satel I ite Television has phenomenally extended the reach of television. A television
programme which, only a decade ago, was watched by a few million people is now easily accessible to a few billioin people via the satellite. Not that it is an entirely newphenomenon. Way back in 1969, half the humanity saw man setting foot on the moon. The scene was televised in most parts of the globe via satellite. There has been manifold increase in the number and capacity of satellites to transmit T.V. programmes.
There has been an even greater increase in the number of T.V. production companies and agencies which make programmes not for a limited provincial audiences but for universal, world-wide population. For good or for bad, international T. V. Networks like Star T. V. and C.N.N. are almost forcing their programmes on people belonging to various religions, countries, ethnic varieties, linguistic groups and cultures.
There is no denying the fact that visual media of T.V. are exerting a powerful influence over the life and style of people. India is not immune from this influence. Considerable percentage of I iterate population of India has only a passing acquaintance with English language. In any case, knowledge of language is not absolutely essential for enjoying spectacle of sports, fashion shows, and even movies full of violence and glamour. Whether this increase in access to T. V. programmes, both national and international, via satellite has been beneficial or harmful cannot be judged off-hand
without first defining what is meant by a harmful effect and also by a beneficial effect
particularly in the context of Indian values and culture. On the face of it, the soap operas of Star T.V. such as "Santa Barbara" and "The Bold and the Beautiful" with their promiscuous scenes of kissing and drinking, of generation of fathers, sons, mother-daughters engaged in their respective love affairs may appear revolting to the middle class Indian audiences who would expect sobriety from the elderly. The spate of divorces, jilting, new affairs and remarriages appears too remote from Indian reality. Such remoteness tends to invest the serials with a bad
