TNL Pioneering the air waves

Pioneer of Sri Lanka Television industry Shan Wickremesinghe felicitated 


Sri Lanka private television broadcasting pioneer Shan Wickremesinghe’s colossal contribution to the media knows no bounds. If it was not for Mr. Wickremesinghe’s staunchness and perseverance, Sri Lanka wouldn’t have got the opportunity to indulge in television experience nor increase its pursuit for more information and entertainment.


Therefore, a felicitation ceremony was organised by Telshan Networks (Pvt) Ltd to felicitate the Chairman of TNL Shan Wickremesinghe on Tuesday, December 15 at the Bandaranaike Memorial International Conference Hall. 

The event was graced by the presence of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe as the chief guest and many other distinguished guests including Ministers, Parliamentarians, Ambassadors, artistes and many distinguished personalities.

The Prime Minister in his speech felicitated his brother, Shan Wickremesinghe for his immense contribution to the media industry and for laying the foundation for the Sri Lankan television industry commencing with ITN and TNL TV channels.  The birth of the Sri Lanka television industry commences with the moon shot thinking of Mr. Wickremesinghe, who dedicated most of his time and strived with diligence to introduce the television industry to the country.  Commencing with Independent Television Network Limited (ITN), the first ever terrestrial television channel to be telecast in Sri Lanka, Mr. Wickremesinghe, revolutionised the Sri Lankan media industry by setting the trend for television services.  Although the television was introduced to the world by Scottish engineer John Logie Baird in 1924, the technology took more than three decades to reach Sri Lanka. 

April 13, 1979 was a hallmark in Sri Lankan history, which marks the day the television was introduced to the country. Amidst many obstacles, ITN was able to provide its broadcasting services under the leadership of Shan Wickremesinghe only for eight weeks. Issuing a special Gazette notification, the late President J. R. Jayewardene’s Government converted ITN to a State owned property on June 5, 1979. 

Later ITN was brought under the Sri Lanka Rupavahini Act of 1982, the same period during which Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation was created.

Addressing the event Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said that Sri Lanka was the first South Asian country to start colour transmission.

He said when Shan Wickremesinghe sought to run a local network in the country, the authorities and officers during the time were not inclined to move along with this idea. 

After 1978, the late President J. R. Jayewardene proposed that Sri Lanka should gain access to television services. Consequently, Sri Lanka became the first South Asian country to gain access to colour transmission service. “I was schooling during 1966 and it was during this time that J. R. Jayewardene proposed to introduce a local television network to the country. Sri Lanka was the first country in South Asia to benefit television service with colour transmission. 

“When Shan requested permission to run a private television station, the idea was opposed by the Government at the time, given the excuse that with only about 50, 000 television viewers in the country, running two local TV channels would not be sustainable. 

“However, the TNL became the first private television broadcaster in the country and by few years time the fast growing business in the country was importing televisions. 



“The TNL achieved a successful transmission and today we have many private media institutions in the broadcasting field, contributing of the media industry,” the Prime Minister said. Premier Wickremesinghe said that with the advancement of technology and heavy reliance for information through the social media, today the print media faced the biggest challenge in the Sri Lanka.  He said that the rapid growth trends in globalisation had resulted in many challenges to broadcast and print media in disseminating news and information.

He claimed that this challenge affected the print media most. 

He raised the question as to how the print media would continue to prevail and provide services, while competing with the social media.
The Prime Minister said that Sri Lanka would be economically viable if a media portal was created in the country with equal advancement in the electronic and print media. 

He expressed these views citing examples from Canada and Australia stating that these countries had attracted foreign earnings by advancing their knowledge and technology in the fields of electronic media, social media and film production. 

A memento was presented by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe to the Chairman of TNL Shan Wickremesinghe, as a mark of respect and gratitude for the contribution and commitment displayed by him towards the growth and ground breaking success of the media industry in Sri Lanka.