MEDIA
Daily newspapers are available in English and Malayalam. The English newspapers with editions from Thiruvananthapuram are The New Indian Express and The Hindu. The major Malayalam newspapers are Mathrubhumi, Malayala Manorama, Kerala Kaumudi, Deshabhimani, and Madhyamam.
Most Malayalam TV channels are based in Thiruvananthapuram. The government owned Doordarshan began broadcasting from here in 1981. Asianet was the first private Malayalam channel and began operations in 1991. The other channels now based in Thiruvananthapuram are Surya TV, Amrita TV, Kairali TV, Kiran TV (Youth channel of Surya TV) Asianet Plus (Youth channel of Asianet) and People (News and current affairs channel of Kairali TV). The local cable services are provided by Asianet Satellite Communications Limited, Trivandrum Cable Network Pvt Ltd and Siti Cable and they provide a bouquet of local channels in addition to all the Indian channels. DTH services are available through Doordarshan Direct Plus Tata Sky and Dish TV.
All India Radio has an AM (1161 MHz) and an FM (Ananthapuri FM; 101.9 MHz) station for the city. FM radio channels broadcast from Thiruvananthapuram are Ananthapuri FM(AIR) 101.9 MHz, Big FM 92.7 MHz, Club FM 94.3 MHz , Radio Mirchi 98.3 MHz, S FM 93.5 MHz and Radio DC(Low power CRS) 90.4 MHz.
There are over 18 cinema halls which screen films in Malayalam, Tamil, English and Hindi. There are also two film studios in the city, Chithranjali and Merryland. The Kinfra Film and Video Park is located near Technopark and is one of the most advanced film and animation production facilities in India. Leading firms like Prasad Labs have their facilities here. The International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK) is held in November/December every year and is acknowledged as one of the leading such events in India.
The basic telephone services are provided by BSNL, Reliance and Tata Indicom. The cellular networks operating in the city are BSNL CellOne, Airtel, Idea Cellular, Vodafone (all GSM) and also Reliance and Tata Indicom (both CDMA). The number of mobile phone connections has increased exponentially since the late 90s. Major broadband internet services are provided by BSNL DataOne, Asianet Dataline and Siti Cable. Private providers like Relaince, VSNL, Airtel and Satyam also have their presence in the city. The major dial-up internet providers are BSNL NetOne, Kerala Online and KelNet among others. Thiruvananthapuram also holds the distinction of having been the first 100% Digital SSA(Secondary Switching Area) in India