Media in India

Interesting article about the growth of television in India in the NY Times In India, the Golden Age of Television Is Now talking about the booming growth of the television industry including new content that is being developed in response to the increased demand.

There is also a video of the story that has brief examples of joint projects: An Indian version of Sesame Street and a Disney program of original content (not just dubbed American content) for India. The cause of the growth? Deregulation.

“….Deregulation and new technology have combined to produce an explosion of new offerings. Before the early 1990s, a single government broadcaster provided a handful of channels. Now a crowded field of domestic and global media companies, including the News Corporation, Sony Entertainment and Walt Disney, offer hundreds of channels.

…India went further in deregulating television than it did in other sectors of the economy. It also gave up far more control when compared with China, the country against which it is most often measured. Foreign media companies can fully own entertainment networks here; they cannot in China. (India does, however, limit foreign ownership to 26 percent of television news channels and newspapers.)”