SATV, Channel 9 shut down due to unpaid dues

Two television channels in the country have been shut down due to non-payment of satellite transponder fees. The Bangabandhu Satellite Company Ltd (BSCL) shut down SATV at around 10:15pm Thursday night. Channel 9's transmission was also shut down around the same time.

BSCL chairman Shahjahan Mahmud confirmed this to Prothom Alo at 3:00pm Friday. He said, SATV and Channel 9 had unpaid bills for their transmissions through Bangabandhu Satellite-1 and these channels have been shut down.

According to the BSCL authorities, letters had been issued to the two TV channels regarding payment over the dues. It was said that the outstanding bills must be paid within 11 May or else transmission would be stopped. Letters had been sent to all TV channels with outstanding bills.

Shahjahan Mahmud said, initiative has been taken to restart the SATV transmission as they have now paid their bills. The channel will resume transmission shortly. Channel 9 will resume transmission from Sunday.

He said the outstanding dues were not significant, but the channel authorities had neglected to pay their dues despite repeated reminders. "We were supposed to shut down the channels on 11 May, but delayed this till Thursday. The satellite authorities do not take advance payment. These are the overdue bills."

Bangladesh is the 57th country to enter the satellite elite club when the Bangabandhu Satellite-1 (BS-1) was launched into space on 12 May 2018. This cost Bangladesh Tk 29.02 billion (Tk 2,902 crore). There are 35 state-run and private TV channels in Bangladesh. All of these use BS-1 for transmission.