Television 30 plus

By D.C. Ranatunga

“We bear a very heavy responsibility to build up this service with great care, vigilance and intellectual integrity so that the people of this country belonging to different ethnic groups, believing in four different faiths, of diverse economic groups, living in varying environments, urban and rural, with different levels of literacy and in different age groups, will receive over their Television sets, programmes which will entertain, without offence, will educate without pedantry, and will inform without bias.”

These well thought out, carefully worded remarks were made by the first Chairman of the Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation (SLRC), M.J. Perera on the day it was ceremonially opened 30 years ago – on 15 February 1982.

A member of the well respected Ceylon Civil Service, he had sufficient experience in media work having been the Director of Information and the first Sri Lankan Director-General of Radio Ceylon- as the state broadcasting institution was then identified. He succeeded John Lampson, an Englishman. He had also been the Director of Cultural Affairs.

In Sri Lanka, television had really begun three years earlier when three enthusiastic entrepreneurs obtained a license from the Ministry of State (subjects of Information & Media were under this Ministry) and set up the Independent Television Network (ITN).

The channel which started on 14 April 1979 covered around 30 miles from the transmitting station at Pannipitiya – east of Colombo. Two months later on 5 June, the ownership changed with the Government taking it over as a Government-owned business undertaking. Continuing under the same name, it expanded its coverage and covers the entire island today with its headquarters at Wickremasinghepura at Battaramulla.

One of the three pioneers, Shan Wickremasinghe later started TNL.

Rupavahini – the national TV was an outright gift from Japan capable of covering the entire country. With the studios at Torrington Square, the main transmitter was set up at Pidurutalagala in Nuwara-Eliya.

It was estimated that at the initial stage there were around 50,000 TV sets mainly in the urban areas in and around Colombo. The numbers soon increased and by end 1982, there were around 130,000 sets. Three years later, the figure rose to 400,000.  Assuming that a minimum of five perrons in a family watched TV programmes, the number of viewers was estimated at two million. At the early stages there was community viewing too.

Describing the rate of increase in the number of viewers as “phenomenal,” Chairman M.J. Perera stated that it was a surprise to everyone and it looked as if many people were looking forward to the introduction of TV into the country for a long time and then rushed to satisfy a long felt need in their lives.

There was a sense of uncertainty about introducing TV and I remember a statement made by the then Director-General of Broadcasting, Neville Jayaweera in his administration report that even if we could introduce television, “feeding the brute will be the problem”. However, advertisers just lapped up the opportunity and today, with as many as 15 channels, each one is inundated with advertisements – sometimes much to the annoyance of the viewers.

At the beginning, Rupavahini had around four hours of transmission per day. With the demand for more variety, the transmission time was increased to five and a half hours on week days and extra three hours on Saturday mornings and one and a half hours on Sunday afternoons.

In May 1983 an education service was started with about two hours every morning during school days. By 1986 it had increased to three hours a day.

Chairman Perera was mindful of the impact TV would have on the households. “Being a medium of immense power coming into the homes of viewers, both audio and visual impacts, TV can create new attitudes within households so that the TV can also be accommodated within the normal household routine,” he wrote.

Pointing out that as had happened all over the world, it cannot be different in Sri Lanka, he stated that social events and daily household activities have to be adjusted often to accommodate TV viewing time.

Over three decades, the viewers have got into a pattern where some would not miss teledramas and some would make it a pint to view news. Of course, the large number of channels offers them a choice today. Yet some may like not visitors to drop in when their favourite teledrama is telecast and even if they do, they may either ignore them or invite them to join the homefolk and watch the programme.

The early attitudes about television have also been touched on by Chairman Perera. “As TV is viewed by the whole family which generally constitute the entire audience, there is an insistence that programmes should be such that the entire family can sit together and watch, which means they should not be objectionable in respects which are tolerated on the cinema screen. Because of this attitude, programme planners have to be cautious particularly in selecting foreign programmes,” he cautioned.

Those were the early days and much has happened between then and now. Many argue about ethics while there are others who justify the need to follow the current trends. The quality of many programmes leaves much to be desired.

Anyway, the fact is that for 30 years we have had television in the country, technology has improved tremendously, more and more channels are being opened and viewers have a wide choice.