A
brief overview on State of Broadcasting
System
in Bangladesh
and Entrepreneurial Radio
Public Service
Broadcasting
Bangladesh Betar (BB)
is the public service broadcasting system in
Bangladesh. It covers 90% of the area of
Bangladesh. There are 11
regional stations in the country. BB broadcasts a total of 237-hour programs
through its regional stations everyday.
Commercial
Broadcasting
There are also four
commercial broadcasting channels in Bangladesh. These are Radio
Today, Radio Amar, Radio Foorti and ABC Radio.
Community
broadcasting
Community
broadcasting system is on the way to start in
Bangladesh. The Community Radio
Installation, Operation and Broadcasting Policy-2008 has been announced on 12
March this year. Then applications for the permission of setting up community
radio have been asked through advertisement since 18 March
2008. A total of 400
application forms were sold and 178 applications submitted to the Ministry of
Information for the permission of community radio set-up. The Government has
also formed three committees to run the community radio broadcasting
successfully. The committees are National Regulatory Committee, Technical
Sub-Committee and Central Monitoring Committee. About 50 community radio
stations are expected to start soon in
Bangladesh.
Community Radio Academy
With the view
to promoting community radio set-up, broadcasting and operation in the country,
Bangladesh NGOs Network for Radio and Communication (BNNRC) has set up a
Community Radio Academy as its social enterprise in its
secretariat on 01 May 2008. The activities of this academy
will be implemented under three departments namely ‘capacity building’,
‘research and development’ and ‘technical cooperation’.
Multi Stakeholder Partnership
(MSP)
There are
several possible partnership areas for entrepreneurial radio such as partnership
with commercial broadcasting houses, local and national Government agencies,
NGOs, international broadcasting houses like BBC, VOA, DW, CRI, cell phone
companies, community radio trust fund, public broadcasting system, rural
telecenter or knowledge center, UN agencies, GKP, Equal Access, CBA, AIBD,
CEMCA, COL, One World South Asia and other community radio expert organizations,
networks, institutes and universities.
Further
information and opinion please contact.
Bazlu-S21BR
_______________________
AHM. Bazlur
Rahman-S21BR
Chief Executive Officer
Bangladesh NGOs Network for Radio and
Communication(BNNRC)
&
Member, Strategy Council
UN-Global Alliance
for ICT and Development (UN GAID)
House: 13/1, Road:2, Shaymoli, Dhaka-1207
Post Box: 5095, Dhaka 1205 Bangladesh
Phone: 88-02-9130750,
88-02-9138501
01711881647 Fax: 88-02-9138501-105