Doordarshan's Problems

Local entrepreneurs saw in this an opportunity, as investments required to install a cable network were low. In the early 1990's many private channels were launched to tap the nascent cable television in India. Launched in 1992, Zee TV was the driver of the expansion of cable television in India. During 1992-94, there was rapid increase in the number of cable connections in western and Northern India. In southern India, the states of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh saw an accelerated growth in Tamil and Telugu channels in the mid 1990s. Though by 2000 DD had an incredible reach of 70 mn homes in comparison to C&S's reach to only 30 mn homes, (Refer Table II for growth of cable and satellite penetration in India) it could not turn this network into an advantage...

Though DD continued to be number one in overall audience share, it lost out on viewership segments with the highest purchasing power. In 1998-99, DD channels revenues from advertisements were to the tune of Rs 4 bn (25.8% of the market). Zee TV was close at Rs 3.85 bn, Sony at Rs 2.53 bn, and Star Channels at Rs 2 bn. However, in case of private channels revenues from the ads have grown significantly compared to DD. During the period 1996-99, Zee registered growth of 122% in ad revenues, Sony 299% and Star channels 206%. During the same period, DD's ad revenues had gone down by 70.17%. Till 1998-99, 70% of HLL's ad spend went to DD. In 2000-01, because of poor TVR of DD, HLL's share in DD's Ad revenues had gone down to 50%...