Media in Thiruvananthapuram
The Indian city of Thiruvananthapuram has long been a center of media. Kerala Chandrika, the first newspaper of the state, was published from Thiruvananthapuram in 1789. The media also enjoyed the patronage of the Travancore kings. In 1836, Swathi Thirunal, the Travancore king, organized a government press in the city.[1] The first Superintendent of the Press was the Rev. Sperschneider. The press was under Samathanam Maistry, one of the first batch of workmen trained in the Nagercoil Press.
More than 30 dailies are currently published from Thiruvananthapuram, including prominent dailies The Hindu, The New Indian Express, Desabhimani, Malayala Manorama, Mathrubhumi, Udaya keralam, Kerala Kaumudi, Janayugom, Deepika, Mangalam, Madhyamom, Rashtradeepika, Keralakaumudi Flash and Janmabhoomi. The Hindu tops the chart of high circulation in Thiruvananthapuram.[2] Readership surveys indicated that there was a decline in the readership of all the major dailies in the first quarter of 2010 when compared to 2009.
Several weeklies, fortnightlies, monthlies, bi-monthlies and quarterlies are published from various parts of the city. Government departments and public sector undertakings also publish fortnightlies and monthlies such as Janapadham, Kerala Calling, Vikasana Samanwayam, Kerala Interface, Kerala Karshakan, Punarjani, Vyavasaya Keralam, Grama Deepam, Gramabhoomi, Sahakarana Veedhi, Vidyaarangam, and Panchayat Raj.
The Information and Public Relations Department is the main agency of the government to disseminate information to the public and to provide feedback. At the Government Secretariat, the Department of Information and Public Relations has provided a press room for accredited correspondents. The Tagore Theatre provides both public and private cultural performances and screening of films.
Electronic
Radio
All India Radio
The Thiruvananthapuram station of All India Radio (AIR) broadcasts and relays daily programs from 5:55 a.m. to 11:05 p.m. In addition to news bulletins, programs relate to agriculture, rural development, women's and children's care, health, and sanitation, among other topics. Many of the programs are of a cultural nature, with entertainment and educational value. To bring and keep more listeners AIR has started many film based programmes. Most popular are the Poonthenaruvi film song presentation with live participation of listeners, Ormacheppu Old is Gold film song programme, Malayala Cinema FlashBack cinema history serial, and Swapnajalakam celebrity programme. Commercial broadcasts are also aired. FM broadcasting (101.9 MHz), Ananthapuri FM, started from Thiruvananthapuram in 1999.
Private FM Stations
Apart from the AIR owned FMs, there are many private FM stations on air in the capital city. On 28 January 2008, 92.7 BIG FM (Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group) and Radio Mirchi 98.3 FM (from The Times Group) started its operation. Mathrubhumi launched its Club FM 94.3 the next day. Red FM 93.5 are also on air as of 29 January 2008.
Television
Doordarshan
Thiruvananthapuram Doordarshan (DD) Kendra started functioning from the Tagore theatre with a small transmission unit in the latter half of 1982. Later, a full-fledged centre with a high power transmitter was installed at Kudappanakunnu, eight kilometres from the city. Now it covers the entire state, with channel 4 available across Southeast Asia, Africa, Europe, Australia and the America. The DD studios were also set up at Trichur and Kozhikode.
Asianet
Asianet is the first and biggest private television channel in the state. It started functioning from Thiruvananthapuram in 1993. Today, it has two more channels, Asianet News and Asianet Plus, and is the private television channel which has an uplinking facility in the city. The Global channel came into being first as a segment catering to the Gulf viewers and grew into a 24-hour channel in 2001. The channel was relaunched as Asianet News on 1 May 2003, signifying an increased stress on news and current affairs in deference to viewers' demands. On July 23, 2005 Asianet launched its third channel, Asianet Plus, a complete entertainment channel for the youth. The signals of Asianet cover the entire Indian sub-continent, Sri Lanka, China, South East Asia, the Persian Gulf, the UK, Europe, USA and the lower half of the former Soviet Union. This is virtually half the globe, reaching sixty-odd countries.
Surya TV Surya Television started operation from Thiruvananthapuram in 1998 as the second private channel of the state. Though Surya has a production facility in Thiruvananthapuram, telecasting is done from Chennai.
Kairali TV
Kairali Television, which went on air in 2000, also has its studio and production facilities in Thiruvananthapuram. The telecasting is from Ernakulam. This channel is known for its support to a major political party in Kerala - the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI(M)). Currently Mammootty, a major actor in Malayalam, holds the post of MD at Kairali. They are planning to build a new state-of-the art building as their headquarters.[3] Now Kairali has launched two more channels : Kairali WE (youth channel) and Kairali People (news channel).
Amrita TV
Amrita Television launched in 2005 as a 24-hour Malayalam, general entertainment and news satellite channel. It has received 26 state awards for excellence in television. Amrita TV has a global footprint covering India, the Middle East, USA, Canada, Europe, Australia and parts of South Africa; it is also accessible on the internet and other platforms.[4]
JaiHind TV
JaiHind TVl is based on Thiruvananthapuram. Programs on the channel are a mix of news and entertainment. The channel is backed by the Congress Party of Kerala.[5] The channel is headed by prominent personalities in the field of journalism.
Mathrubumi News
Mathrubumi Television launched in 2012 as a 24-hour general entertainment and news satellite channel with a global footprint.
FUNTV
FUNTV, the first interactive gaming channel in India, started operating in Trivandrum from May 2006 through the major cable TV networks SITI Cable and TCN.
Kappa T.V.
Kappa T.V. launched in 2013 as a 24-hour entertainment channel with a global footprint.
Other channels
Kiran TV (youth channel of Surya TV), Asianet Plus (youth channel of Asianet), and People TV (news and current affairs channel of Kairali TV) also have production facilities and studios in the city.
Jeevan TV, India Vision, Yes Indiavision, ZeeTV, NDTV, ANI, ETV, and JAYA TV have their bureaus in Thiruvananthapuram. ACV and SITI Cable are cable channels which operate from the city.
Internet
Yentha.com (part of Yentha Digital Network Pvt. Ltd.) is the foremost city portal in Kerala. A combination of editorial, business listing, user generated content, and user-friendly sections like events, movies, classifieds and jobs have made Yentha.com the most popular portal for cities in Kerala. It is currently in two leading cities, Trivandrum and Kochi, and is planning to be in Calicut. Yentha.com commenced operations in June 2010.[6]
Film
Kerala State Chalachitra Academy
Kerala State Chalachitra Academy was founded in 1998 for the promotion of cinema as a cultural expression. The Academy is guided by the motto that cinema should contribute to the total development of man, both as an individual and as a social being.
Besides organising the annual International Film Festival of Kerala in Trivandrum city, the Academy is engaged in a programme of spreading film literacy among the people through the promotion of film societies, publication of books and periodicals, and the conduct of film appreciation courses, seminars and workshops for students as well as professionals. Work has begun on establishing a film archive with the aim of preserving world classics and important films in Malayalam. The annual Kerala State Awards for Film and TV are also conducted by the Academy.
Kerala State Film Development Corporation
Established in 1975 with the objective of giving a thrust to the Malayalam film industry and for nurturing it in the state, the Kerala State Film Development Corporation (KSFDC) has succeeded in uprooting the Malayalam film industry from Kodambakkam in Chennai and planting it here. The Chitranjali studio complex, inaugurated in 1980, was the first step towards facilitating the growth of good cinema. Facilities are available for 39 processing and printing 35 mm and 16 mm colour and black-and-white films. Reduction and blowing up equipments are also available. Nagra recorders, the latest technology to transfer sound from 16 mm to 35 mm, optical tone magnetic recorders, state-of-the-art video production facilities for non linear editing, and a six-track DTS mixing facility are special facilities of the complex. The recording theatre is equipped with "soundscape" pro-tool work
station and a Tas cam-D 8000 digital, 24 channel mixing facility. There are four outdoor units. A super mini theatre and Centre for Development of Imaging Technology (C-DIT) also function under the corporation.[7]
C-DIT
The Centre for Development of Imaging Technology (C-DIT) is a total solution provider in information technology for the Government of Kerala. C-DIT also functions as the southern regional video software production facility of the National Council for Science and Technology Communication (NCSTC), New Delhi. Web services, GIS, video communication, animation, educational informatics and optical image processing are some exclusive teams that C-DIT offers. C-DIT offers a postgraduate diploma in science and development communication, postgraduate diploma in educational informatics, postgraduate diploma in multimedia development, animation film development course and short term courses in digital still photography, digital sound recording and nonlinear editing.