How many NEWS Channel we need?
- February 5th, 2009
- By Talal Masood
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As you all know I’m from Pakistan so I would like to have a little discussion about the Pakistani TV Channels. After the millennium (year 2000) the government started allowing private companies to open TV channels on a very nominal licensing fee. Before year 2000 there were only 3 TV Channels working in Pakistan namely, PTV, NTM (aka STN) and PTV 2. There was no concept of Cable TV system and the TV Channels were broadcast over the wireless wavelength signals which were caught by the TV Aerials (Antennas). As soon as the Nawaz Sharif government got over in 1999 the new CEO of Pakistan, Gerenal Pervaiz Musharraf started giving licenses to private companies to open new TV Channel.
The cable system was introduced and the avalanche of TV channels started. I can bet even in USA which is the first world country people don’t get that many channels which we Pakistanis get. There are over 80 Channels now on regular given by every TV Cable Operator (excluding Indian TV Channels). Some TV Cable Operators also give Indian and other nasty TV channels so on average there are 90+ TV channels in each home of Pakistan. And the most amazing thing which I am going to tell you now is, there are 115 Pakistani TV Channels on air. Some of the TV Channels are local area based channels like City42 which is only broadcasted in the city of Lahore. Out of these 115 TV Channels 25 channels are NEWS Channel.
