An independent study by Media Foundation has found that while the number of television owning households in rural India has outpaced urban TV households, the public broadcaster is increasingly losing popularity as rural Indian households are shunning Doordarshan for trendy satellite channels.
In India, TV owning households have increased from 41 million in 1962 to 167 million in 2013. The number of rural TV households (89.6 million) has outpaced urban TV households (77.7 million). However, terrestrial connectivity has dropped from 64% to 27% in the last seven years according to the Media Foundation.
“When the dish knocked down the antenna: How TV digitisation is impacting low income viewers and public broadcasting” examines the impact of digitisation in rural India and the relevance of programming by the public broadcaster. The study was conducted in five states (Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Delhi and Odisha) in the districts of Kalahandi, Kandhamal, Dantewada, Bastar, Narmada, Adilabad and Krishna among others.
Digitisation is changing the way poor access TV with terrestrial broadcasting reception almost disappearing in rural and urban India. New TV households now go straight to direct-to-home observes the report. Yet a substantial part of Prasar Bharati’s annual budget allocations each year are absorbed by salary and hardware costs of maintaining its terrestrial network of 1400 transmitters, it says.
“DTH connectivity has grown in rural areas from 6% to 29% while terrestrial connectivity has dropped from 64% to 27% in seven years between 2006-2007 and 2012-2013. New TV households are increasingly bypassing the public service broadcaster preferring private channels through cable and DTH,” the report said.
The report attributes this to demand for content which is met by private channels. Research has also shown that the barriers to TV viewing include poverty, power failures, scheduling of TV programming, perception that TV is morally corrupting and monopolization of the remote control by children.
The report also points out that despite digitisation and the access to over 80 channels, low income viewers have an unmet demand seeking programming connected to career advice, employment news and skill development.
