Television

Divyavani Television

History

Pope Paul VI said that “The Church would feel guilty before the Lord if she did not utilize these powerful means that human skill is daily rendering more perfect. It is through them that she proclaims "from the housetops" the message of which she is the depositary. In them she finds a modern and effective version of the pulpit. Thanks to them she succeeds in speaking to the multitudes.” It is needless to say that in the age of electronic and social media the pulpits have changed drastically. Today 85% of Indian homes have television connectivity. Thus television has become the popular medium and the best vehicle to reach masses.

The Catholic Church which is also the single largest group among Christians has realised the need and started setting up Channels like Prardhana Bhavan TV, Shalom TV, Goodness TV and Madha TV in Hindi, Malayalam and Tamil languages and running successfully. After Hindi Telugu is the largest spoken language in India. Taking into account the long felt need of the people expressed particularly at the Prabhu Yesu Mahotsavam in May 2012 held in Vijayawada Fr. Bala Showry the new Director of Amruthavani Regional Communication Centre made the initial proposal to the Telugu Catholic Bishops council (TCBC) in their meeting in September 2012 to start a Telugu Catholic TV Channel. With the consent of the bishops, a survey was ministered to 1,30,000 people in 13 dioceses where people reaffirmed with 65% of them ready to support financially. Amruthavani was given the responsibility to further study the feasibility of the proposal in detail and a sub-committee of Bishops (3), Religious (2) and lay (3) representatives was set up by TCBC on September 19th 2013. A reality check was to be made at least with a pledge of one crore to go forward in taking a decision favourably. TCBC finally made a formal decision on 28th August 2014 and the same was later announced officially.