Many Indian-Tamil television programs are accessible on satellite and multicultural channels in overseas territories such as Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Singapore, Europe, the Middle East, and Australia.
[2] When Channel 8 started on 31 August 1963 with a pilot schedule, it aired the Tamil film Naan Petra Selvam.
[3] In India, there was only one national channel, the government-owned Doordarshan, which commenced broadcasting programs in Indian languages in the 1980s.
[5] The 2000s marked the golden era for the Tamil language television industry, witnessing phenomenal growth in every dimension.
The first Tamil television channels, Sun TV and DD Podhigai,[4][6] were launched on April 14, 1993, in India.
The Sun TV Network recently launched a DTH service, making its channels available in several countries outside India.
[citation needed] On October 14, 1994, Raj TV[9] was launched by Rajendran and became the second most popular channel in Tamil in the early 2000s.
The same year, another channel called Golden Eagle Communication was launched by N. P. V. Ramasamy Udayar,[10][11] which was later acquired by Star India in 2001.
The channel is co-owned by Southeast Asia's second richest man, Ananda Krishnan, and Astro Malaysia Holdings.
Its main audience was Sri Lankan Tamils living in Europe, the Middle East, and Australia.
The second entertainment channel, Tamil Vision International, based in Toronto, Ontario, was launched on September 7, 2001.
As a result, the channel now produces nearly all its video content in HD through its studios in the UK, India, and Sri Lanka.