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