State-owned Bangladesh Television (BTV) has started its broadcast in Middle Eastern and North African countries to meet the special interest of local viewers, especially expatriate Bangladeshis, using the Bangabandhu satellite.
Bangladesh’s lone satellite “Bangabandhu-1” in collaboration with Thaicom-6, a Thai satellite of the Thaicom series, has made the arrangement for BTV’s satellite based-branch, BTV World, reports BSS.
“The experimental transmission of BTV World started at about 1:00 am on April 10 to the Middle Eastern and North African Countries using Bangabandhu-1,” Bangladesh Communication Satellite Company Limited (BCSCL) Chairman Dr Shahjahan Mahmood said.
BCSCL, another state-owned company assigned to operator Bangabandhu-1, took the initiative as 70 percent of a total of 10 million expatriate Bangladeshis are now in Middle Eastern and North African countries.
“Initially, we are working on BTV World and upon the result of experimental period, we will start the process for other private television channels of the country for Middle East, North Africa and other regions,” said Dr Mahmood while replying to a query on BCSCL’s future plan.
Commercial operation of Bangabandhu-1 (BS-1) began May 19 last year following successful trial run. All local television channels are connected with BS-1’s ground station through optical fiber for transmission, as installation of earth station requires a big cost for TVs.
The BS-1, launched to the orbit on May 12, 2018 went to the trial transmission on September 4 last year through the broadcasting of South Asian Football Federation (SAFF) Championship with BTV.
Besides, commercial service of country’s first local Direct-To-Home (DTH) television also began on May 19 last year.
Moreover, the BS-1 is working to connect automated teller machines (ATM) of different banks to offer uninterrupted and secure banking services.
French manufacturer Thales Alenia Space launched the BS-1 in May 12 from Florida of America at a cost of Tk2,765 crore and according to the plan, it will reach break-even within seven years of starting its commercial service.
The satellite’s operations include “direct-to-home” service for TV channels, VSAT (very small aperture terminal), backhaul and network restoration, disaster preparedness and relief and many others.
