Is Bangladesh blocking all Indian media channels? Here's the truth

[magra]

I read another post but this one kinda serve the purpose.

In a bizarre move, the government's decision to implement an ad-free or clean feed broadcast has forced cable operators to stop broadcasts of all foreign channels—including the BBC, CNN or the very popular ZeeBangla—from Friday.

This move was apparently prompted by the lobbying by Bangladeshi TV channel owners—who were concerned that they were losing advertisement revenues to the popular Indian channels where most advertisers were betting their money on.

While the local channel owners' concerns may have valid arguments, the government decision is one-sided and leaves us baffled. It certainly did not take into consideration the viewers' interest; the older generation and the working-class people who watch a lot of airtime in their leisure hours. Most of them watch the Indian Bangla channels—because in contrast to their content— like it or not, most Bangladeshi entertainment channels fail big time.

Clean feed is such an attractive concept. We all want to watch clean TV programmes. If the foreign channels show advertisements, block them. If you want to totally cut them off as North Korea does, then why not implement the same for the local channels?

The local channels fill up the airtime with advertisement segments way longer than the programme itself. A 20-minute drama may take one hour to complete with 40 minutes of advertisements.

Why do the local channels pump in so many advertisements? It's because of excessive competition among the channels to grab advertisements leading to astonishing price cuts. Whereas BTV charges per minute up to Tk90,000 during peak times and Tk45,000 during off-peak times, some private channels sell per minute airtime to advertisers for a few thousand taka to merely Taka15,000 during their peak times.

Less revenue per minute means they allocate more minutes per programme to cover up their programme cost.

Then again, advertisers are not very interested in their channels. Why should they be? These channels do not invest properly in making content that people would watch. In contrast, Indian channels invest professionally to make whatever the content they are making.

The BTV still spends around four-five lakh taka to make a 50-minute TV drama; whereas, the best private channels do not want to spend more than two lakh taka for the same drama. For a 20-25 minute drama, some channels offer producers/directors 60k-70k; some 40k, and some even do not bother paying for the content. This is the reality. Who would want to take a loss making good programmes for TV?

As a result, good writers and directors have moved away from making creative content. The Indian channels have found an empty goal post to score and win the prize money. You may not like what they are making, but the fact is, older people and working people overwhelmingly watch these because they are entertaining; whereas the Bangladeshi channels are not.

The local channels will die without whatever advertisement revenue they are getting. But are most of them really viable as commercial entities? No. Most of them lack creativity or vision. They do not invest in anything and they just follow a 'copy and paste' formula as their business model.

Shutting foreign channels won't solve the core problems of the local channels.

Like the local tv channels, we, in the print and the online media, can also demand the shut down of Facebook and Google—because we are also losing advertisement revenues to these Internet monopolies. Facebook and Google are taking away our advertisements by a significant amount—these two rake in more ad revenue than all the media houses of the country combined.

But would it be fair for us to ask the government to do so? We think not.

Remember that the government had banned the screening of foreign movies after liberation to help the local movie industry thrive? Did the decision help our industry produce people like Fellini or Ridley Scott? Sorry, it did not. Today the Bangladeshi movie industry is on its deathbed.

Therefore, the government should revisit the decision on the foreign channels. There has to be technology that can block advertisements while not interrupting the airing of the programmes. We want the BBC. We want news. We want HBO, ZeeBangla or the Cartoon Network. We want entertainment in this crazy, stressful world. We want to remain connected to the world—like we already are through the Internet and streaming services. Stopping foreign channels is not the solution.

Shutting foreign channels won’t solve the real Bangladeshi TV crisis

This move was apparently prompted by the lobbying by Bangladeshi TV channel owners

www.tbsnews.net

If the real reason was that local BD channels were losing business due to stiff competition from foreign channels, then alternate solution can be that BD increases the tax rates on ad revenues of foreign channels. This will makes ads costlier on foreign channels and some business will move to local channels.

 

[Black_cats]

Yes - and the movement to ban these channels has been ongoing from 2006, if some of you older guys recall. BAL (and BNP) haramkhor idiots sat and allowed this to happen for fifteen years, taking bribe from Indian media, letting our own channels and media languish.

Lol at 2006 I was in my teen years if that’s considered older. I can recall there were shutdown for few days but due to heavy protest the blocks were lifted. Can’t recall the years.

Most female members used to seat to watch serials one after another from around 8 pm to 11:30 pm at night.

I used to watch CID and AAHAT an horror show. Indian idol once in a while.

 

[Bilal9]

If the real reason was that local BD channels were losing business due to stiff competition from foreign channels, then alternate solution can be that BD increases the tax rates on ad revenues of foreign channels. This will makes ads costlier on foreign channels and some business will move to local channels.

Again, we In Bangladesh are not in the business of supporting foreign (i.e. Indian) media, their workers and their development.

We will support our media, our channels with OUR AD DOLLARS and TAKAS. Period. No matter how bad the programming is, it can improve,

No nation in the world does this (support foreign media and have it support their own culture and sentiments).

Indian media and their govt. can go pound sand and F*ck off.

Lol at 2006 I was in my teen years if that’s considered older. I can recall there were shutdown for few days but due to heavy protest the blocks were lifted. Can’t recall the years.

Most female members used to seat to watch serials one after another from around 8 pm to 11:30 pm at night.

I used to watch CID and AAHAT an horror show. Indian idol once in a while.

See you remember these shows but how many Bangladeshi shows do you remember? I hardly watch Bollywood garbage.

What you watch (and support with Ad dollars) means local people in our media can eat. We can't give away all our money to Indian media and support them.

 

[Maula Jatt]

Lol at 2006 I was in my teen years if that’s considered older. I can recall there were shutdown for few days but due to heavy protest the blocks were lifted. Can’t recall the years.

Most female members used to seat to watch serials one after another from around 8 pm to 11:30 pm at night.

I used to watch CID and AAHAT an horror show. Indian idol once in a while.

Y'all know Hindi/urdu?

 

[Bilal9]

Y'all know Hindi/urdu?

Thanks to Bollywood channels now even young kids can speak Hindi/Urdu...

 

[Black_cats]

Y'all know Hindi/urdu?

We understand it but now many can speak as well it seems.

Again, we In Bangladesh are not in the business of supporting foreign (i.e. Indian) media, their workers and their development.

We will support our media, our channels with OUR AD DOLLARS and TAKAS. Period. No matter how bad the programming is, it can improve,

No nation in the world does this (support foreign media and have it support their own culture and sentiments).

Indian media and their govt. can go pound sand and F*ck off.


See you remember these shows but how many Bangladeshi shows do you remember? I hardly watch Bollywood garbage.

What you watch (and support with Ad dollars) means local people in our media can eat. We can't give away all our money to Indian media and support them.

I don’t watch now to be honest as no time for that.

I can mention of Kothao kew nai, Aisob Din raatri and same Indian idol version in BD, Close up 1 tomakei khujche Bangladesh.

I watched the above 2 natok at YouTube though some serials were missing. But those were good to watch. Hardly such good quality natoks are produced at the moment.

Recently watched Bachelor Point as it has gained popularity but last season was not good as the producer was just stretching the serials.

 

[Bilal9]

We understand it but now many can speak as well it seems.


I don’t watch now to be honest as no time for that.

I can mention of Kothao kew nai, Aisob Din raatri and same Indian idol version in BD, Close up 1 tomakei khujche Bangladesh.

I watched the above 2 natok at YouTube though some serials were missing. But those were good to watch. Hardly such good quality natoks are produced at the moment.

Recently watched Bachelor Point as it has gained population but last season was not good as the producer was just stretching the serials.

Bhai poisha thakley to bhalo programming hobey. Some of those natoks were made when we did not have cable TV induced Indian media in our TV's.

Shob taka jodi India ke diye dei taholey amader media/natok eguli bhalo hobey kibhabey? Natok banatey to poisha lagey, actor ar actress ra khabey ki, free-tey to are kaaj korbey na?

One speaker in the videos I posted said yearly we are passing off 2000 crore rupees to Indian media. This CANNOT CONTINUE.

 

[Black_cats]

Bhai poisha thakley to bhalo programming hobey. Some of those natoks were made when we did not have cable TV induced Indian media in our TV's.

Shob taka jodi India ke diye dei taholey amader media/natok eguli bhalo hobey kibhabey? Natok banatey to poisha lagey, actor ar actress ra khabey ki, free-tey to are kaaj korbey na?

One speaker in the videos I posted said yearly we are passing off 1200 crore rupees to Indian media. This CANNOT CONTINUE.

Many are now moving to YouTube for their natok. They are getting all revenue from YouTube ad and sponsors.

 

[Bilal9]

Many are now moving to YouTube for their natok. They are getting all revenue from YouTube ad and sponsors.

YouTube is fine, because Google (who owns YouTube) pays Bangladesh govt. the necessary taxes and tariffs per our regulations. Being Google, they know (down to a single instance) when an ad was shown and to which IP...

Here is more news.

Information Minister: The government has not shut down any foreign TV channel
Tribune desk

• Published at 09:10 PM October 2, 2021

Information Minister. Hasan Mahmud. File image. Boss

According to the law of Bangladesh, foreign channels cannot show any foreign advertisement in Bangladesh

Information and Broadcasting Minister. Hasan Mahmud said, “The government has not shut down any TV channel. The skies of the country are open. It is the responsibility of foreign channels to comply with the rules of ad-free or cleanfeed display, as well as those who broadcast them here. According to the law of Bangladesh, foreign channels cannot show any advertisement in Bangladesh".

He said, “Agents and operators of foreign channels have stopped broadcasting because they are not able to run ad-free feeds. The foreign channels which are broadcasting without advertisements, their channels are running, there is no obstacle to continue. Channels that come to the country free of advertisements are not barred from broadcasting. Action will be taken if anyone intentionally shuts down ad-free channels to offend the public. ”

He was responding to a question from reporters after addressing a discussion meeting on the occasion of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's 75th birthday at the Chittagong Shilpakala Academy auditorium on Saturday (October 2nd). UAE expatriate community leaders Abdul Motaleb, Jamshedul Alam, Shafiul Alam, Selim Ansari, Jamir Hossain Jamir and others spoke on the occasion.

Broadcasting Minister Hassan Mahmud said, “In our country, foreign channels have been broadcasting flouting our laws with advertisements for years. As a result, the country is being deprived of investment of around two thousand crore Takas every year. We have made many requests and in the end we decided our action on October 1 after meeting with the representatives of foreign channels and the owners of cable operators and TV channels in the country. ”

Bangabandhu Parishad Abu Dhabi Central Committee President Iftekhar Hossain Babul presided over the function and special guests were Chittagong North District Awami League General Secretary Sheikh Ataur Rahman, Co-President and Rangunia Upazila Chairman Swajan Kumar Talukder and Chittagong Expatriate Welfare Association President MA Salam.

 

[crankthatskunk]

Is this the reason why BCCI is the richest cricket body? As they earn so much from ads?

Frankly speaking, I dont think any govt should interfere in private business. If a particular channel shows a lot of ads, then the people can switch channels to see something where ads are lesser. No one is forcing them to pay subscription for a particular channel. Let market economics decide viewership and ads.

All Indians and Pakistani channels show ads after every over, this is their practice, changing channels is not an option. Unless you have access to live Sky or BT sports. Then you can watch, ads free cricket for considerably long periods of time.

 

[mb444]

You are again misleading as the BD action is against all foreign channels. So are you saying all non-BD content is 'corrosive' and 'nonsense'?

No, only the indians ones, i would want complete and comprehensive ban on all indians channels, just as India has imposed on BD channels..

as to non indian channels broadcasting in BD unless they are registered in BD, pay taxes in BD and serves BD requirements, they should be banned.

 

[magra]

All Indians and Pakistani channels show ads after every over, this is their practice, changing channels is not an option. Unless you have access to live Sky or BT sports. Then you can watch, ads free cricket for considerably long periods of time.

TV is facing competition from internet these days. If TV channels show a lot of ads, people will make more effort to watch content on internet where ads are easier to curb.
So again, I would say leave it to market economics.

No, only the indians ones, i would want complete and comprehensive ban on all indians channels, just as India has imposed on BD channels..

as to non indian channels broadcasting in BD unless they are registered in BD, pay taxes in BD and serves BD requirements, they should be banned.

I am talking about the action which has been taken right now. This action is against all foreign channels. I am not talking about what you are wishing for.

BTW - Has India imposed ban on BD channels? I am not aware of that. Can you please post proof.

 

[Bilal9]

TV is facing competition from internet these days. If TV channels show a lot of ads, people will make more effort to watch content on internet where ads are easier to curb.
So again, I would say leave it to market economics.

I am talking about the action which has been taken right now. This action is against all foreign channels. I am not talking about what you are wishing for.

BTW - Has India imposed ban on BD channels? I am not aware of that. Can you please post proof.

Dude you can google these things yourself. Why do you bother other people? This is downright annoying.

 

[bluesky]

@bluesky bhai, they will keep doing this, until and unless we put in a stop to it. I'd say there are plenty of Bangladeshi products, in Fast moving consumer goods (soaps, hair oil, shampoo, baby food, snacks) and of course electronics and kitchen electrics categories which are far better quality and better priced than Indian products. I can discuss that with you later if you are interested. Indian Banyas will do all sorts of business in Bangladesh market, but has not reciprocated this favor so far for Bangladeshi products in Indian market and IMHO will never reciprocate, due to their mentality.

Not only are Indian Banyas complicit in this, their media is as well. Indian cable operators are not allowed to carry Bangladeshi channels in India. Period.

The problem was the India-subservient trade policy that was present so far (Thanks in no small part to Hasina's whims) that allowed Indians to get away with this, at the expense of our local media (channels and ad agencies). Now that we see that Indians are grabbing ad-revenue from Bangladesh (Bangladeshi manufacturers advertising in Indian media such as Star Plus, Star Jolsha and Zee Bangla, paying Indians to do Bangladeshi ads), The Chetona BAL-sycophant Ad agencies are now unhappy that they are removed from this revenue stream and they petitioned Hasina to ban Indian channels if those foreign (mostly Indian) channels won't stop Advertising Bangladeshi and Indian products. Not only are local Advertising agencies losing money, but local channels and local media workers, models and producers are prevented from making money and supporting our own media.

Take a look at these videos, they will explain everything. Now we will see how mahaan Indian industry and their ad agencies are, they are already shaking in their boots and Star Jolsha and Zee Bangla are saying that they will petition the Indian govt. We will see what comes of it, but it's clear Modi govt. won't do jack to help WB, he wants to more chaos and disarray in that state and the WB economy to go down the drain. It is estimated that this media business from Bangladesh hands over about $10 Billion yearly to Indian media and ad agencies as ad revenue, supporting their economy (mostly to Kolkata media because they speak the same language).

Which brings (IMHO) the total of Indians scamming Bangladesh for over $60 Billion yearly, I'm sure I have not considered all sorts of other money Indians make from Bangladesh.

Not only has the govt. banned foreign channels altogether (if they cannot provide clean ad-free feeds), the govt. will also ban Internet broadcasts of these channels via DTH and via YouTube (and any other way they choose to broadcast to Bangladesh) if they cannot provide ad-free feeds. Of course, Bangladesh is already in talks with YouTube and DTH operators about this and further 'plugging holes' will occur.

A question remains, why do our people enjoy watching Kolkata programs. The most important factors in a TV program is the quality of the story and who acts. People like to watch the programs and hate to watch the ads. But since it is free, therefore, TV channels include ads to it, money being paid by the advertisers.

Since almost all Indian TV Channels are banned now in BD, therefore, I hope BD producers will be more artistic and creative and would produce better programs with domestically produced high-quality ads.

However, I fear that the TV screens will be filled with Moyuri-like models and too much of Dhakaiya/ colloquial Bangla. All are bloody OKHADDYO.

By the way, how do you think if the ads are produced in BD by our own people related to the ad business without any links to Kolkata Dadas which are then supplied to Kolkata TV channels?

I have reasons to believe the govt will choose a compromise formula because it has to think of the housewives who have little things to do other than enjoying time in front of the TV watching their liked ones on the screen.

The housewives may rebel and come down to the streets to protest against the govt ban.

 

[Bilal9]

A question remains, why do our people enjoy watching Kolkata programs. The most important factors in a TV program is the quality of the story and who acts. People like to watch the programs and hate to watch the ads. But since it is free, therefore, TV channels include ads to it, money being paid by the advertisers.

Since almost all Indian TV Channels are banned now in BD, therefore, I hope BD producers will be more artistic and creative and would produce better programs with domestically produced high-quality ads.

However, I fear that the TV screens will be filled with Moyuri-like models and too much of Dhakaiya/ colloquial Bangla. All are bloody OKHADDYO.

By the way, how do you think if the ads are produced in BD by our own people related to the ad business without any links to Kolkata Dadas which are then supplied to Kolkata TV channels?

I have reasons to believe the govt will choose a compromise formula because it has to think of the housewives who have little things to do other than enjoying time in front of the TV watching their liked ones on the screen.

The housewives may rebel and come down to the streets to protest against the govt ban.

Well let's see what happens. I don't have any special hate for Kolkata channels or even Indian channels, but they cannot make money flouting our laws illegally.

My concern is that local businesspeople were placing Indian made ads in Indian channels for BANGLADESHI PRODUCTS and Bangladesh economy is losing some 2000 crore yearly this way. This is a huge number. This money, if it stayed in Bangladesh could have been used to improve the quality of programming and content of our local channels.

And on top of everything, you cannot let foreign entities influence our culture and national discourse. We all know that the govt. next door is not friendly to Bangladesh and hard-liner anti-Muslim to boot.

So letting their media free reign into our living rooms is like inviting your enemy to dinner whereby that enemy provides uninvited propaganda being an invited guest !!

I think Kolkata Dadas and their agents (shills/lobbyists) in Bangladesh are raising a big hoo-ha and smokescreen on this, but kono faida hobena.

If money and ad-revenue stays in Bangladesh - directors, writers and actors will automatically be drawn to Dhaka to make ads and content like drama serials and variety shows, yes we can attract even global talent (including from India and Pakistan) to come to Dhaka to improve our content, provided we keep our ad-spend money locally.

We just have to be patient.