Commentary

Privatizing the airwaves: the impact of globalization on broadcasting in India

Daya Kishan Thussu
COVENTRY UNIVERSITY

Media globalization and the resultant expansion of mainly Western transnational media empires have transformed broadcasting in India. An exponential growth in the number of television channels from one state-controlled channel in 1991 to nearly 70 in 1998 (18 of which are national in reach and in Hindi or English, others are regional), within such a short span of time, has profoundly changed the electronic media landscape, as India adapts its broadcasting industries to the deregulated and privatized media environment of the late 1990s. Indias growing economy, a vast, rapidly expanding middle class (variously estimated to be between 200 and 250 million) with aspirations to a Western lifestyle, and a fast-growing advertising sector have made the Indian media market exceptionally attractive for US-dominated transnational broadcasters. With its huge numbers of potential consumers, India provides transnational media corporations with unrivalled opportunities it is one of the fastest growing and potentially one of the biggest English language media software markets in the world. An established satellite network provides cheaper and quicker nationwide coverage of broadcasting in a continental-size country, while the diversity of cultures in India means that demand for a wide array of satellite channels, catering to different languages and tastes, is even stronger than in Europe or the USA. The impact of globalization on the Indian media should be considered in the context of the medias evolution and the role of the press as a fourth estate in the worlds largest democracy, where the past 50 years of multi-party polity have ensured a diverse, vibrant and relatively free press. On the other hand, as in most countries of the South, electronic media in India were, until recently, for the most part, a propaganda tool for the government. Contextualizing privatization of electronic media On inheriting a free press and a state-controlled broadcasting system from the British, the new rulers of India argued that uncontrolled airwaves could destabilize the country, given its traumatic birth when the British divided and quit India in 1947. The violent legacy of Partition demanded that All India Radio (AIR), the key Media, Culture & Society 1999 (SAGE Publications, London, Thousand Oaks and New Delhi), Vol. 21: 125131 [0163-4437(199901)21:1;125131;006796]

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instrument of state persuasion, if not propaganda, had to be very sensitive to ethnic and religious considerations (Chatterjee, 1991). In addition, the medium was to be used as a powerful educational tool in a hugely illiterate country at the time of Independence the literacy rate was only 18 percent. However, this educational role was gradually undermined by successive leaderships which tended to use radio to promote their own political agenda, making AIR little more than a propaganda service for the government of the day. Introduced in 1959, television was seen as a means for disseminating state policies and public information. The main aim of the national broadcasters AIR and Doordarshan, the national television network was to educate, inform and create a feeling of national identity and help maintain national unity. While the broadcasters toed the ofcial line and abstained from any criticism of the government, the privately owned and politically plural press provided the critical framework within which Indian journalism evolved. The relative autonomy of the print media was a signicant factor in strengthening democracy in India, although the press remained elitist in its approach and perspectives. More importantly, the investigative, often adversarial, role of print journalists contributed to the creation of an early-warning system for serious food shortages and thus a preventive mechanism against famine (Ram, 1990). Although the government tolerated the free press, it continued to control the airwaves. Expanding the reach of television was a priority for the government, which invested heavily in developing satellite technology. Following the launch of the Indian National Satellite (INSAT) in 1982, the number of transmitters increased from 19 to 199 in 1987 and as a result Doordarshan was able to cover 70 percent of the population, as against the 26 percent it could reach in 1982 (Doordarshan, 1997: 2). Doordarshan became increasingly commercialized during the 1980s, a decade when the expansion of the satellite network in the country enabled the beaming of The National Programme, which many saw as part of the states effort to build a consensual cultural narrative (Gupta, 1998: 89). However, it may have more to do with the growing commercialism of the national broadcaster, intensied by the increasingly neo-liberal governments of the 1980s, making television entertainment-oriented to meet the needs of advertisers. As a result, Doordarshan began to draw large audiences and its commercial earnings rose nearly 20-fold between 1982 and 1992 (Doordarshan, 1997: 2). The sky invaders Like other Indian industries, the media sector was transformed by the liberalization of the economy introduced in 1991. The new economic policy encouraged privatization, dismantling state controls and liberalizing media regulation, paving the way for the entry of global media conglomerates into what used to be one of the most closed broadcasting systems in any democracy. For transnational media corporations, India is a key emerging market with enormous possibilities for exploiting demand for their products. The Indian metropolitan elite, having already been exposed to Western commercial television through the live coverage of the 19901 Gulf crisis by the Cable News Network (CNN), were keen to join the global audience. Hong Kong based STAR (Satellite Television Asian Region) TV, now part of Rupert Murdochs News Corporation, was the rst to exploit this demand when, in 1991, it started beaming a vechannel satellite service (Plus, Prime Sports, Channel V, the BBC World and Movie). The satellite channels became an instant hit with the English-uent urban

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elites because of their entertainment-led and mainly Western programming. More importantly, the advertisers saw in these channels an easy way to reach the homes of Indias afuent. Buoyed by advertising revenues, cable and satellite television has increased substantially since 1992, when only 1.2 million homes had cable and satellite television by 1996 the gure had reached 14.2 million (Doordarshan, 1997: 48). By 1998, nearly 70 cable and satellite channels were operating in India, including major transnational players, notably STAR, BBC, Discovery, MTV, Sony, CNN, Disney and CNBC, and scores of Indian companies. However, the transnationals have had to adapt their programming strategies to suit the Indian context. STAR, for example, felt that its mainly US-originated programming was only reaching a tiny, though inuential and wealthy, urban audience. It therefore started adding Hindi subtitles to Hollywood lms, broadcast on its 24-hour channel STAR Movies and dubbing popular US soaps into Hindi. In 1996, STAR Plus began telecasting locally made programmes in English and Hindi, in addition to Western programmes. Other global players have followed the market leader in Asia by localizing their products to reach a wider market and increase advertising revenues: the Discovery channel, which started beaming to India in 1995, dubs its documentaries into Hindi; BBC World regularly broadcasts India specic programmes, including news in Hindi. Impact on broadcasting The implications of globalization for the Indian media are strikingly evident in the example of Zee TV, Indias rst private Hindi-language and most successful satellite channel. The Zee network has aimed to reach the mass market by pioneering movie-based television entertainment. Launched in 1992 by small-scale Indian entrepreneur Subhash Chandra Goel, Zee TV set the standards for private television in India, breaking new grounds in domestically-produced entertainment. The Zee network, which has evolved, in the words of Don Atyeo, Channel Manager of STAR TV, from a less than shoestring operation . . . to without a doubt probably the most successful story in broadcasting history (Channel Four, 1995), demonstrates how national media can indigenize global products by developing derivatives of programmes broadcast on international television. This process works at different levels in employing metropolitan broadcast language codes and conventions and in adapting programme formats, such as game and chat shows, unknown in India before globalization. Zees success is based on a mixture of Hindi lm and lm-based programming, serials, music countdowns and quiz contests, aimed at a younger audience. Zees innovative programming such as the development of an Indianized version of MTV and use of Hinglish (a mixture of Hindi and English) has made it very popular with its growing audience. Hinglish, whose roots are in the spoken languages of north India, has been steadily gaining acceptance among urban youth across the country. In the past ve years Hinglish has become the standard language in serials and game and chat shows, but Zee was the rst network to elevate this new language by using it in a more serious genre such as news. By using English words, Zee aims to expand its reach beyond the Hindi-speaking regions of the country perhaps more inuenced by motives of prot than any altruistic efforts towards national integration. The channel broke even within the rst year of its launch, making it a prize target for media conglomerates and in 1993, News Corporation became a 49.9 percent shareholder in Zee. This facilitated the networks expansion according

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to market analysts, in 1997, Zee network had 29 percent of audience share in cable and satellite homes. By 1998, Zee was claiming to be the worlds largest Asian television network, covering Asia, Europe, the USA and Africa, catering to the 24 million strong Indian diaspora. In Asia, the network spans more than 40 countries and offers round the clock programming on four channels Zee TV, Zee Cinema, Zee TV India and Music Asia. Having already reached approximately 23 million homes in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and United Arab Emirates, Zees strategy now is to expand its operations in the lucrative markets in Western Europe and North America. Doordarshans response to competition With increasing competition from private channels Doordarshans public service role is under pressure, as, in order to remain competitive, it now has to provide entertainment as well as education. Because of the reach of the terrestrial broadcasting network it now covers nearly 450 million people in 87 percent of the country (Doordarshan, 1997: 2) the government has been supportive of Doordarshan, for example, by banning Direct to Home (DTH) reception, although it insists that the ban is temporary and once the rules have been laid down under the Broadcast Bill, DTH will be allowed through bidding. The Broadcast Bill, introduced in 1997, seeks to bring order to the broadcasting industry, currently regulated by the archaic Telegraph Act of 1885, and to create an independent Broadcasting Authority to regulate broadcasting services. It has been suggested that the bill be replaced by the 1990 Prasar Bharati (Broadcasting Corporation of India) Act, which came into force in September 1997 and led to the creation of Prasar Bharati Corporation, promising to give autonomy to Doordarshan and AIR. Surrindar Singh Gill, Chief Executive of this new body and a former Secretary of the Information and Broadcasting Ministry, is keen to realize the social obligations of Doordarshan and reduce entertainment programming. A selfconfessed leftist, Gill is against surrendering cultural sovereignty to transnational players such as Murdoch, whom he calls an international buccaneer and has even commissioned and nanced a critical documentary about the media mogul for Doordarshan (Bamzai, 1998: 3). However, Gills fate and that of the Prasar Bharati hang in the balance as the coalition government led by the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which took ofce in early 1998, has let the Prasar Bharati Bill lapse in Parliament. The BJP, keen to promote a Hinduized version of cultural nationalism, wants what it calls calibrated globalization, allowing foreign involvement only in certain sectors of the economy and with adequate regulation. It proposes, for example, to limit foreign equity holding in broadcasting to 20 percent of the total shareholding. The BJP is reecting a widespread belief that the foreign broadcasters are only interested in maximizing their prots at the expense of the social role of television, which is being constantly undermined, a sentiment which conforms with a survey of Indian journalists recently undertaken by me. Although Doordarshans reach has been extended and new channels added (in 1998, it had 19 channels, and was planning to launch a 24-hour sports channel), the percentage of public-service programmes has declined to accommodate entertainment of a hybrid variety. A more fundamental issue is the ideological shift in television culture from public to private from public service to prot-oriented programming. For the present, it seems, Doordarshan has accepted the new rules of the game as dened in terms of revenue maximisation and has shifted its agenda to providing entertainment rather than enlightenment (Gupta, 1998: 77).

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However, this shift of emphasis in Doordarshan must be viewed within the overall context of growing commercialization of the media in India. There is an unmistakable trend towards the privatization of media space, with market forces coming to dominate the broadcasting agenda in India, as indeed globally (Tracey, 1998). There appears to be a growing consensus that to be autonomous, state broadcasters need to be able to generate their own revenue. In the words of Om Prakash Kejariwal, Director General of AIR: Real autonomy is not possible without nancial independence. We will increasingly look at programmes that will sell (quoted in Bansal and Doctor, 1998: 110). With this in view, AIR is planning to expand its FM coverage it has already given nine hours of FM in metropolitan cities to private operators, such as Times FM, owned by the Times of India group. Despite being limited to the major cities, the FM listenership has grown from 4.6 million in 1995 to 10.1 million in March 1998. AIR is also now saying that foreign companies could hold up to 25 percent equity in FM radio (Bansal and Doctor, 1998: 111). Impact of privatization on news Commercialism is also increasingly making inroads into the traditionally serious and staid Indian press, which is copying US-style sensational journalism, with its emphasis on entertainment-oriented news agendas. The managerial approach to running editorial operations, most acutely seen in the Times of India, is symptomatic of how commercialism is affecting Indian newspapers (Mahalingam, 1998). Justice P.B. Sawant, Chairman of the Press Council of India, admitted: The true role of the press is relegated to the background and the press has become the handmaid of the proprietors, advertisers and the lobbying interests whether political, economic or other, including foreign interests (Sawant, 1998: 60). The growing commodication of information can adversely affect the publicservice dimension of the media. The egalitarian potential of the mass media remains hugely unexplored in India, home to the worlds largest number of poor people. Apparently, the government is still committed to a socially relevant agenda for its electronic media. There has been a ve-fold increase in the number of transmitters in the past decade from 200 in 1987 to 1,000 in 1997 (Doordarshan, 1997: 4) and national broadcasters, the government says, must concentrate on priority areas of national concern like eradication of illiteracy, environmental protection, healthcare, agriculture and rural development (Government of India, 1997: 12). The need for development-oriented television is so vast that private Indian channels may chart out areas of co-operation with transnational media companies to provide such programming. In January 1998, Zee considerably expanded its news and current affairs operations by launching a 24-hour news channel. STAR has also started a round-the-clock news and current affairs channel STAR News. TVi, the television wing of the Business India group, which started a dedicated news and current affairs channel, has become an afliate of CNN World Report, ensuring news exchange with CNN; while Sony Entertainment Television, 60 percent owned by Sony, is also planning to enter the news and current affairs arena. However, most of these news channels thrive on infotainment, imitating the US model of commercial television. This has serious implications, since news is of fundamental importance in a democracy, a form of public knowledge (Schudson, 1995), an essential source of information to enable citizens to function effectively. TV news is particularly inuential because of its widespread reach visuals

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transcend barriers of language and its credibility: viewers tend to trust it. In addition, in the context of India, where even after 50 years of independence, nearly half the population still cannot read or write (approximately 500 million people), visuals can be an extremely powerful form of persuasion. Given the commercial pressures faced by competitive networks, the emphasis is increasingly on entertainment at the expense of public information. In the age of what Walter Cronkite, the CBS evening news anchor, calls soundbite journalism, viewers may stay tuned to just get the headlines CNN already offers a syndicated news programme called Headline News. The emphasis on speed and immediacy, coupled with the cost of news gathering and distribution ensures that only media TNCs can provide instant coverage. As well as advertising the products of TNCs and helping to create demand among the burgeoning middle classes in India who have aspirations to a Western lifestyle, at a state level, they seem to present the process of privatization and deregulation with an almost missionary zeal, routinely using such favourable and value-laden phrases as reform. As news presentation and content are increasingly driven by the ratings wars and advertisers demand for consumers, and given that television can be a powerful instrument for propagating dominant ideology (White, 1992), is it possible that the electronic media are being used as a vehicle for promoting free-market capitalism that enables their corporate clients to operate? In Indian electronic media there is a trend emerging towards corporatization of public information. News channels are increasingly being inuenced by marketdriven journalism. Rather than toeing the governments line, they appear to follow an agenda set by the advertisers. In the case of Zee, for example, pleasing the advertisers in most cases, the TNCs remains central to its philosophy, as its mission statement proclaims: . . . to establish the company as the creator of entertainment and infotainment products and services to feast the viewers and the advertisers. Through these services, we intend to become an integral part of the global market. As a corporation, we will be protable, productive, creative, trendsetting and nancially rugged with care and concern for all stake holders. (http:/ /zeetelevision.com) It is scarcely surprising, then, that Zee news reects such a market-friendly agenda. A study of its news that I conducted showed infotainment as an integral element in its bulletins (Thussu, 1998). More ominously, the commercialism is most evident in the way the news programmes are sponsored by Indian companies and by TNCs. It started with sponsorship for current affairs programmes and then extended to sponsoring the national weather forecast. This was followed by sponsorship of the news bulletin itself. For example, Star News is sponsored by BPL, with associate sponsors S. Kumars, and such transnational players as Visa, Castrol and Seagram. Will this mean that Star News might compromise its professionalism to accommodate good news about its sponsors? Would these independent news channels feature stories which might expose corporate fraud by their sponsors? There is still a need for a different news agenda, one free from government and corporate pressures, crucial for the growth of news media and the evolution of a public sphere. Yet the growing commercialization of national media, it can be argued, is undermining their public-service ethos. The increasing emphasis on infotainment may contribute to the trivialization of vital public concerns and undermine the concept of a public sphere in which the media help to create a forum for public discourse and the articulation of public opinion (Habermas, 1989).

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In a post-colonial polity like that of India, the idea of a public sphere is still in its infancy, given the historical legacy of authoritarian colonial governments and the post-Independence experiences of state control of the electronic media. While the liberalization of the media in the 1990s, and consequently the growth of pluralistic electronic media, offer possibilities of a public space for political debate, the gradual privatization and take-over by mainly Western-based media empires or their Indian clones, threatens to undermine any nascent public sphere. Adopting news formats, values and agendas that reect subservience to corporate power, nationally and globally, could undermine the liberating and empowering potential of the electronic media. It is up to the Indian media to use the limited openings that liberalization has provided to create a forum in which the impact of market reforms on the people can be investigated and analysed. The creation of such an alternative may be vital for the development and the empowerment not only of Indias millions but of the South generally.

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