Hare Krsna TV staff with Gopal Krishna Goswami. 

Hare Krsna TV, which first launched on Janmashtami 2016 as a local channel, is now available in every state of India. It reaches more than 65% of the country’s households and millions more worldwide through social media platforms like YouTube, where it can be viewed 24/7 on Smart TVs, computers, and mobile devices.

The project had humble beginnings. The TV channel was preceded by an audio cable network that operated from 2000-2016 in Mira Road, a suburb on the outskirts of Mumbai. This audio cable network was connected to 100+ devotee homes in a radius of 2.5 kilometers. It provided two audio channels, one broadcasting Srila Prabhupada’s kirtans and bhajans 24/ 7 and the second sharing Srila Prabhuapa’s lectures from early morning to night as well as live programs from ISKCON Chowpatty. This audio channel was started in the pre-internet era. It was phased out in 2016 with the growing popularity of various internet sevas provided by ISKCON Desire Tree.

As a free-to-air (FTA) channel, Hare Krsna TV viewers don’t have to pay any money to watch this channel. “It is a non-commercial channel with zero advertisements, so the viewers can fully engage and immerse themselves in pure Krishna consciousness without any interruption of commercial breaks,” said Vaishnava Seva Dasa, servant director of Hare Krsna TV and ISKCON Desire Tree. The channel is available through satellite broadcasting in India and immediate neighboring countries.  In addition to directing these services, Vaishnava Seva Dasa is also a co-founder of Bhaktivedanta Hospital and Head of the Department of General and Laparoscopic Surgery. His wife Kalindi Devi dasi (married since 1993) is its Head of the Department of Anesthesiology.

Hare Krsna TV channel broadcasts 46 programs per day, mainly in Hindi and English. But it’s not just programming that is reaching viewers; thousands in remote locations are receiving transcendental literature and counseling from mature devotees. “Through the channel, 800-1,000 Bhagavad Gitas are distributed every month in India,” said Vaishnava Seva Dasa, “Those seeking Srila Prabhupada’s Bhagavad-gita As It Is live in places far from ISKCON temples,” He continued, “Additionally, around 40-100 viewers call daily seeking personal spiritual counseling. Besides this vital counseling, hundreds of viewers call up daily to learn how to connect with ISKCON temples, online courses, prayers, feedback, and more.”

Seeing the strong and growing response and the potential for outreach, the Hare Krsna TV channel also acquired an India satellite license from the Government of India in 2019.

Due to the high quality of its programs, Hare Krsna TV is regarded as one of the best devotional channels available in India. Most of the top cable operators in the country, such as GTPL, Hathway, NXT, Fastway, Siti, IN Cable, and others, carry the channel. The channel is also carried by Direct To Home (DTH) satellite carriers. Tata Play (channel no. 1089), India’s top channel distributor, and Dish TV (channel no. 1061), another popular DTH network, carry Hare Krsna TV.

Hare Krsna TV channel is a sister project of ISKCON Desire Tree, which operates out of Mumbai. ISKCON Desire Tree recently celebrated 22 years of service to the Vaishnava community on the festival of Nityananda Trayodasi. ISKCON Desire Tree website has approximately 7 million visitors every year. The most popular audio section hosts 340,000 audio files with around 10,000 new audio files downloaded per day. While ISKCON Desire Tree is focused on bringing inspiring and informative content to devotees, Hare Krsna TV designs its programming for spiritual outreach.

The TV project involves 55 full-time employees. Additionally, many broadcasting and uplinking services are outsourced to independent contractors.

“Hare Krsna TV YouTube channel is also quite popular,” noted Vaishnava Seva Dasa, “It recently reached a milestone of 2.7 million subscribers and received 111 million views of its content in 2023.”

Although viewership is gradually shifting from traditional TV channels to OTT platforms on smartphones and TVs, traditional religious channels in India still attract significant viewers. One reason is that in India, it’s very cheap to consume content on traditional TV.

The TV channel is blessed by Gopal Krishna Goswami, Radhanath Swami, Bhima Das, Devakinandan Das, Gauranga Das, and many other senior Vaishnavas. “By the grace of Srila Prabhupada and the Vaishnavas, the channel is doing well and touching thousands of lives that otherwise have no access to ISKCON temples,” said Vaishnava Seva Dasa.

“Hare Krsna TV is thankful to all the preachers in India and abroad who have agreed to appear on the TV Channel so that the mission of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and Srila Prabhupada can be spread among the general masses,” expressed Vaishnava Seva Dasa.

Hare Krsna TV has various plans to penetrate the media world further and help connect more people to Srila Prabhupada’s mercy.

To learn more about this ongoing inspiring service, visit their website, YouTube channel, and Instagram. For additional information, readers can email Vaishnava Seva Dasa or Hare Krsna TV directly.  You can follow  ISKCON Desire Tree via their website and Facebook page.