Bangladesh has warned foreign TV channels that they would not be allowed to air beyond September 30, 2021 if they don’t beam a clean feed, shorn of all advertisements.

“The (foreign TV) channels are not transmitting clean feed even though we have urged them repeatedly to do so,” Dhaka Tribune quoted Bangladesh Minister for Information and Broadcasting, Dr. Hasan Mahmud, as telling the local media last week.

The Minister’s remarks, according to the  Tribune report, came after a meeting with the representatives of Association of Television Channel Owners (ATCO), a lobbying body of Bangladeshi TV channels’ owners, distributors and cable operators.

“We have decided we cannot let any more foreign channels air without the clean feed policy after September 30,” Dr. Mahmud was quoted as saying, adding that cable operators often aired foreign TV channels with commercials (booked in other countries), which was a violation of the local laws.

The clean feed policy is aimed at restricting commercials booked and conceptualized outside Bangladesh (for example, in India, and carried by an Indian TV channel while downlinking into Bangladesh) from taking advantage of the local market, which is primarily Bengali speaking.

A clean feed of a foreign TV channel would allow Bangladesh distributors and cable ops to slot local advertisements, helping them earn additional revenues, apart from also putting local TV channels in an advantageous position in snagging advertisements that were going to foreign TV channels.

The Bangladesh MIB Minister, however, did not give details of the revenue loss to domestic TV channels and distributors till now without clean feeds of foreign TV channels.

According to the media report, Dr. Mahmud also spoke about digitization of cable networks in areas like Dhaka, Cox’s Bazar and Chittagong.

“Broadcasting will be done through set-top boxes. The digital platform is ready,” he said, adding an official order regarding digital switchover would be issued soon with the target sunset date being December 31, 2021.

The latest move by Dhaka could impact Indian TV channels, especially Bengali-language ones, which have a sizable market in Bangladesh (Photo courtesy Dhaka Tribune)