Govt, cable operators must come to a solution

As the government took a strong position to stop the broadcast of foreign channels that are not providing advertisement-free content, the cable operators and agents in the country have stopped broadcasting all the foreign channels, including the 17 channels (like BBC, CNN, Al Jazeera, and Animal Planet) which already have clean feeds—providing content without ads—in Bangladesh. Meanwhile, despite paying for the cable services, crores of our consumers have been deprived of watching foreign news, entertainment, sports, and other channels since October 1.

There is undoubtedly some justification in the government's position, as a huge amount of revenue is lost when foreign channels broadcast ads for local audiences. According to the Television Network Operation law, 2006, foreign channels cannot air their programmes in the country with advertisements. The government discussed this issue with the cable operators and agents many times before, and lately directed them to be compliant with the law by September 30 this year. The cable operators, however, did not comply with this directive. Reportedly, our cable operators currently do not have the capacity, technological advancement, and even investment to ensure clean feed in foreign channels. While service providers in countries like Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Nepal are able to cut the advertisement content while airing programmes of foreign channels, our operators are incapable of doing so because of a lack of technological capacities and skills.

Under the circumstances, we think the government should move away from their position and give the cable operators some more time. The service providers have sought a year and a half to ensure ad-free programmes. The government can consider their proposal given the complications our operators have been facing. It can also give them the necessary technological support and policy directives. We should also raise this question: Why are the Indian broadcasters not providing us clean-feed content when they are providing ad-free content in all the countries in the Middle East? The government and the Cable Operators' Association of Bangladesh (COAB) must find a solution to this problem.

While they work towards finding a solution—and we hope they do sooner than later—the cable operators should immediately allow the broadcast of the 17 channels that have clean feeds. They must ensure that the consumers who are paying for their services don't suffer from this problem.