Preliminary work was underway in the first half of the 1970s. Businessmen Anil Wijewardena and
Shan Wickremasinghe established the country's first TV station,
Independent Television Network, which started broadcasting on 15 April 1979. The new station remained independent for less than two months, as the
government took control of it on 5 June 1979 following a dispute with
President J. R. Jayewardene. and started broadcasting on 15 February 1982. Since the 2020
COVID-19 pandemic, television has increased in use for distance education. A table has been created for children to find free study channels in Sri Lanka if they are unable to attend school. The analogue spectrum was full in November 2025, with no less than 24 channels. The government decided to suspend issuing licenses to new analogue channels and announced the shutdown of analogue signals by 2029. Sri Lanka will employ the
ISDB-T standard. ==Television providers==