List of television stations in Bangladesh

Television programming in the then East Pakistan was first commenced in 1964, when Pakistan Television established a television station in Dacca, the first after Lahore, and broadcast from the DIT Bhaban on a four hour basis. After the independence of Bangladesh, the station was immediately renamed to Bangladesh Television, and became a government owned entity. Bangladesh Television had established fourteen relay television stations up to 2003, the first one being in Natore in 1974.[5] Bangladesh Television was the first television station in the region to commence full-time color broadcasts in 1980, followed by Pakistan and India in 1982.[5]

Satellite television was introduced in Bangladesh in 1992, with over ten foreign channels having presence in the country at the time.[6] The first Bengali-language satellite television channel based in Bangladesh, ATN Bangla, was launched in 1997, followed by Channel i in 1999.[7] Satellite television saw a tremendous increase in popularity among Bangladeshis at that period. Several foreign television channels were accused of negative affects towards Bangladesh's social and religious values, so they were banned by the government in 2002, but their bans have been lifted over time.[8][9]

As a privately owned terrestrial television network in Bangladesh did not exist at the time, A.S. Mahmud, along with the UK-based Simon Dring, had plans to establish Ekushey Television in the late 1990s.[10] It was officially launched on 14 April 2000, and quickly gained widespread popularity around Bangladesh.[11] However, the channel was forced to cease all transmissions in 2002, leaving BTV the sole terrestrial television channel today, even though Ekushey Television did resume broadcasting but on satellite television in 2007. During Ekushey Television's closure, Bangladesh saw a significant increase in privately owned television channels. NTV was the first among them to be launched in 2003, followed by RTV and Boishakhi Television in 2005, and Channel 1 and Banglavision in 2006. In 2007, Bangladesh's first exclusively news channel, CSB News, went on the air, but was later shut down after airing footages of anti-government protests.[12]

In February 2013, fearing the rise of the Hindi language among children in Bangladesh, the government banned the Indian feeds of Disney Channel and Disney XD from airing in the country.[13] On 6 May 2013, Diganta Television and Islamic TV were obliged to cease all transmissions by the BTRC.[14] On 27 June 2013, ULAB established the first student television station in Bangladesh, ULAB TV.[15] Bangladesh adopted the DVB-T system for digital television broadcasts in 2014.[16] After the July 2016 Dhaka attack, UAE-based Peace TV and Peace TV Bangla were banned by the Government of Bangladesh.[17] During the COVID-19 pandemic, both BTV and Sangsad Television broadcast live educational lessons for primary and secondary level students.[18] On 2 October 2021, cable operators in Bangladesh imposed a blackout on several foreign television channels that did not provide a clean feed, constituted in a 2006 policy. Cable operators have already been informed about foreign channels without clean feeds in August. However, on 5 October 2021, the foreign channels resumed broadcasting in Bangladesh under a clean feed.[19][20][21]

• List of radio stations in Bangladesh
• Media of Bangladesh
• Telecommunications in Bangladesh

• Ministry of Information
• Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission