In terms of number of TV channels, India is second only to China in Asia. As of March, 2019, the number of licensed satellite channels in the country is 902. That is, there is not much left to touch the four digit number. But the surprising fact is that the beginning of satellite channels in the history of Indian television is less than three decades ago.
Zee TV was launched in 1992 as the first satellite television channel in India. And the person who founded Zee TV, his name is Subhash Chandra. No, Netaji is not Subhash Chandra. He is Subhash Chandra Goyal. Subhash Chandra, chairman of the Essel Group and Member of State Assembly from Haryana, is India's own media empire.
Besides, he has built a huge empire worth more than 10 billion dollars. Many also call him the "Father of Indian Television". Subhash Chandra was born on 30 November 1950, in Adampur, Hisar district, Haryana, into an Agarwal Bania family. In other words, it was not possible for him to get much formal education.
At the age of 19, he was forced to drop out after studying up to class 12. Entered the family business of exporting rice. Their family had a debt of five lakh rupees. The responsibility of paying that debt rested on the shoulders of him and his brothers. Subhash's company collected rice from different places and supplied it to the Food Corporation of India.
He also decided to start his own vegetable oil business. After some time he also started food grain export business. Visiting a packaging exhibition, Subhash was so impressed that in 1981, he founded Essel Packaging Limited. Later Essel Packaging Limited merged with the Swiss group, Propack AG. The company was then renamed as Essel Propack Limited. After that, Subhash also undertook the project of creating an amusement park. Subhash's next interest was to enter the world of broadcasting.
He was also successful in leasing Asiastat's transponder owned by Star TV. He then launched Zee TV as India's first satellite TV channel in 1992.
Also, in October of that year, he launched Zee Telefilms Limited, which was tasked with providing programs for Zee TV. This is how Subhash took the first effective step after realizing the huge potential of satellite TV channels in India. Until the arrival of Zee TV, Indian viewers were confined to the state-owned terrestrial network Doordarshan.
It was beyond the imagination of most of the Indians that it would be possible to produce independent programs through private channels in India like in the developed world. After the launch of Zee TV, Subhash founded Citicable, India's largest multi-system operator, in 1995. Besides, he started a new joint project with News Corp.
That year he brought two new channels, Zee News and Zee Cinema. As a result, just as the Indian audience got a medium to watch local news all day for the first time, they also got an opportunity to watch Hindi movies continuously. Subhash's GE was India's first cable company, which launched Internet over cable service in 2000. And in 2003, Zee also introduced India's first direct-to-home (DTH) service.
Thus, within a very short span of time, India's own initiative Zee TV has become the largest media outlet in the country. And even today, despite the arrival of two huge rivals like Sony Entertainment Television and Star Plus, the channel has survived the competition quite well. Overall, the Zee TV network has around 90 channels, reaching over 1.3 billion viewers in 174 countries around the world.
Along with Star and Sony, GE is the largest TV network in India. Also in the third week of April 2019, Zee TV network has three channels in the list of top 10 most popular TV channels besides Star. Enter 10, Sony, Sun and Viacom 18 have one channel each. Despite having single-handedly built India's satellite TV industry, Subhash was left with two shortcomings.
The first is: He did not have the same success in print media as he did in electronic media. And the second is: his success in electronic media is mainly for the welfare of Hindi speakers.
He has not had much success to speak of in the English language. Aiming to reconcile these two discontents, in 2005 Subhash joined hands with Dainik Bhaskar Group to launch a new English newspaper - DNA (Daily News and Analysis). His aim was to make DNA India's most widely read English newspaper, overtaking the Jain family-owned Times of India.
DNA's initial battle with The Times of India in Mumbai has made it one of the most notable battles in newspaper history. But in this fight, Subhash could not take advantage at all in the beginning. Not only did DNA win the first place by fighting directly with The Times of India, but they had to face huge financial losses.
So gradually DNA withdrew from its ambition to overtake the Times of India. Their new goal is to become commercially viable, as well as become one of the top five English newspapers in India. Although the latter goal has not yet been achieved, the economic losses have been largely overcome. Apart from broadcasting, Subhash's Essel Group's operations have also expanded into businesses ranging from amusement parks, packaging to infrastructure, lotteries etc.
He also entered into the shipping business under the brand Jalesh. In all, Subhash's net worth is 2.6 billion as of 21 April 2019. According to the list of Forbes Billionaires 2019, he is the 916th richest person in the world. Although he has been operating behind the scenes for a long time of his life, he has recently been seen in front of the screen.
"Dr. Subhash Chandra Show" has become the flagship program of Zee Media Corporation in its presentation. The program was aired on various channels of Zee Network including Zee News, Zee Business. In addition, his autobiographical book, "The Z Factor" was published in 2016. Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself unveiled the cover of the book. In 2016, Subhash stepped down as director and non-executive of Zee Media Group.
It was then speculated that he was going to officially enter politics. In the end it happened. That year he won the Haryana Rajya Sabha election as an independent candidate.
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