASTING DEMAND AND
CONTENT
Unmet information needs of the working class population and a breakdown of
what the public broadcaster telecasts.
Annexure
What are the TV shows watched in low income households?
REPORT AUTHORS
Sevanti Ninan
Aloke Thakore
PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
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Sevanti Ninan
PROJECT OFFICERS
Manu Moudgil
Monazir Alam
PROJECT CONSULTANTS
D K Bose
Aloke Thakore
CONSULTANTS IN THE STATES
ANDHRA PRADESHKinnera Murthy, Prof. Mitashree Mitra
CHHATTISGARHProf. Mitashree Mitra
DELHIRajkumar Jha
GUJARATAloke Thakore
ODISHABirendra Das, Prof. Jagannath Dash
FILM: When the Dish Knocked Down the Antenna
Nupur Basu, Nirmal Chander Dandriyal
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PARTNER ORGANISATIONS
CHHATTISGARHMayaram Surjan Foundation
DELHISaarthak.org,
Centre for Advocacy and Research
GUJARATVox Populi, Kutch Mahila Vikas Sangathan,
Vishwanidam
PARTNER UNIVERSITIES
Department of Communication
Central University of Hyderabad
Department of Journalism
Kushabhau Thakre Patrakarita Avam JansancharVishwavidyalaya, Raipur
School of Studies in Anthropology
Pt Ravishankar Shukla University, Raipur
Indian Institute of Mass Communication,
Dhenkanal
Department of Anthropology
Utkal University, Bhubaneshwar
RESEARCH ASSISTANCE
Delhi
Meenal Thakur
Hasnain Rizvi
Abhishek K Choudhury
RESEARCHERS FOR HOUSEHOLD SURVEYS
Chhattisgarh
Dikendra Khute
Swati Verma
Ravishankar Paikra
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Amit Kumar
Village Survey by
Nitesh Srivastava
Andhra Pradesh
P. Vasanthi
K. Srinivasu
V. Venkatalakshmi
L. Giri
Odisha
Nibedita Pani
Khirod Kumar Turk,
Dhananajaya Behera
Bhagyashree Parida
Gujarat
Harish Vasava
Vimal Chaudhari
FOR DELHI DIGITIZATION STUDY
Rajat Iyer, Sudeshna Haldar
Pragya Varma, Adesh Sah
atSaarthak.org
FOR CONTENT MAPPING
ANDHRA PRADESH
SN School of Communications, University of Hyderabad
Supervisor Prof. Usha Raman
students:
Swarna Rakesh
Usha Kiran Tolety
P Ashish Kumar
Allam Sharanya
Suresh Rachamalla
Rajesh Garikimukku
Abhishek Devara
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ODISHA
Indian Institute of Mass Communications, Dhenkanal
Academic Associates:
Bhagaban Sahu
Sucharita Sahoo
Students:
Anwesha Ambaly
Binayak Mishra
Srinibas Rout
Shreekanta Sahoo
Arundhati Mallik
Subhashree Mahapatra
Ranjan Kumar Mohapatra
Soumyashree Mahapatra
Sumanta Sundaray
Pallavi Hota
CHHATTISGARH
Kushabhau Thakre Patrakarita Avam Jansanchar Vishwavidyalaya, Raipur
Nitesh Srivastava
Mani Bhasker
Utkarsh Suryavanshi
Ruchi Verma
Preety George
GUJARAT
Vox Populi
CONTENT ANALYSIS OF DD SERIALS
Anushi Agarwal, Devi Leena Bose and Susan Koshy
Grateful acknowledgement:
Francis Kanoi Marketing Research for making available their rural
connectivity data for this study.
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Prasar Bharati executives at Delhi and in the state kendras.
Dish TV executives for assistance in gathering research
material.
SUPPORTED BY FORD FOUNDATION
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SIGNIFICANT FINDINGS
On technology
• Digitization is changing the way the poor access TV.
Terrestrial broadcasting reception has almost disappeared in
rural and urban India. New TV households in the villages now
go straight to DTH. Except in Andhra Pradesh, where cable
covers much of the rural population.
• Yet a substantial part of Prasar Bharati’s annual budget
allocations each year are absorbed by the salary and hardware
costs of maintaining its terrestrial network of 1400
transmitters.
• The growth of television access in rural India is riding on the
digital revolution.Post digitization, driven by content demand,
rural India has overtaken urban India in TV ownership. 2011
was the first year to record this change. (Chapter 1)
• The majority of TV households (hhs) opt for paid DTH over
Doordarshan’s Freedish because they want content choice. In
not a single state do even 50 per cent of all DTH hhs opt for
Doordarshan’s Freedish, DD Direct. (Chapter 1)
On content driving choice of technology:
• The absence of popular entertainment channels such as Colors,
and channels such as Discovery and National Geographic, and
private regional language channels such as OTV in Odisha, or
Zee Chhattisgarh or numerous private channels in Andhra
Pradesh on the DD Direct bouquet, has led to demand for the
DD Freedish declining between 2006-7 and 2012-3. (Chapter 1)
• Apart from entertainment which was the strongest driver for the choice of
technology in accessing television, one of the surprises thrown up by this
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research was the extent of the popularity of channels of the genre of
Discovery/Animal Planet/National Geographic. They come in right after
channels from the Star and Zee stables in the hierarchy of viewer
preference. (Chapter 2)
On barriers to television viewing
Our research shows that the barriers arise from the following:
• Poverty
• Power failures and load shedding
• Scheduling of TV programming
• The perception of TV as morally corrupting
• Monopolisation of the remote by children
(Chapter 3)
Tribal households have less access to television than non tribal
households.
Affordability issues, post digitisation
Digitization has made cable TV less affordable for the urban poor.
Households reporting monthly incomes of Rs 10,000 or less said they
were cutting down on food and savings to afford TV post digitization.
Post digitization the poor have lost access to informal credit that the
cable operators used to give. (Chapter 4)
On unmet information needs
• Despite digitization, and the access to 80 plus channels that it
has brought, despite the existence of a public service
broadcaster, low income viewers report that they have
substantial, unmet information needs which could have
helped to improve their lives. (Chapter 5)
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Description:The majority of TV households (hhs) opt for paid DTH over. Doordarshan's Freedish because they want content choice. In not a single state do even
