English Entertainment
Discovery Channel to celebrate Republic Day with ‘India On Film’
MUMBAI: Discovery Channel, India’s leading destination for real-life entertainment, will celebrate 70 Republic Day of India with a special documentary ‘India On Film’, a unique two-part documentary film, narrated by versatile actor Rahul Bose. The film explores never seen before archival footage expertly restored and digitized by the British Film Institute (BFI) highlighting India’s rich history, society, culture and the daily life in the 1900s. Catch ‘India On Film’ on 26 January at 8PM only on the Discovery Channel and Discovery Channel HD.
‘India On Film’ will take the viewers back in time, to over a century ago, to meet traditionally dressed women and men from across classes, to walk the busy streets with rickshaw pullers, to ride elephants with hunters, to wash in the Ganges, to pick tea in the hills and to join families for a traditional picnic. Since the earliest days of the movie camera, expatriates and travelers from Europe have filmed across the Indian sub-continent, witnessing extraordinary historic events and momentous change in the first half of the 20th century. At times touching, funny and engaging, ‘India On Film’ offers a ringside view of history in the making and a remarkable glimpse into a past way of life. With an archive of over 160 films, the BFI manages to cover landscapes from the foothills of the Himalayas in the north to the tropical south, cities such as Calcutta, Delhi and Bombay, in their rustic setting.
Speaking about his experience of narrating the film, actor Rahul Bose, said, “I am always drawn to projects that look at things through a different lens. India On Film, is unique in its thought and manifestation. Being a part of this film was educative and a privilege in equal parts. The film delicately weaves the rich history of the subcontinent and gives the viewer a rare glance into what it looked like in the 1900s.”
Discovery South Asia content, factual & lifestyle entertainment director Sai Abishek said, “India on Film is a fantastic opportunity for viewers to get a glimpse into an unseen India they have so far only read about in history books or heard about in stories handed down through the generations. It is mesmerizing to visualize such an important piece of our rich past.”
TVF International Acquisitions Manager for India on Film distributor Julian Chou-Lambert said: “From some of the earliest ever films of India through to remarkable footage of Gandhi, India on Film provides a visual and historical treasure trove. Many of the BFI films have never been seen before, so we are very pleased to be bringing these to India for the first time through Discovery.”
Along with chronicling the quotidian life of India in the 1900s, India on Film will also provide a peek into Mahatma Gandhi’s Dandi March and also track British game hunter, Jim Corbett, who filmed many of his expeditions tracking man-eating tigers and leopards. Among the many other events that led to creating a new India, this documentary also encapsulates authenticity of India’s rich past with a detailed understanding of what the country looked like in the 1900s.
UK: The aerial is losing its grip. As broadband becomes the default way Britons watch television, the UK is edging towards a decisive, and divisive, question: should Freeview be switched off by 2034? The issue, highlighted in reporting by The Guardian, has exposed deep fault lines over access, affordability and the future of public service broadcasting.
For nearly 25 years, Freeview has delivered free-to-air television from the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 to almost every corner of the country. Even now, it remains the UK’s largest TV platform, used in more than 16m homes and on around 10m main household sets. Yet the same broadcasters that built it are now pressing for its closure within eight years.
Their case rests on a structural shift in viewing. Smart TVs, superfast broadband and the Netflix-led streaming boom have pulled audiences online. Advertising economics have followed. By 2034, the number of homes using Freeview as their main TV set is forecast to fall from a peak of almost 12m in 2012 to fewer than 2m, making digital terrestrial television, or DTT, increasingly costly to sustain.
But critics say the rush to switch off risks abandoning those least able, or least willing, to move online.
“I don’t want to be choosing apps and making new accounts,” says Lynette, 80, from Kent. “It is time-consuming and irritating trying to work out where I want to be, to remember the sequence of clicks, with hieroglyphics instead of words. If I make a mistake I have to start again.”
Lynette is among nearly 100,000 people who have signed a “save Freeview” petition launched by campaign group Silver Voices. She fears the government is about to “take [Freeview] away from me and others who either don’t like, can’t afford, or can’t use online versions”.
Official figures underline the fault lines. A report commissioned by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport estimates that by 2035, 1.8m homes will still depend on Freeview. Ofcom’s analysis shows those households are more likely to be disabled, older, living alone, female, and based in the north of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Freeview is owned by the public service broadcasters through Everyone TV, which also operates Freesat and the newer streaming platform Freely. After two years of review, DCMS is expected to set out its position soon, drawing on three options proposed by Ofcom: a costly upgrade of Freeview’s ageing technology; maintaining a bare-bones service with only core PSB channels; or a full switch-off during the 2030s.
The broadcasters have rallied behind the third option. They argue that 2034 is the logical cut-off, when transmission contracts with network operator Arqiva expire. By then, they say, the cost of broadcasting to a dwindling audience will far outweigh the returns from TV advertising.
Ofcom agrees a crunch point is approaching. In July, the regulator warned of a “tipping point” within the next few years, after which it will no longer be commercially viable for broadcasters to carry the costs of DTT.
Others see risks beyond economics. Questions remain over whether internet TV can reliably deliver emergency broadcasts, such as the daily Covid updates, in the way that universally available DTT can. The UK radio industry has also warned that an internet-only future for TV could push up distribution costs and force some radio stations off air if PSBs no longer share Arqiva’s mast network.
“It is a political hot potato,” says Dennis Reed, founder of Silver Voices, who says he has “dissociated” his organisation from the government’s stakeholder forum, which he believes is “heavily biased” towards streaming.
The Future TV Taskforce, representing the PSBs, counters that moving online could “close the digital divide once and for all”. “We want to be able to plan to ensure that no one is left behind,” a spokesperson says, adding that rising DTT costs could otherwise mean cuts to programme budgets.
The numbers show the scale of the challenge. Of the 1.8m Freeview-dependent homes projected for 2035, around 1.1m are expected to have broadband but not use it for TV. The remaining 700,000 are forecast to lack a broadband connection altogether.
Veterans of the analogue switch-off, completed in 2012 after 76 years, recall similar fears of “TV blackout chaos”. Around 6 per cent of households were labelled “digital refuseniks”, yet a targeted help scheme and a national campaign, fronted by a robot called Digit Al voiced by Matt Lucas, delivered a largely smooth transition.
This time, the BBC is less keen to foot the bill. Tim Davie, the outgoing director general, has said the corporation should not fund a comparable support programme for a Freeview switch-off.
Research for Sky by Oliver & Ohlbaum suggests that with early awareness campaigns and digital inclusion measures, only about 330,000 households would ultimately need hands-on help ahead of a 2034 shutdown.
Meanwhile, viewing habits continue to fragment. Audience body Barb says 7 per cent of UK households no longer own a TV set, choosing to watch on other devices. In December, YouTube overtook the BBC’s combined channels in total UK viewing across TVs, smartphones and tablets, albeit measured at a minimum of three minutes.
That shift may accelerate. YouTube has recently blocked Barb and its partner Kantar from accessing viewing session data, limiting transparency just as online platforms consolidate power.
“When the government chose British Satellite Broadcasting as the ‘winner’ in satellite TV it was Rupert Murdoch’s Sky instead that came out on top,” says a senior TV executive quoted by The Guardian. “There already is such an outsider ready to be the winner in the transition to internet TV; it is YouTube.”
Freeview’s future now hangs on a familiar British dilemma: modernise fast and risk exclusion, or protect universality and pay the price. Either way, the aerial’s days as king of the living room look numbered.
