Bangladesh TV begins broadcasting on India’s DD
Details
Rebecca Hawkes
| 02 September 2019

State-owned Bangladesh Television (BTV) will begin airing on India’s public broadcast network Doordarshan on 2 September via the former country’s first satellite, Bangabandhu 1 (BS-1).

The move follows a working agreement between the two parties which was signed on 7 May 2019 and Indian governmental approval of the deal on 19 June.

The partnership between BS-1 and India’s Doordarshan was finally sealed on 3 July, when technical teams from both networks down linked BTV programmes at Doordarshan’s earth station after fixing alignment of BS-1.

Bangladesh’s information minister Hasan Mahmud is to inaugurate BTV’s expansion, with state minister for information Murad Hasan and Indian high commissioner to Bangladesh Riva Ganguly Das also attending the opening event at BTV’s Rampura office. Information secretary Abdul Malek would chair the function, BTV said.

The Thales Alenia Space manufactured BS-1 satellite was launched on 12 May from Florida at a cost of Tk 2,765 crore.

Located at in geostationary orbit at 119.1 east, BS-1 will cover the SAARC countries, as well as Indonesia, the Philippines, Myanmar, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkestan and a part of Kazakhstan.

The first six countries to receive service coverage will be Indonesia, the Philippines, India, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bhutan.