The Introduction of Television

• Radio's success spurred technology companies to

make huge investments in the research and
development of a new form of broadcasting called
television, or TV.

• Unlike radio, television broadcasting did not go

through a period of experimentation by amateurs.

• It was obvious to commercial broadcasters that

there were enormous profits to be made from such
an invention, and the dominant companies in
communications technology raced to perfect
• The television is almost an essential service.

• Indeed, nowadays nobody can dispense it, either

because it is a privileged source of information, or
because of its unique ability to entertainment,
communication and advertising.

• TV influence on the lives of ordinary people is

already enormous and is growing as new
technologies enable the networks "accelerate",
"compact" and provide higher bandwidth, calling for
the dissemination of more channels, interactivity
and new public and private services.
• From the Greek "tele" - distant and Latin "visione" –
vision, Television is an electronic system for
transmitting images and sound in an instant.

• It works from the analysis and conversion of light

and sound into electromagnetic waves and their
conversion into an equipment - the TV set.
• The TV set receives the electromagnetic waves and,
through its internal electronic components,
converts it back into pictures and sound.

• The use of television has increased enormously

after the Second World War due to technological
advances arising from the war needs and the
additional income available (a TV set, in the 1930’s,
cost the equivalent of $6000 today and there was
little programming available).
 Origin of Television

• The invention of television was a lengthy,

collaborative process. An early milestone was the
successful transmission of an image in 1884 by
German inventor Paul Nipkow. His mechanical
system, known as the rotating disk, was further
developed by Scottish scientist John Logie Baird,
who broadcast a televised image in 1926 to an
audience at the Royal Academy of Science in
London.
• Other inventors elaborating on Nipkow's system
included Americans Herbert Ives, who was an
engineer at AT&T, and Charles Francis Jenkins.

• However, the proven capability of the electronic

tube system that had been developed for radio
turned financial and scientific attention toward
that technology and away from research on the
rotating disk.
• The earliest U.S. patent for an all-electronic
television system was granted in 1927 to Philo T.
Farnsworth, who transmitted a picture of a U.S.
dollar sign with his so-called image dissector tube in
the laboratories of the Philadelphia Storage Battery
Company (Philco).

• Meanwhile, the three communications technology

powerhouses–General Electric, Westinghouse, and
RCA–were cooperating closely with each other.
• General Electric and Westinghouse owned
substantial shares of stock in RCA, and the
companies shared a collection of valuable radio
patents.

• In 1930 they consolidated their television research

efforts at RCA's facility in Cherry Hill, New Jersey,
under the direction of Russian immigrant
scientist Vladimir Zworykin.

• Farnsworth, Zworykin, or both are usually credited

by historians as the inventors of television.
Early TV Broadcasts
• During the 1930s, several companies around the
world were actively preparing to introduce
television to the public.

• As early as 1935, the BBC initiated experimental

television broadcasts in London for several hours
each day.

• That same year CBS hired American theater, film,

and radio critic Gilbert Seldes as a consultant to its
television programming development project.
• RCA unveiled television to the American public in
grand style at the 1939 New York World's Fair, with
live coverage of the Fair's opening ceremonies
featuring a speech by President Roosevelt.

• Daily telecasts were made from the RCA pavilion at

the Fair. Visitors were invited to experience
television viewing and were even given the
opportunity to walk in front of the television
cameras and see themselves on monitors.
• American entry into World War II at the end of 1941
brought about a virtual suspension of television
experimentation in the United States,
though radar research would contribute several
advances to the field.

• As a measure of the importance that broadcasting

technology had achieved, NBC's David Sarnoff
received a commission from the U.S. Army to
supervise its field communications and was
promoted to the rank of general.
Post-World War II Popularity
of TV
• Technically, network broadcasting takes place when local
stations covering different regions agree to simultaneously
transmit the same signal.

• Four companies stood ready to initiate network television

broadcasting in the United States immediately following
World War II. Two of the companies, NBC and CBS, had
made vast fortunes from radio broadcasting and dominated
the television industry.

• The remaining two, the American Broadcasting Company

(ABC, Inc.) and the DuMont Television Network, were
competing without the advantage of such previous
commercial success.
• ABC had been created in 1943 when the administration of
President Roosevelt had won a lawsuit forcing RCA to divest
one of its two national radio networks. RCA's Blue Network
had been sold to Edward J. Noble, owner of the Lifesavers
Candy Company, who had renamed it the American
Broadcasting Company. ABC managed to survive the early
years of television through a corporate merger and some
imaginative programming innovations, but it remained in a
poor third place in programming ratings until the 1970s.

• The DuMont Network, owned by American television

manufacturer Allen B. DuMont, was the only
nonbroadcasting company to attempt a television network.
It went out of business in 1955.
Development of Television Broadcasting
around the world
• Television is the result of technological
developments of the nineteenth and early
twentieth centuries. Television network began in
the 1930s, Rapid growth of programming came
about following World War-II.

• Having in two decades – the 1930s and 1940s –

emerged from experimental beginnings to become a
fixture in Britain and the United States, it would, in
two more decades, become a World medium.
• Developments came with startling speed.

• Industrial nations that had participated in pre-war

experiments could be expected to make early starts
in postwar television; they included Japan, Canada,
Australia, and a number of European nations.

• Less expected was a burst of activity from other

nations.
• In Latin America, Mexico, Cuba, and Brazil led the
way, all launching television operations in 1950.

• They were followed rapidly by others. By the end

of that decade eighteen Latin American nations had
some form of television, with more on the verge.

• Asia virtually kept pace, with the Philippines

starting in 1953.
• By the mid-1960s eighteen Asian nations including
Pakistan, had entered the television age; others
were planning to follow. Africa was not far behind.

• Algeria began in 1965, Egypt in 1960. By the end of

the 1960s fifteen African nations had made a start
in television. Half the world’s nations had by now
joined the procession.
Pakistan Television, History & Development
• Pakistan’s first pilot Television Station went on
air from Lahore on 26th November, 1964.

• The idea to establish television in the country

was supported by the report of the
commission on National Education set up by
the Ayub government in 1958.
• The commission concluded that television was
necessary for educational, economic and
social set-up of the country.

• Interestingly the major emphasis was on

education and hence the television was
introduced in the name of education, Initially
television was set up with the help of UNESCO
and Japanese government.
• The Japanees report submitted in 1962 urged that
television should be introduced as a general
purpose service and also cater to the educational
needs of the masses.

• Funding was a matter of concern for a poor country

like Pakistan to meet the graving cost of television
broadcasting commercial telecast was also
permitted. This was a step forward for self-
supporting part-of revenues required.
• The cabinet decided in 1962 that educational
television be established in Pakistan and it should
be under government control.

• In October 1963 President gave his consent and said

“television in not a luxury, it is a necessity”.

• As a result of an agreement between the

government of Pakistan and government of Japan,
the Nippon Electric company established two pilot
stations at Lahore and Dacca in 1964 and 1965
respectively. Initially these stations operated daily
for three hours.
• Later on more stations emerged. Now there are 5
PTV centers in Pakistan namely Karachi, Lahore,
Islamabad, Quetta and Peshawar.

• In 1993 PTV-2 was established in order to cater to

the needs of educational field in the country. PTV-2
was established at Islamabad.

• Further educational centers are planned to be

operative in other PTV centers to work exclusively
for education.
• As regards the transmission of PTV-2 there were 16
re-broadcast booster stations in the initial year of
1993.

• The transmission network will further expand with

the passage of time.
• Today television has a national network covering
the six main programmes producing and
transmitting centres are linked with high-powered
re-broadcast stations.

• The telephone and telegraph department of the

government1 of Pakistan established a microwave
link in 197-5 connecting all these six centres and
their re- broadcast stations to form the PTV hook-
up, known as the National Network.

• Satellite up link was established in 1992.

• Colour television introduced in Pakistan in 1976, has
added immeasurably to the viewing pleasure of the
masses.

• The sophistication and artistry of PTV productions

has also stood to gain from the introduction of
colour TV.

• PTV productions have entered the international

competitions since 1971 and many are the awards
they have won for the country
• In 1989, the Government of Pakistan has granted a
license to PTN (Peoples Television Network) later
renamed as STN (Shalimar Television Network).

• STN was allowed to establish television station in 22

cities of Pakistan.