ETV is an Indian

Telugu Telugu may refer to: * Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of India *Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India * Telugu script, used to write the Telugu language ** Telugu (Unicode block), a block of Telugu characters in Unicode S ...

-language general entertainment

pay television Pay television, also known as subscription television, premium television or, when referring to an individual service, a premium channel, refers to Subscription business model, subscription-based television services, usually provided by multichan ...

channel. The channel was launched on 27 August 1995 focusing on the state of

Andhra Pradesh Andhra Pradesh (, abbr. AP) is a state in the south-eastern coastal region of India. It is the seventh-largest state by area covering an area of and tenth-most populous state with 49,386,799 inhabitants. It is bordered by Telangana to the ...

. It is a part of the

ETV Network ETV Network is a network of Telugu language news and entertainment satellite television channels in India. It is based in Hyderabad. It also had some non Telugu language satellite television channels. All non-Telugu language satellite televisi ...

owned by

Ramoji Group Ramoji Group is an Indian conglomerate headed by Ramoji Rao and headquartered in Hyderabad, India. Its businesses cover television and newspaper media, film production, financial services, retail, education and hospitality. In 1996, one of i ...

. It is the second oldest Telugu

satellite channel A satellite or artificial satellite is an object intentionally placed into orbit in outer space. Except for passive satellites, most satellites have an electricity generation system for equipment on board, such as solar panels or radioisotop ...

after

Gemini TV Gemini TV is an Indian Telugu language general entertainment pay television channel. It was launched on 9 February 1995 by Gemini Group, owned by A. Manohar Prasad (grandson of L. V. Prasad), in association with Sun TV Network. In 1996-97, Sun ...

. It is also one of the earliest private satellite channels in

South India South India, also known as Dakshina Bharata or Peninsular India, consists of the peninsular southern part of India. It encompasses the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Telangana, as well as the union territo ...

Name

The letter E in ETV stands as a

letter "ఈ" meaning "This" collectively meaning as "This TV". The letter E also stands as a short cut form of

Eenadu ''Eenadu'' () is the largest circulated Telugu-language daily newspaper of India sold mostly in the states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.Ramoji Rao Cherukuri Ramoji Rao (born 16 November 1936) is an Indian businessman, media entrepreneur, and film producer. He is head of the Ramoji Group which owns the world's largest film production facility Ramoji Film City, ''Eenadu'' newspaper, ETV Netw ...

. ''Eenadu'' is a

polysemic Polysemy ( or ; ) is the capacity for a sign (e.g. a symbol, a morpheme, a word, or a phrase) to have multiple related meanings. For example, a word can have several word senses. Polysemy is distinct from ''monosemy'', where a word has a single ...

word which has two meanings in Telugu language "this day" and "this land".

History

Launch

ETV was launched on 27 August 1995 by

which owned

Eenadu ''Eenadu'' () is the largest circulated Telugu-language daily newspaper of India sold mostly in the states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.Telugu Telugu may refer to: * Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of India *Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India * Telugu script, used to write the Telugu language ** Telugu (Unicode block), a block of Telugu characters in Unicode S ...

-language daily newspaper. The company leased a high-quality transponder on the

Intelsat Intelsat S.A. (formerly INTEL-SAT, INTELSAT, Intelsat) is a multinational satellite services provider with corporate headquarters in Luxembourg and administrative headquarters in Tysons Corner, Virginia, United States. Originally formed as In ...

satellite system, and uplinked from Padduka near

Colombo Colombo ( ; si, කොළඹ, translit=Koḷam̆ba, ; ta, கொழும்பு, translit=Koḻumpu, ) is the executive and judicial capital and largest city of Sri Lanka by population. According to the Brookings Institution, Colombo me ...

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

. ETV began with an ambitious 18-hour service of entertainment and film-based programming. Its initial programming included children's programmes like ''Sabash Tin-Tin'', ''Baboi Dennis'' (the Telugu-dubbed versions of animated series ''

The Adventures of Tintin ''The Adventures of Tintin'' (french: Les Aventures de Tintin ) is a series of 24 bande dessinée#Formats, ''bande dessinée'' albums created by Belgians, Belgian cartoonist Georges Remi, who wrote under the pen name Hergé. The series was one ...

'' and '' Dennis the Menace''), film-based programmes like ''Cinema Quiz'', ''Cinemasala'', ''Hats Off'' (hosted by veteran film actor

Nutan Prasad Tadinada Varaprasad popularly known as Nutan Prasad (12 December 1945 – 30 March 2011) was an Indian actor who predominantly worked in Telugu cinema and Telugu theatre. He was a native of Kaikaluru, Andhra Pradesh, India. He started his film ...

), ''Masterminds'', a children's quiz, women-centric programmes like ''Vasundhara'', ''Chitti Chitkalu'', ''Ghuma Ghumalu'' etc.

Recent history

In February 2006,

had taken its two Telugu channels ETV and

ETV2 ETV2 ( et, ETV kaks) is the second channel of the Estonian Public Broadcastin(Eesti Rahvusringhääling – ERR)focusing on children's programming during the day and providing cultural content in the evening. ETV2 is known for its quality ar ...

to pay mode at a combined price of 10. However, its non-Telugu channels remained

free-to-air Free-to-air (FTA) services are television (TV) and radio services broadcast in unencrypted form, allowing any person with the FTA Receiver, appropriate receiving equipment to receive the signal and view or listen to the content without requiring ...

(FTA). It was reported in January 2014 that

Network18 Group Network18 Media & Investments Limited, (formerly SGA Finance and Management Service and Network18 Fincap Limited) commonly referred to as the Network18 Group and sometimes as the Network18–Eenadu Group, is an Indian media conglomerate owned b ...

had bought 24.5 percent stake in the Telugu channels ETV and ETV2 along with acquiring 100 percent stake in the regional

Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...

news channels of the

. It also has a HD version which was launched on 29 July 2016 under the name ETV HD. The channel is the 3rd most watched

Telugu language Telugu (; , ) is a Dravidian language spoken by Telugu people predominantly living in the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, where it is also the official language. It is the most widely spoken member of the Dravidian language fami ...

TV channel with an impression of 1228.2 AMA (Average Minute Audience) during 10th week data of 6–12 March 2021 according to BARC ratings. In February 2017, ETV entered into an exclusive partnership with

over-the-top An over-the-top (OTT) media service is a media service offered directly to viewers via the Internet. OTT bypasses cable, broadcast, and satellite television platforms: the types of companies that traditionally act as controllers or distributors ...

(OTT) content provider

YuppTV YuppTV is an over-the-top (OTT) content provider for South Asian content including live television and films with recording and storage features. YuppTV allows broadcasters and content providers to reach an audience, and allows consumers to view ...

in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. As part of the association, YuppTV users can access content from ETV Telugu, along with other ETV Network channels like ETV Life, ETV Plus, ETV Cinema and ETV Abhiruchi in the US Market.

Programming

Initially, ETV preferred creating in-house content as the parent company had experience in film production through

Usha Kiran Movies Usha Kiron Movies is an Indian film production company founded by Ramoji Rao in 1983. It is a part of Ramoji Group Ramoji Group is an Indian conglomerate headed by Ramoji Rao and headquartered in Hyderabad, India. Its businesses cover t ...

banner and because Ramoji Group also owns

Ramoji Film City Ramoji Film City is an integrated film studio facility located in Hyderabad, India. Spread over 1,666 acres (674 ha), it is the largest film studio complex in the world and as such has been certified by the Guinness World Records. It was estab ...

, the largest film studio facility in the world. Later it also started encouraging outside producers to produce serials for the channel. ETV Telugu Channels

Current programming Serials Non-fiction and reality shows

Logos