Rise Of Private Television Channels In Sri Lanka __📺🔆

The term television was first introduced to the World by Constantine Percy on August 25 in 1900. At the International Electrotechnical Congress At The World Fair In France, in reference to the beginnings of Television media.After that, Scotsman John Logie Baird held the first public demonstration of television on March 25, 1926, in London,That Jhon Logie Baird successfully introduced a television system on the world.

Later, through various research, by the year 1930, television had spread rapidly in a large number of countries such as the United Kingdom,  the United States, Canada, France, Germany,the Soviet Union and Japan.Thus although television was a common tool in many countries of the world by 1970,  it was not so in Sri Lanka. During the period of Dudley Senanayake in (1965-1970), efforts were made to obtain a television service for Sri Lanka with Germany, but it was not successful.Then,the young Shan Wickramasinghe,who had studied television technology in London, together with a few friends, launched the first television broadcast in Sri Lanka.Covering the Non-Aligned Nations conference in August 1976.visible for a distance of 10 miles around Colombo.As a result on August 13,1979.The Independent Television Network (ITN) was launched as the first television service in the country. but it was not an official service.

Two years later, as a result of the live broadcast of Queen Elizabeth's visit to Sri Lanka in 1981, the Sri Lankan National Television Corperation was officially established under the television Corperation Act.no 6 on 13th February in 1982.Under this many political,economic,social and cultural changes took place in Sri Lanka in the next few years. Accordingly the first television channel to  emerge in Sri Lanka is called the Independent Television Network service (ITN).It was initially called TV Sri Lanka and later became  known as ITN.The three leaders who took lead in the establishment of the Independent Television service were Shan Wickramasinghe,Anil Wijewardhana,Bob Crist and it's existence was limited to only 52 days.due to various reasons the ITN service was taken over by the government on June 5, 1979. after the television service was suspended for more than 24 hours and was handed over to the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corperation.

There after, the national television channel emerged as a state television channel and was introduced under the National Television Act.No 23 of January 1982 and established on February 15,1982.This channel was received as a gift from Japan during the J.R.Jayawardhane regime and the programs launched.Through the Independent Television service with forign orientation have been used for local processes such as Education,Information provision and Entertainment through this channel.This channel,which started as a state Channel,operates it's service in the three official languages of Sinhala,Tamil and English. Later,the National Television channel started broadcasting programs in English and Tamil language through Channel EYE in August 2000.

Thus,during the period when there was a control authority over to state-run channels,the first private television channel in Sri Lanka, the TNL was launched on 21 June 1993. It was also started by the founder of the Independent Television service,Mr Shan Wikramasinghe.The channel,which was thus established became such as news,political discussions.

After that many television channels such as TV 1 in 1992,E-TV in 1995,Art television in 1996,Swarnavahini in 1997,Shakti TV in 1998,Channel EYE in 1999,Derana in 2005,Sri TV in 2006,City Hitz TV in 2007,Siyatha TV in 2009,Vasantham TV in 2009 and Hiru TV in 2012 were channels. since then more than 40 private television channels are currently operating in Sri Lanka.

Private Channels Introduced Divers Programming And Competition...

With the emergence of private channels,the procedures implemented on state channels began to broadcast programs on various teames and competitive programs in the form of songs and answers for these private channels have taken steps to promote their channels by providing opportunities for the public to connect for example the early political programs broadcast on private channels.The private channels started Political Programms,funny programms,Dubbing of foreign teledramas and News broadcast.In addition Sirasa TV channel starts with Sirasa Super star,a music reality program to highlight competition,has created competitors and created a sense of competition among the public,and  efforts have been made to instill competition among young children.

These programs were broadcast early on and private channels have surpassed State channels by around 2015 due to factors such as the introduction of a daily news broadcast on private channels,the introduction of various programs that can be connected to the public,and the coverage of every  field.

With the start of private channels as mentioned earlier,alternative ideas emerged among the people,news came forward in a new form as daily news broadcast,and at the same time,investigative news reporting  began and private channels became closer to the people.Moreover,political discourse was brought to the forefront of the media,political debates and discussions were born through this,and froud,corruption and irregularities in every existing state were exposed through this.Also,during the rule of the two State- Controlled channels,media Freedom,which was not implemented and the people were prevented from using the media as the wished.

Through investigative news reports,there was an interest in enforcing the law against those who misused the media.Also,through the introduction of Citizen journalists through these channels,every citizen was given the opportunity to provide news to the people,that is,to become a citizen journalist.Private channels further restricted the media freedom of citizen and promoted their channels and a person was contined to one frame.Many political discussion programs that started and developed on private channels are now broadcast on every private Channels.

Through this,discussing issues,problems and current political situations that are very close to the people was a strong reason for the promotion of private channels.Since private channels provide new information with a news methodology and political face that has not been seen before,it is currently deen that many viewers are leaving State channels and joining private channels and different opinions, alternative proposals,etc.are beginning of being presented throught these private channels.

Influence On Local Culture And Entertainment Trends...

The private Channels that gradually grew in this way introduced more reality programs around 2010-2012 which gave the youth and opportunity to join the media and showcase their talents.Which promoted their channels by giving opportunities to the talents of the youth,and by giving large prize money to the winners through these programs,a large number of young people join them.Futhermore, various programs for the entertainment of the people,such as songs were also broadcast throat private channels.

Private channels that didn't stop at this took steps to touch on International programs and present them in a Sri Lankan format through their channels.Thus is Sri Lanka was brought closer to globalization through private channels.Also,many local teledramas and films,productions related to local culture were broadcast through private channels.The fact the most of these productions had cultural and traditional characteristics that were very close to the people was a strong reason for keeping the audience on private channels.These private channels brought a lot of dubbed Indian teledramas and Korean TV series to the masses.Private channels also produced a lot of entertaining teledramas and programs to keep the people on their channels.

These channels implemented welfare programs.More over,these channels also had special programs for festival seasons.The attention of the audience was largely drawn to the private channels.Private channels use them as key factors to retain the audience.These private channels began broadcasting children's programs very quickly and through the launch of cartoons and educational programs.Young children and young teenagers turned to these channels.In addition,private channels are turning to retain their audience by introducing new Creations and providing the public with the opportunity to watch interesting things.