Today India boasts of being the third largest television market in the world. The small screen has produced numerous celebrities of their own kind some even attaining national fame. TV soaps are extremely popular with housewives as well as working women. Approximately half of all Indian households own a television. Television first came to India in the form of Doordarshan (DD) on Sept 15, 1959. 
Doordarshan is the National Television Network of India and also one of the largest broadcasting organisations in the world. Apart from the state run Doordarshan, there are six DTH players with 54.52 million DTH users in India with the present prediction; it is likely to overtake the US in terms of the largest DTH market in the world. As of 2012, the country has a collection of free and subscription services over a variety of distribution media, through which there are over 823 channels of which 184 are pay channels. Total television viewership of 415 million is amongst the world�s highest with nearly 15-16 Television companies beaming programmers to India. 
The major players being Doordarshan, STAR TV (Satellite Television Asia Network), Zee Television, United Television, CNN, Sony Television, ATN (Asia Television Network), BBC World, SUN TV, Discovery Channel, TNT and Others. 
India�s television business has an estimated $3.4 billion in revenue in 2005, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers. With the government is focusing more on Digitalisation, TV distribution is taking new shape Digitalisation has been a major challenge for the government as digital cable is not gaining momentum. According to the new deadline, pan India digitalisation us expected to happen by December 31, 2014. 
Another challenge for the Television Industry is Average Revenue Per User (ARPU). India is amongst the countries with lowest ARPU as compared to developed countries like US and UK