DD National

DD National
DD National's logo
Launched	September 15, 1959 (in India) May 17, 1971 (in Middle East)
Owned by	Doordarshan
Headquarters	New Delhi, Delhi, India country =  India
Sister channel(s)	DD India DD News DD Sports DD Bharati
Website	ddindia.gov.in
Availability
Terrestrial
Analogue	VHF band
Satellite
Dish TV	Channel 115
Tata Sky	Channel 101
Big TV	Channel 205
Airtel Digital TV	Channel 108
Sun Direct DTH	Channel 310
DD Direct Plus	Channel 1
Videocon d2h	Channel 135
Cable
Cablelink Philippines	Channel 61
Global Destiny Cable Philippines	Channel 78

DD National or DD1 is Doordarshan's flagship channel and the most widely available terrestrial television channel in India.^[1]

History

The Early Years

The channel began broadcast on an experimental basis on September 15, 1959 from a makeshift studio at Akashvani Bhavan in New Delhi as part of All India Radio. It started with 20 TV receivers in and around Delhi and transmitted one hour educational and developmental programs twice a week. Regular daily transmission started in 1965.

In 1976, the Indian government constituted Doordarshan, the public television broadcaster, as a separate Department under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.

Its symbol resembles with Angara,Gondwana and Sea of early timing of earth formation.

Growth in the 80s

In 1982, all of Doordarshan's regional stations were networked using INSAT 1A and a national feed called National Programme was introduced. Later that year, Delhi played host to Asian Games which were covered by the channel. To increase the channel's reach, the government launched a program to set up low and high power transmitters that would pick-up the satellite distributed signals and re-transmit them to surrounding areas. By 1983, television signals were available to 28% of the Indian population. Fueled by the success of the channel's commercialization and increased revenue from advertising, the channel's reach and popularity continued to grow and in 1990, the channel reached more than 90% of the Indian population.^[2]

Programming

For further information: List of programs broadcast by DD National

For the first few years after its inception, the channel only aired educational and informative programs with news being one of the biggest draw. Once the national feed started in 1982, the channel started airing regional and local shows on time-sharing basis. For most Indian states, this meant one national and one local news telecast. The channel soon started airing entertainment shows and popularity of some of the earliest series such as Hum Log, film-based shows such as Chitrahaar and Hindi movies resulted in a gradual increase in entertainment and commercial programming. Rangoli is the oldest programme on DD National, dedicated to Classic Hindi songs.

Till mid-80s, channel transmission was limited to evenings only. On February 11, 1987, the channel introduced morning transmission with a two hour telecast. This included ten minute news bulletins in Hindi and English apart from other short shows. On January 1, 1989, afternoon transmission, aimed at housewives and children, was launched.^[3]

The channel's educational programming includes distance learning shows for UGC and IGNOU as well as learning shows for kids sponsored by NCERT.

Since late-90s, the channel broadcasts from 4:30 am IST till 2:00 am terrestrially while the satellite feed is available 24 hours a day.

References

1. ^ "India's largest terrestrial network". Associated Press. Archived from the original on 2007-04-06. http://web.archive.org/web/20070406234806/http://www.enps.com/news/news_detail.aspx?ID=193. Retrieved 2007-07-22. 
2. ^ "DD National - early years". Museum.tv. http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/I/htmlI/india/india.htm. Retrieved 2007-07-22. 
3. ^ "DD National - evoltution of programming". Tribune India. http://www.tribuneindia.com/1999/99dec19/sunday/head2.htm. Retrieved 2007-07-25. 

See also

• List of Indian television stations