Pakistani Media: A short history of few and most old yet popular Pakistani news channels.

        Pakistan has more than 118 TV channels available for the audience via cable from which 27 are 24x7 news channels. Pakistan had only one state owned PTV News as the only channel till 2001 but in 2001 Musharraf Government brought in the law allowing the entry of private news channels. By 2009 Pakistan had over 60 TV channels and 14+ news channels. This influx of news channels really created a ruckus for audience and the advertisers and yet few of them, which were launched in or before 2008, survived.

Here is a look on the evolution of most watched and popular TV channels since their launches;

ARY NEWS

ARY News was launched in 2001 as ARY One and it was based in Dubai. Initially it was launched for the Pakistani diaspora living in UAE or gulf by the ARY group which is Dubai based group and its news were focused only Karachi. At the time when the law allowing private TV channels to broadcast in Pakistan approved, this channel was the only news channel available to fulfill the news category on cable in Pakistan till Oct 2002. 

ARY then re-branded it to ARY One World and it remained till 2009 when finally its management turned it to ARY NEWS. Currently its the most watch TV channel in all provinces except Gilgit-Baltistan.

GEO NEWS

GEO TV started its test transmission in August 2002 and launched in October 2002. It was the second news channel by category but very first Pakistani TV channel with studios based in Dubai. Geo tv was an instant hit in Pakistan and became the only trusted source for the daily news.

Geo TV launched a full time 24x7 GEO news channel in September 2006. Geo news was forced to shift its setup in Pakistan after the ban during emergency rule in November 2007 and it was back on air in January 2008. GEO News is equally popular in all provinces and specifically in the northern areas of Pakistan.

DUNYA NEWS

Dunya news was launched in December 2008 by a former local administrative, Amir Mehmood who also owns a large group of colleges and university in Pakistan. Dunya news had to struggle initially but it saw an exponential growth in its rating and viewership after its flagship comedy show Haseb-e-Haal.

Dunya News is currently the 3rd most watched TV channel.

SAMAA TV

Samaa TV was launched in the year when most of the private TV channels were launched. It satrted its test transmission in September 2007 and launched on December 08, 2007.

Samaa tv grabbed the attention by its new and gradient theme and more focused Urdu vocabulary for the most news. This channel stands at 4th position in terms of viewership.

EXPRESS NEWS

Express News was launched on 1st January 2008 by a business group Laskon Tombaco in Lahore. It became the 3rd most popular news channel within 3 months of its launch due to its unique programming and short promo clips highlighting the promises of the political parties which read, "Jo Waada Kiya Wo Nibhana Paray Ga" (The promises to be fulfilled which you made to public).

From political perspective, Express news programming was always unique. It had a short satire anime segment called "Bankay Mian Ki Kahani" which was equally popular in all segments of news media viewers. With the time express news did loose its charm as it failed to maintain its unique programming but still managed its position in top 5 news channels list.