Television in Bangladesh

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Television is one of the most popular forms of media and information in Bangladesh.^[1] It was one of the first countries in South Asia to introduce television on 25 December 1964, in the then East Pakistan under the state-owned television network Pakistan Television Corporation in Dhaka. After the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971, the Dhaka television station of PTV was renamed to Bangladesh Television, which had a monopoly on the television industry until 1997, with the launch of ATN Bangla on satellite television. Since then, privately owned television channels saw a tremendous rise in the Bangladeshi television market. As of 2019, 64% of households in Bangladesh had a television set.^[2]

Bangladesh Television currently serves as the sole television broadcaster provided on terrestrial television,^[1] as Ekushey Television, formerly provided on terrestrial from its launch in 2000, was shut down two years later and resumed broadcasting but on satellite television.^[3] All television sets in Bangladesh shall be licensed for ownership.^[4] Bangladesh has a total of thirty-six television channels, thirty-two of which are privately owned. Several television channels were even taken off the air. Pirated television stations have also existed in Bangladesh.^[5]

History[]

Early ages[]

Masuma Khatun in Pakistan Television's studios in Dacca, 1970

Television programming in the then East Pakistan was first commenced in 1964, when Pakistan Television established a television station in Dacca, the first after Lahore, and broadcast from the DIT Bhaban on a four hour basis. After the independence of Bangladesh, the station was immediately renamed to Bangladesh Television, and became a government owned entity. In 1975, Bangladesh Television moved its studios and facilities in a newly built headquarters in Rampura.

Bangladesh Television had established fourteen relay television stations up to 2005, the first one being in Natore in 1974.^[6] Bangladesh Television was the first television station in the region to commence full-time color broadcasts in 1980, followed by Pakistan and India in 1982.^[6] As Bangladesh Television was the only television channel available in the country at the time, its viewership and popularity soared.

Rise of satellite television[]

Satellite television was introduced in Bangladesh in 1992, with over ten foreign channels having presence in the country at the time.^[7] The first Bengali-language satellite television channel based in Bangladesh, ATN Bangla, was launched in 1997, followed by Channel i in 1999.^[8] Satellite television saw a tremendous increase in popularity among Bangladeshis at that period. Several foreign television channels were accused of negative affects towards Bangladesh's social and religious values, so they were banned by the government in 2002, but their bans have been lifted over time.^[9][10]

The headquarters of Ekushey Television, Bangladesh's only privately owned terrestrial television network until its closure in 2002.

As a privately owned terrestrial television network in Bangladesh did not exist at the time, A.S. Mahmud, along with the UK-based Simon Dring, had plans to establish Ekushey Television in the late 1990s.^[11] It was officially launched on 14 April 2000, and quickly gained widespread popularity around Bangladesh.^[12] However, the channel was forced to cease all transmissions in 2002, leaving BTV the sole terrestrial television channel today, even though Ekushey Television did resume broadcasting but on satellite television in 2007. During Ekushey Television's closure, Bangladesh saw a significant increase in privately owned television channels.

NTV was the first among them to be launched in 2003, followed by RTV and Boishakhi Television in 2005, and Channel 1 and Banglavision in 2006. However, several television channels were short-lived and were shut down by the government, such as ATV, TEN, Ruposhi Bangla (not to be confused with the unrelated Indian channel of the same name), Sonar Bangla, and Falguni. In 2009, Jamuna Television began test transmissions, and was later shut down by the BTRC for broadcasting after its license had already been expired, though it would later return to the air in 2014.^[13]

In 2007, Bangladesh's first exclusively news channel, CSB News, went on the air, but was later shut down after airing footages of anti-government protests.^[14] News channels, however, saw a significant rise in Bangladesh, with the launch of ATN News and Independent Television, and test broadcasts of Somoy in 2010, and later its official broadcasts in 2011. On 21 June 2012, Ekattor, Bangladesh's first news channel broadcasting in full HD was launched. On 27 April 2010, Channel 1 was shut down by the BTRC due to illegal activity.^[15]

In February 2013, fearing the rise of the Hindi language among children in Bangladesh, the government banned the Indian feeds of Disney Channel and Disney XD from airing in the country.^[16] On 6 May 2013, Diganta Television and Islamic TV were obliged to cease all transmissions by the BTRC.^[17] On 27 June 2013, ULAB established the first student television station in Bangladesh, ULAB TV.^[18] On 2 December 2014, Bangladesh's first music-oriented television channel, Channel 16, was accused of illegally broadcasting via an Israeli satellite and even after its license had already been expired, and left unrenewed, and demanded the channel to shut down.^[19][20] After the July 2016 Dhaka attack, UAE-based Peace TV and Peace TV Bangla were banned by the Government of Bangladesh.^[21]

The country's first children's television channel, Duronto TV, was launched on 5 October 2017.^[22] During the COVID-19 pandemic, both BTV and Sangsad Television broadcast live educational lessons for primary and secondary level students.^[23] On 2 October 2021, cable operators in Bangladesh imposed a blackout on several foreign television channels that did not provide clean feeds, constituted in a 2006 policy. Cable operators have already been informed about foreign channels without clean feeds in August. However, on 5 October 2021, the foreign channels resumed broadcasting in Bangladesh via clean feeds.^[24][25][26]

Digital television in Bangladesh[]

State-owned Bangladesh Television began test transmissions on digital terrestrial television in Dhaka, Chittagong, and Khulna on 25 January 2011.^[27] Bangladesh adopted the DVB-T system for digital television broadcasts in 2014.^[28] On 4 November 2021, as a part of the Digital Bangladesh campaign, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting urged all cable operators to provide set-top boxes. All satellite television channels in Dhaka and Chittagong were announced to be migrated to digital satellite television by 30 November. It was announced that by 31 December 2021, all divisional and metropolitan cities of Bangladesh, along with Jessore, Gazipur, Narayanganj, Tangail, and Pabna, will switch over to digital satellite television, but this decision was later delayed by the High Court of Bangladesh.^[29][30][31] The government later announced that the installation of set-top boxes to stream television channels will be made obligatory in all divisional and metropolitan areas by 1 June 2022.^[32]

Television providers[]

Internet television[]

The BTRC only allows licensed internet service providers to broadcast television channels over the internet. In 2019, BDCOM Online Ltd launched the first IPTV service in Bangladesh.^[37] The RAB raided the headquarters of the IPTV channel Joyjatra Television on 30 July 2021 after the arrest of Helena Jahangir, the channel's owner, and found no valid documents, and demanded for the channel's shutdown.^[38] Prior to their shutdown in September 2021, around 59 IPTV television channels have been broadcasting illegally in Bangladesh without valid licenses.^[39][40]

List of television channels[]

Bangladesh Television is the state-owned television broadcaster of Bangladesh

The Government of Bangladesh has permitted 45 television channels to broadcast as of 2019, of which 36 channels are currently broadcasting. All of the private television channels in Bangladesh broadcast solely on satellite and cable television, and BTV Dhaka and BTV Chittagong are the only two television channels in the entire country that broadcast on terrestrial television. Bangladesh Television broadcasts nationwide terrestrially via its fourteen relay stations.

State-owned Bangladesh Television, the owner of both stations, is the oldest television broadcaster in Bangladesh, having to be founded in 1971. For a brief period of time, Ekushey Television was the first and only privately owned terrestrial channel in the country, and was also the first of its kind in South Asia,^[11] until its closure in 2002. Bangladesh has four state-owned television channels, which are BTV Dhaka, BTV Chittagong, BTV World, and Sangsad Television, the country's parliamentary television channel. Foreign television channels, typically from India, air in clean feed after being obliged to do so since October 2021.^[41]

Bangladesh has a high number of mixed entertainment television channels, namely ATN Bangla, Channel i, Ekushey Television, NTV, RTV, Boishakhi Television, Banglavision, My TV, Mohona TV, Deepto TV, Nagorik, and many more. It also has several news channels, which are ATN News, Ekattor, Somoy TV, DBC News, Independent Television, Jamuna Television, News24, and Channel 24.

References[]