Sri Lanka’s First Television Transmission

ITN pioneers colour TV – state takes over

Although the television was invented in 1927 and TVs had been in popular use in developed countries for decades, it took Sri Lanka over 30 years since independence to introduce the medium to its citizens.

And when it did, the first telecast came courtesy of private enterprise and not as a result of government policy. The Independent Television Network (ITN) was the creation of media mogul and broadcast engineer Shan Wickremesinghe while ITN’s founding board of directors comprised entrepreneur Anil Wijewardene and Bob Christie.

The first privately owned television station in the island, ITN commenced operations with its TN television channel on 13 April 1979 – coinciding with the Sinhalese and Tamil New Year – and eventually covered 99 percent of Sri Lanka’s landmass.

Its premier broadcast was with a single kilowatt (1kW) transmitter using a 65 foot transmission to reach households within a 15 mile radius of Colombo. Despite being Sri Lanka’s first terrestrial TV operator and also its premier 1080p full HD television channel, early audiences were subject to broadcast disruptions and interrupted programmes due to voltage fluctuations.

In the South Asian region as a rule, the state controlled TV and radio broadcasts, and it was not long – in fact, within a short span of under two months – before the Government of Sri Lanka took over the channel’s operations.

After acquiring the network as a business undertaking, ITN saw duly appointed Competent Authority in the person and work of Thevis Guruge, a former Director-General of the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation (SLBC), develop the country’s pioneering colour television transmission.

This broadcaster would relocate ITN’s transmitters to its present base of operations in Wickrama­singhapura, Battaramulla, in 1984 and go on to become a public company in which the state had a majority share (and therefore, control) in 1992.

These developments saw its revenue streams, programme diversity and coverage increase.

In the South Asian region as a rule, the state controlled TV and radio broadcasts, and it was not long … before the Government of Sri Lanka took over the channel’s operations