United Nations (UN)’s World Television Day is annually observed across the globe on November 21 to recognise the importance and influence of television in our lives.
Background:
i. The UN General Assembly (UNGA) adopted the resolution A/RES/51/205 on 17th December 1996 and proclaimed November 21 of every year as World Television Day.
ii. 21st November was chosen to commemorate the date on which the 1st World Television Forum was held in 1996.
iii. On the 21st and 22nd of November 1996, the UN held the 1st World Television Forum, which provides a platform for the media to discuss the importance of TV in delivering information.
iv. The 1st ever World Television Day was observed on 21st November 1997.
Television (TV):
i. The word television was coined by a Frenchman, Constantin Perskyi, at the 1900 Paris Exhibition (France).
ii. John Logie Baird, Scottish inventor and engineer, invented the 1st mechanical television, which could transmit pictures of objects in motion in 1924 and demonstrated his working television on 26 January 1926.
- He also demonstrated the 1st colour television on 3rd July 1928 in London, United Kingdom (UK).
iii. The 1st Electrical Television was created by an American inventor Philo Taylor Farnsworth in 1927 and was successfully demonstrated in San Francisco, California.
iv. W3XK, the 1st American television station, began broadcasting on July 2, 1928, and was run by Charles Jenkins of Charles Jenkins Laboratories until 1934.
- The company broadcast just outside Washington, D.C., United States of America (USA), and continued to air “radio movies” to the general public 5 nights a week until 1932.
v. In 1936, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) of Britain began the 1st television service.
Television in India:
i. Television came to India on 15th September 1959, with experimental transmission from Delhi.
ii. Doordarshan is a Public broadcast terrestrial television channel run by Prasar Bharati, a board formed by the Government of India (GoI).
- It is one of the largest broadcasting organizations in the world in terms of the infrastructure of studios and transmitters.
- It began production in September 1959 in Delhi with an experimental telecast using a tiny transmitter and a temporary studio.
UN Multimedia Products and Services:
i. UN News
UN News is the United Nations multilingual news portal, a one-stop shop for multimedia news coverage and in-depth information on UN-related issues.
ii. UN Television:
UN Television provides broadcast-quality feeds to media organisations and covers events taking place at the UN Headquarters in New York and Geneva and several significant UN international conferences.
iii. UN WebTV:
Through a variety of platforms and mobile devices, UN WebTV offers live and on-demand streaming coverage of UN meetings and events to a global audience.
iv. Other UN Multimedia Products and Services are, UN Video, Web Services Section, Partnerships Unit, Digital Support Unit, Coverage and Media Services, Media Accreditation and Liaison Unit, and Audio-Visual Services Section.
About the United Nations (UN):
Secretary-General- Antonio Guterres
Headquarters- New York, United States of America (USA)
Establishment- 1945
