Information and Broadcasting Minister Dr Hasan Mahmud has said that the cable system must be digitalized (wireless dish line connection).
He said the government is losing about Tk 2,000 crore a year in revenue due to non-digitalization and at the same time, some television channels are not being able to make their debut as pay channels.
He made the remark while exchanging views with journalists in the conference room of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting at the Secretariat on Monday.
In response to a question from reporters, Hasan Mahmud said, “We have shut down the foreign television channels that used to send advertisements without clean feed. Initially, the cable operators had shut down the channels that used to send clean feed. Broadcasting of those channels has been resumed after instructions were given from our ministry.”
He said it is the responsibility of the concerned channels and broadcasters to send clean feed.
“The agents here also have some responsibility. Those channels did not send the clean feed to our country but sent a clean feed to Sri Lanka and Nepal,” he said.
He further said that both the decisions of clean feed implementation from October 1 and ensuring digitalization in metropolitan cities (Dhaka-Chattogram) from November 1, was taken in the same meeting.
Regarding the rally of BNP in Press Club, the minister said “The Press Club is an organization of journalists. It is a national institution. It is not appropriate to hold a rally in front of it like that of the office of a political party. However, Mirza Fakhrul has conducted the rally. I personally think that it has ruined the sanctity and dignity of Press Club.”
