No more foreign channels on cable TV

The country's cable operators have stopped broadcasting all foreign TV channels upon an information ministry directive, and viewers are angered by the decision since it came into effect from Friday.

Starting midnight, 12:00am 1 October, viewers browsing foreign channels on their TV screens saw a message informing them that as per a government directive, no foreign channels with advertisements can be broadcast. Therefore, cable TV operators had to refrain from broadcasting foreign channels until further instructions, according to the message. Cable operators all across the country are showing similar messages to their subscribers.

The decision to shut down foreign TV channels was met with anger and annoyance from people.

Former government employee Rafiqul Islam, who lives in the capital's Eskaton neighbourhood, said, "I watch HBO, BBC, CNN and sports channels. Local channels are yet to reach their standard of programming. In an age of globalisation, it does not make sense to shut down foreign channels."

Earlier on 2 September, Information Minister Hasan Mahmud said a decision has been taken to implement ad-free (clean feed) broadcasting of foreign TV channels. The decision came following a meeting at the Secretariat earlier on the same day, attended by representatives of the Cable Operator Association, Association of Television Companies (ATCO), AKASH DTH (Beximco Communications), and the commerce ministry.

It was decided at the meeting that foreign channels, unless they provide a clean feed, cannot be broadcast. Clean feed essentially means, the channels cannot have any advertisements.

Information ministry Additional Secretary, Khadiza Begum, said "According to our law it is mandatory for foreign channels to broadcast with a clean feed. We are implementing it from 1 October."

She also said that to ensure proper implementation of the decision the government will run mobile courts throughout the country.

According to existing Bangladeshi law, foreign channels cannot broadcast advertising, which led to several attempts before, by the government to shut down foreign channel broadcasts. Having shut down their foreign cable channel broadcasts altogether, cable operators now intend to sit with the channel broadcasters on the matter.

Cable Operators' Association of Bangladesh (COAB) founding president, SM Anwar Pervez, said "All foreign channels are closed from today as there are advertisements on all channels. Foreign channels will not be broadcast before the next directive of the ministry. We have no say in this," he told The Business Standard.

Why broadcasting is shut

Basically, the government's decision came following pressure from local private TV channels. According to local channel owners, this step of the government will end the opportunity for foreign channels to broadcast advertising without having to pay taxes in Bangladesh.

Private TV channel Ekattor TV Managing Director, Mozzamel Babu, said, "The law which prohibits foreign TV channels from broadcasting advertising is a 15-year-old law. A similar system of clean feed broadcasting is active in many countries, including neighbouring Nepal."

"We have been trying for many years to implement the same here. Now that broadcast is shut down, they will shortly provide clean feed," he added.

He also said, neither the Government of Bangladesh nor the National Board of Revenue (NBR) gets any revenue for the advertising on foreign channels.

 "On the one hand, the government does not get any revenue from advertisements aired on foreign channels, while many multi-national companies have chosen foreign channels to promote their products in Bangladesh as they are popular in Bangladesh," he said.

The ad market

Television accounts for the biggest chunk of the entire advertisement market of the country.   While there are no precise statistics on the size of Bangladesh's advertising market in terms of monetary value, according to some advertising firms, this market is valued approximately at some 350 million dollars, or three thousand crore taka, per year.

From the entire advertising market, the government gets 15% in VAT. Last year, the government received nearly 190 crore taka in VAT from this sector, according to NRB officials.