History
Originally a private sector project in 1961 by prominent industrialist Syed Wajjid Ali who signed a joint venture agreement with Nipon Electric Company (NEC) of Japan, leading Pakistani engineer Ubaidur Rahman was appointed by Wajjid Ali to head the television project. By 1962, after a series of pilot transmission tests, the project was quickly taken over by the Ayub Khan Government in 1963 for the "greater national interest of Pakistan". President Ayub Khan re-appointed Ubaidur Rahman in 1963 under the Ministry of Information to continue with the NEC joint venture collaboration to launch Pakistan Television or PTV. The project began with a tent on the back lot of Radio Pakistan Karachi where a transmission tower and a studio were constructed. On November 26, 1964 the first official television station commenced transmission broadcasts from LAHORE, followed by Dhaka in 1965 (then the capital of East Pakistan). A third centre was established in Rawalpindi-Islamabad in 1965 and the fourth in Karachi in 1966. Later centres in Peshawar and Quetta were established by 1974. Originally broadcast in black and white, PTV began colour transmission in 1976. With this new upgrade in techniques and equipment, the Pakistan Television Academy was founded and opened in 1987 to teach students who wished to work in the medium. As with the other agreement, the government financed most of the funds while the private venture capitalists offered to fund the remainder. Late 1980s morning transmission started on PTV.
In 1988, the then government launched the first semi government TV network of the country by the name of "Peoples Television Network (PTN)under the umbrella of Shalimar Recording Company (which is Shalimar Recording and Broadcasting Company now). PTN was later renamed as Shalimar Television Network (STN). STN started from Islamabad first and then from Karachi, Lahore and by mid 1990s the network made its way to the whole of the country. STN for the first time in Pakistan started the transmission of CNN International on the terrestrial beam, this was the first project of STN. In 1990 STN under an agreement with the a private company started the first private TV channel of Pakistan, Network Television Marketing (NTM). So STN's broadcast became the combination of CNN and NTM and successfully continued till 1999. NTM came as a breath of fresh air to the Paksitani viewers due to its fresh and innovative programmings.
PTV Network launched a full-scale satellite broadcasting service in 1991-1992 as PTV-2 which was renamed as PTV World in 1998. PTV-2/World also enjoyed viewership on terrestrial beam. In the same year i.e. 1998 PTV in association with a private company started PTV Prime exclusively for European and later for American viewers. Digital TV satellite broadcasting was launched in 1999. PTV-1 started its satellite transmission in 2000-2001.
NTM went off air in 1999 due to financial losses and STN also shut down CNN in 1999. PTV and STN started Channel-3 as a joint venture in 1999 which regularly started its transmissions in 2001. Due to Channel-3, STN for the first time went satellite.
In 2002, the then government opened up new ways for the media industry of Pakistan by allowing private TV channels to operate openly even to telecast their own news and current affairs content. Prior to that the only private TV channel of the country NTM was not allowed to transmit its own news and current affairs programmings. Indus Vision, ARY Digital, Geo, Hum, and then list went on and on.
In 2005 Channel-3 went off air and with that Shalimar Recording and Broadcasting Company again renamed its TV network as ATV Network and ATV started its transmission as the only private TV channel of Pakistan being shown on terrestrial as well as satellite beam. In 2007, PTV or PTV-1 was given a new name PTV Home and PTV World was changed into PTV News. PTV Home, PTV News (both state owned) and ATV (semi private) channels are shown on terrestrial beams along with the satellite beam. While recently started PTV Sports becomes available on terrestrial beams only during the important national and international sports events.
Read more about this topic: Television In Pakistan
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