All foreign television channels, including the Indian channels in the country have been shut down since Thursday night.
The move followed a directive from the government that said “Foreign channels will not be able to air any advertisements with their original content.”
The cable operators have stopped the broadcast saying that broadcasting of foreign television channels is not possible without advertising.
As a result, no foreign channels were shown in the country since Thursday night.
SM Anwar Parvez, founding president of the Cable Operators Association of Bangladesh (COAB) told Bangladesh Post, “At the moment, broadcast operators do not want to broadcast foreign channels without ads. The time has not come in our country when foreign channels can be broadcast without advertisements. So, the broadcasting of foreign channels has been stopped as per the instructions of the Ministry of Information.”
He further said that if the government provides any new instructions in the future, they will take action accordingly.
The television screens of foreign channels have been showing a message that as per the instructions of the government, no foreign channel can be broadcast with advertisement after September 30. Therefore, being forced, the operators will refrain from broadcasting foreign channels until further notice.
Information and Broadcasting Minister Dr Hasan Mahmud had briefed the representatives of Cable Operators Association, ATCO, Foreign Channel Distributors, Akash DTH and Commerce Ministry regarding the issue at the Secretariat on September 2.
In response to a question from reporters at a meeting held in the meeting room of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting on Thursday afternoon, Dr Hasan Mahmud said that as per the law, mobile court operations will be carried out from October 1 to implement clean-feed broadcasts of foreign channels in the country.
He added that if any cable operator violates the law and displays advertisements and programs, action will be taken against them as per the law.
Under the law of Bangladesh, there is no opportunity for foreign television channels to broadcast any kind of advertisement in Bangladesh. For this reason, the government had earlier taken the initiative to stop advertisements of foreign channels.
Similar steps have been taken again in this regard. Besides the law, the loss of government revenue is also being considered.
On one hand, the government does not get any revenue from the advertisements aired on foreign channels, on the other hand, as these channels are popular in Bangladesh, many multinational companies have chosen foreign channels to promote their products in Bangladesh.