TV Times

TV Times

‘Twenty Five years of Television in Sri Lanka’
Sri Lanka celebrated the Silver Jubilee of television culture in the country on April 24. The very first television programme was telecast on ITN on April 14, in 1979. Since then the Lanka’s tele-culture has expanded into a huge industry creating hundreds of professionals and non-professionals in the scene with 11 permanent television channels within just 25 years.

To mark this occasion a comprehensive and up to date Sinhala research book titled ‘ 25 years of Television in Sri Lanka’ by Godage Publications will be launched on April 29 at 4.00 pm at Mahaweli Centre in Colombo.

This book consists of the unwritten and unpublished full story of the launch of Television in Sri Lanka on the April 14 1979 as ITN (Independent Television Network). Within the last 25 years 11 TV Channels have been launched in Sri Lanka and one TV channel is now seen in 180 countries all over the world.

The take over of the ITN by the government (founded by Shan Wickremesinghe and his three collaborators Anil Wijewardena and Bob Christie) are also featured in this book.

An engineer recalls for the first time the input of the Yugoslavian TV in Sri Lanka for the 1976 Non- Aligned Conference.

The donation of the Japanese government and the birth of SLRC (Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation) the MTV (the first private TV station) and the expansion of Sirasa TV, Shakthi TV, ETV, Swarnavahini, ARTV and TV Lanka are also feautured in the book.

Three special articles by Sir Arthur C. Clarke Engineer K.N.Gunawardena and Robert Cruze are also featured.

The book also comprises of 20 other specialized articles on TV- culture and personal experiences by the television industry related personalities. It carries a comprehensive TV survey done by a research team of UNDA.

The birth of UNDA (The International Catholic Radio and TV Organisation) and the Abinandana Awards for TV and radio has a special chapter in this book. Sumathi Awards and their citations are also mentioned.

This book is the result of a research team brought together by the Catholic Media Institute headed by Fr. Ernest Poruthota and Wijith Rohan in their annual media course. The editorial head of the team is Sajeewani Helen Muthumuni and the Managing Editor is Rasika Sampath. The editorial team consists of over 50 persons including Indrajith Sri Perera and Sujeewa Arawwala.

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