The Bangladesh government has recently taken steps to broadcast foreign channels on "clean feed" (without foreign advertisements).
Following the government's directive, from October 1 onwards Akash has stopped the broadcasting of some foreign channels- with advertisements, according to a press release.
Considering the current situation, Akash has launched a "Clean Feed Blackout Cashback" initiative on recharge as all channels are not available currently.
Customers will receive an instant cashback of up to Tk200 (depending on the package) if they recharge the required amount (or above) for their package from the first hours of October 11, until further notice.
For customers who have already recharged before the campaign period or were active within October 1 to October 10, an adjustment will be provided to the Akash account after the end of the month.
This decision was made as part of the operator's compliance with the government's requirement for transmitting foreign channels without clean feed or foreign advertisement.
Customers can watch 34 domestic channels as well as approximately 20 international networks such as Star Movies HD, BBC, CNN, Al-Jazeera, NHK, and France 24.
Akash management is aiming to improve the number of channels available every.
Muhammad Abul Khair Chowdhury, head of Marketing and Business Development at Beximco Communication said: “We welcome the government's initiative to implement Clean Feed (ad-free) in the airing of international channels in the country. This will boost the government's annual revenue. As the country’s only legal Direct-To-Home service provider AKASH, since its inception Customers' interests have been a key concern. As a result, in order to assure a legitimate TV viewing experience, we have decided to give cashback to consumers on a package basis. We opted to grant this cashback despite having annual contracts with the channels since customer satisfaction is our top priority”.
Akash provides its service using the feed of the Bangabandhu Satellite-1 from May 2019. The one-time price of Akash Basic and Regular connection is Tk3,999 and Tk4,499 respectively.