Hmmmm?
huh ? could you be more specific, then perhaps i can answer your question…
CNN, BBC, ESPN, STAR, CNBC, HBO, Discovery, National Geographic, Cartoon Network, Hallmark etc. are all aired here…
As xash said, you get many of the same things on TV that you see in the States. However, they also have variety shows in Hindi as well as others Indian languages and dialects. MTV and Channel V (similar to MTV) show multilanguage videos.
For me, it was really strange to see old TV shows I had grown up with like “Silver Spoons” and “I Dream of Jeanie” dubbed in Hindi. 
They talk good English.
Well I didn’t think I’d have to be more specific.
I was wondering about Indian shows for Indians. I was thinking that having seen many of those TV shows and commercials of the world shows I’ve seen here, I don’t remember a single Indian show or commercial which seemed odd since Bollywood is such an important entertainment maker for billions of people.
So what is TV like in India?
Hi Osiris, i misconstrued your question to mean “How does TV in India compare with TV in the U.S.”…
But, now that you have clarified…
Apart from the channels i’ve already mentioned, and a few others that i haven’t mentioned, India has an abundance of local channels and programming…
There are hundreds of channels in multiple languages…Hindi, ofcourse, being the most popular… Each regional language has its own fair share of channels… The content ranges from anything to everything… news, entertainment, documentaries, movies, music, chat shows, soaps, “who wants to be a millionaire” clones, the works… Infact, a lot of the channels air in languages that i cannot understand… this is because India has some 15 or so officially recognized languages…
So, there is enough entertainment for the masses here…
A note: There are just a few channels that air terrestrially (these belong to the national television network called Doordarshan), while the rest require a cable subscription… so a significant population receives only channels that belong to the Doordarshan network…
and as islandgirl said, there is an increasing trend of dubbing popular english shows into local languages… they’ve even dubbed Johnny Bravo into Hindi… i think that really sux… the dubbed version, not the original… i guess a lot of jokes, especially ones that rely on puns and nuances of the english language are totally lost in the dubbed version… i dread the day they dub the simpsons into hindi
In the U.S., dish network airs an Indian channel called B4U or Bollywood For You :
http://www.dishnetwork.com/content/programming/channels/index.asp?NetwID=538
I have also noticed that Hindi dramas (soap operas) are really popular. My aunt is addicted!
MTV India is a bit like Grease. It’s very colourful.
Hmmm, interesting. Thank you.
Can you tell me about their audience? To they focus on the young and wealthy or do they seem to have shows catering to all different types? Do they sitcoms? What kind of commercials do they have?
And most importantly why have I never seen any wacky commercials from India on those crazy commercial from around the world shows?
I’ve always wondered how foreigners liked our cartoons. I wonder how they’d do the episode where Spongebob goes to Rock Bottom. I’d LOVE to see John Bravo in Hindi. Do they do the Elvis impression?
Don’t forget sports.
The first time I was in India, there was a test match going on. Just about every time I saw a TV, it was showing cricket and there was a crowd of locals watching in rapt attention.
The audience is amazingly varied… the young and wealthy are a minority in this country… they have shows catering to all different types…
yes we have sitcoms…
currently playing are three’s company, full house, third Rock from the sun, friends, raymond, frasier, dharma and greg, fresh prince of bel air, who is doug, simpsons, happy days, the drew carey show, whose line, caroline in the city, seinfeld, mork and mindy, simpsons, etc. so you see, we have a long line up of comedies… but these are all played between 2 channels (all shows in english)… which leaves a hundred other channels to show other stuff that i don’t quite watch…
The commercials ofcourse depend mostly on what channel they’re airing on and what their perceived target audience is… current favourite ads include the michael schumacher ad for the fiat palio, which is neat. somewhat along the lines of the david beckham ad with pepsi (where that kid wipes the can with beck’s jersey) and then walks of with juve printed on the back of his shirt… the coke vs. pepsi ads here are amazing… the rivalry is intense and each makes parodies of the other’s ads… they’re pretty zany… but nothing that would make it to “crazy commercial” shows…
the biggest audience pullers in this country are the cricket maestro Sachin Tendulkar and the Big B of Hindi films Amitabh Bachchan. Their crowd pulling abilities probably do not have an equivalent anywhere else on the globe (partly because of the 1 billion advantage ) They’re both signed up by Pepsi. Coke has the other crowd fav. Amir Khan (who was recently nominated for an oscar in the foreign film cat.)
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i loooove Johnny Bravo (in english), and kinda like pinky 'n the brain… tom 'n jerry’s are evergreens… futurama is hitting the shores soon… got any reviews on that ?
Johnny Bravo in Hindi is pathetico! It’s not even funny. The Elvis impression would be totally lost on the target folks for two reasons, 1. the dubbing/language screws up the effect… 2. the general target audience for the hindi version wouldn’t probably have listened to/seen/heard of the King.
the next time i see a whacky commercial, i’ll let ya know…
I’m jealous. No, really. When I got digital cable, I actually considered ordering ZeeTV (a Hindi-language station) at $14.95/month just so I could get the cricket matches. Never mind the fact that I don’t know a word of Hindi, I just want to see the cricket, dammit!
My impression is that Indian culture is much more discreet than American culture when it comes to sexuality. Are American shows edited to avoid offending Indian attitudes about sex? (Or is my perception of Indian culture wrong?)
Your perception of Indian culture is not incorrect… nudity is vehemently stricken by our censors… porn is taboo… our films do not yet (barring one or two, in my memory) have kissing scenes(!)
strange, for a country of a billion people and the land of the kamasutra
American tv shows that have sexual innuendos or sexual jokes - as in verbal and not visual sexuality - i think, imho, the censors don’t really care or understand, so i think that mostly comes through unfiltered… but ofcourse, a movie with sex scenes would be censored, either by cutting out the scene, or smudging the tits in topless beach type scenes… i’ve yet to see nudity on the publicly aired channels…
that’s not to say that people who want porn don’t have access to it… access to blue films, prostitutes, etc. are pretty easily available… even though both are illegal (actually the law is not too clear on prostitution…
http://www.oneworld.org/ips2/dec/india3.html
[anecdote time]
internet came to india… people heard that porn was easily and readily accessible over the 'net… so people staged a march outside the ISP(!)'s office to demonstrate their anger. ISP spokesperson defended, saying we ain’t the guys showing the porn… people left.
ofcourse, i still get saturday late night illegal porn movies shown by the local cable operator…this is common practice…
[/anecdote time]
it’s an intriguing culture, really… and i don’t represent even one half of one percent of it, probably…