The 1990s witnessed rapid growth of television in India with the establishment of various private television networks. The Gulf War of 1991 popularised the news channel CNN, and the launching of STAR-TV in that same year the Whampoa Hutchison Group of Hong Kong, declared the arrival of private satellite channels in India. STAR-TV was initially broadcasted through the Chinese satellite ASIASAT 1 and offered five 24-hour channels in 38 countries of Asia. In 1992, Zee-TV, a Hindi-based satellite entertainment channel also began airing programs to cable television systems in India. Many cable operators installed large satellite dishes to receive these private satellite channels, and offered them to cable subscribers, greatly multiplying the entertainment options in India. By 1995, more than 12 million Indian households were watching cable and satellite channels; by the year 2000, this number had risen to more than 35 million. Over 40 private cable and satellite channels were available to Indian audiences that included several channels that focused exclusively on regional-language broadcasting like Sun-TV, Eenadu-TV, Udaya-TV, Raj - TV and Asianet. By the year 2000, Zee-TV also initiated several regional networks, broadcasting in Marathi, Bengali, and other languages. Now the number of television channels in India have increased to over 515.
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