Ekushey Television
Plans for a privately owned terrestrial television network in Bangladesh date back to early 1997 when Farhad Mahmud, son of A.S. Mahmud, chatted with Simon Dring at a local hotel. Although privately owned channels in Bangladesh, which were ATN Bangla and Channel i, did exist at the time, they had no rights to broadcast on terrestrial television, and only Bangladesh Television had the authority to do so. The name 'Ekushey' was chosen because, according to Dring, it is an allusion of the Bengali language movement of 1952, which occurred on 21 February in that year, and the upcoming 21st century. In March 1999, Ekushey Television gained a fifteen-year license, allowing them to broadcast on terrestrial television. They were also allowed to use Bangladesh Television's facilities to broadcast. Initially, the channel was scheduled to commence its operations on 16 December 1999, which was victory day. Eventually, Ekushey Television officially began transmissions on 14 April 2000, as the country's first privately owned terrestrial television channel, broadcasting for twelve hours a weekday and seventeen hours on weekends. It covered half the country's population, and immediately gained popularity among locals. With its diverse range of programming, including news, culture, and entertainment, Ekushey Television managed to gain 40 million viewers, and claimed to be the most watched television network in Bangladesh. It had also helped with the prevention of the massive spread of Indian television channels in the country. Many of its popular television programs include "Mukto Khabor", a new program involving young journalists, soap opera "Bandhan", and "Deshjure", an infotainment program regarding the life of Bangladeshi people. Ekushey's news programming was also been considered to be unbiased and reliable. Dring had described Ekushey Television as the window to the outside world for many Bangladeshis. The channel ran on five transmitters in the VHF band, using Bangladesh Television's network. On 26 September 2001, Ekushey Television was ordered by the High Court to temporarily halt broadcasts due to the upcoming general election, as they had ruled that the channel had no proper rights to do so, but the Supreme Court later overturned the order and Ekushey was allowed to continue broadcasting. On 29 August 2002, shortly after the BNP government of Bangladesh took over, Ekushey Television's Britain-based managing director Simon Dring and three other executives had their work permits cancelled and was forced to cease all broadcasts at 17:00 (BST), with a formal announcement broadcast shortly before its closure, following a verdict from the Supreme Court that the license issued to Ekushey for broadcasting was "illegal". They were also accused for "unfairly" using the facilities of Bangladesh Television, and for being biased towards the BNP and its Islamist allies, although Ekushey denied those claims and stated that their news programming was not politically aligned and was always neutral. After Ekushey's closure, the founder of the channel, A.S. Mahmud, left Bangladesh for England with his family, and later died there on 22 January 2004. Thus, Bangladesh Television once again remained the only Bangladeshi television network to broadcast on terrestrial television as of today. On 14 April 2005, Ekushey Television, at the time under Abdus Salam's ownership, was granted a license to resume broadcasting using its previous facilities, but were only allowed to do so via satellite television. Ekushey commenced its satellite test transmissions on 1 December the following year. It officially resumed broadcasting on 29 March 2007, and started full day transmissions on 1 June. In August 2007, Ekushey Television and CSB News, which got shut down in that year, were warned by the military-backed government of Bangladesh to avoid airing any news or documentaries against them. On 24 January 2008, Ekushey Television received a fax message, telling them to cancel the telecast of the channel's two popular live talk shows. This was part of the avoidance of talk shows aired on privately owned television channels ordered by the government at the time. In 2011, Ekushey Television became the first Bangladeshi television channel to live stream its content worldwide via its official website. The channel was considered to be the most popular television channel in Bangladesh due to its news and other innovative programming. On 12 March 2012, cable operators in many areas around Bangladesh have imposed a temporary blackout on Ekushey Television, along with the unrelated Banglavision, after both channels have reported on a BNP rally in detail. On 13 April 2013, Deutsche Welle's Bengali language science and technology television series, "Onneshon", premiered on Ekushey Television. On 5 January 2015, Ekushey Television abruptly halted transmissions without any notice in most areas around Bangladesh after airing a speech by the senior vice chairman of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, Tarique Rahman. A sedition case was also filed as Rahman's speech was said to be "false, fabricated and instigating". It was also reported that Ekushey moved away from being progressive and has been airing controversial news reports since 2010. However, Ekushey's broadcasts overseas remained intact. Later, the channel restored broadcasting in some areas, and resumed nationwide broadcasts overtime. On 25 November 2015, S. Alam Group of Industries acquired Ekushey. In December 2016, Bangladeshi television professionals demanded Ekushey Television and three other local television channels to take dubbed foreign television series, which have gained popularity in the country, off their schedules. In July 2017, Ekushey Television, along with four other television channels in Bangladesh, signed an agreement with UNICEF to air children's programming for one minute. In the morning of 26 November 2018, a fire broke out in the first few floors at the headquarters of Ekushey Television, with the estimated cost of damage being ৳260,000. On 15 February 2020, Chinese drama "Turbulence of the Mu Clan" premiered on Ekushey Television. One of the founders of the channel, Simon Dring, had died on 16 July 2021. On 17 January 2022, Iranian drama series "Blue Whale", debuted on Ekushey Television. Ekushey Television is a mixed entertainment television channel, broadcasting a variety of programming. Its programming line consists of drama, news, music, television films, theatrically released films, and others. Initially broadcasting for twelve hours a weekday and seventeen hours on weekends, Ekushey broadcasts on a full-day basis. During its anniversaries, Ekushey had aired documentaries regarding the history of the channel. The list below consists of prograing both currently and formerly broadcast by Ekushey Television. In 2012, Ekushey Television was accused by the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission for broadcasting illegally without a radio equipment license and with its withheld frequency. Ekushey, however, denied the claims by stating that they have a radio equipment license and an updated frequency, and they were also regularly paying their frequency and license fees. On 26 January 2015, the Anti-Corruption Commission filed a case against the former chairman of Ekushey Television, Abdus Salam, along with two others for allegedly laundering ৳2,670,000 (US$31,429). Another case was filed against Salam on 2 March 2016, after an allegation that he made fraudulent documents of the satellite charge of Ekushey to swindle out ৳340,000,000. Charges against him and the two others accused were finalized in March 2018.
History ; 2007: Ekushey's return to the air
Ekushey Television was later shut down in 2002 by the BNP-led government after being accused for telecasting news reports biased against them and operating under an "illegal" license. After gaining a license to resume their broadcasts in 2005, Ekushey returned to air on 29 March 2007, exclusively on satellite and cable television.