Indian Media History Timeline (1959–2025): From Doordarshan to Digital and AI News

1959 – On September 5, experimental television broadcasting began in Delhi. The first five-minute news bulletin was aired. Limited transmitters, limited reach, limited audience—yet the beginning of a new era.

1965 – Regular news bulletins commenced on Doordarshan. Television was primarily used for educational and development-oriented programming.

1967 – Launch of the program Krishi Darshan. Public broadcasting expanded with a focus on rural development and agricultural education.

1972 – Television centers were established in Mumbai and Amritsar. Broadcasting began expanding beyond Delhi.

1975–76 – Satellite Instructional Television Experiment (SITE). With the assistance of NASA’s ATS-6 satellite, broadcasts reached rural areas. This was India’s first major experiment in satellite-based transmission.

1976 – Doordarshan was separated from All India Radio and made an independent entity. Advertisements were introduced on Doordarshan—marking the beginning of a revenue model.

1982 – With the Asian Games, color television broadcasting began. National expansion of transmitters followed. Sales of color television sets surged.

1984 – The broadcast of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s assassination. It marked the first major experience of national sensitivity in television news. The concept of “live” broadcasting was firmly established.

1988 – Launch of “DD Metro” service on Doordarshan, targeting urban audiences with specialized content.

1991 – Economic liberalization. Foreign television signals began reaching India through cable networks. The Gulf War significantly influenced international news consumption patterns in India.

1992 – Launch of Zee TV, the first private Hindi satellite channel. The real beginning of the private broadcasting era.

1995 – Implementation of the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act, providing a regulatory framework for private broadcasting.

1997 – Enforcement of the Prasar Bharati Act. Doordarshan and All India Radio received formal autonomy.

1998–2000 – Emergence of private 24×7 news channels. Star-NDTV, Aaj Tak (as a full television channel), Sahara, ETV, and others expanded. Competition among news channels intensified.

2003 – Introduction of Direct-to-Home (DTH) services. Structural transformation in broadcast distribution.

2004–2008 – Rapid growth of news channels. Expansion in regional languages. Increasing influence of the TRP system.

2008 – Live coverage of the Mumbai attacks. A nationwide debate on the role of media during national crises.

2010 – Spread of smartphones and mobile internet. Expansion of news websites. Growth in news distribution through social media platforms.

2013–2014 – Rise of digital news platforms. Launch of independent online portals. Social media became a primary platform for political communication.

2016 – Expansion of affordable data services. Explosion in video content consumption. Establishment of the mobile-first news model.

2018 – Initial experiments with AI-based virtual anchors in India. Use of automated news-writing technologies.

2020 – COVID-19 pandemic. Unprecedented growth in digital media consumption. Emergence of virtual newsrooms, remote anchoring, and webinar-based communication. Increased importance of fact-checking amid the spread of fake news.

2021–2023 – Dominance of short-video platforms. News distribution through clips, reels, and shorts became mainstream. Algorithm-driven news consumption intensified.

2024 – Expansion of AI-based content production, automated translation, and data-driven journalism. Virtual studios and synthetic anchors transitioned from experimental to practical models.

2025 – Indian media entered a fully digitally integrated structure. Television, OTT, social media, and AI-based distribution operate within a unified model. Newsrooms became hybrid spaces—human editors working alongside machine analytics.

This chronology provides contextual solidity to the book. The reader can clearly trace the continuous line of history—from black-and-white broadcasts to AI-driven anchors.

(The author is a journalist. These are his personal views. [email protected] — brief responses and thoughts from readers are welcome.)