Pakistan Television Corporation

Pakistan Broadcaster.

Award Motivation

For its role in providing media services to the people of Pakistan.

Award details

Pakistan Television Corp is a public and commercial broadcasting television network, as well as a state owned mega-corporation. It was founded in 1964 by an international sector organisation NEC. Its first broadcast was transmitted from a small pilot station in Lahore in November 1964, followed by Dhaka, Bangladesh in 1965, Rawalpindi and Islamabad in 1965 and then Karachi in 1966. In 1971, Pakistan Television, under a nationalisation programme, became government owned. This allowed its network infrastructure to expand all over the country. Whilst originally broadcasting in black and white, colour television was eventually introduced by the network in 1976. In 1987, The Pakistan Television Academy was created in order to educate students who had an interest in working within the television media sector. A full scale satellite broadcasting service was launched in 1991, before digital TV satellite broadcasting was introduced in 1999. Programmes produced by Pakistan Television Corp are varied and include dramas, documentaries, current affairs stories, entertainment and sport. Its programmes are produced in Urdu as well as other regional languages such as Sindhi, Punjabi, Pashto and Balochi. The viewer base, in 2012, rose significantly and the network now enjoys a considerable percentage of Pakistani viewership.

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