Dhaka, Sep 17 (bdnews24.com) – India will talk to Bangladesh for steps to ensure that Bangladeshi channels are available in India, a news report has said.
While Bangladeshi viewers can watch a number of Indian channels, mostly Hindi-language programmes, Bangladeshi channels are not available even in Kolkata. India has been continuing an unofficial ban on allowing Bangladeshi television channels from entering their domestic cable network.
On the other hand, most of the Indian channels are earning significant amount of revenue, both by selling advertisements as well as subscription to Bangladeshi entrepreneurs and households thanks to a very liberal policy in allowing foreign television channels.
After a meeting with West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banarjee, union information and broadcasting minister Ambika Soni on Friday reportedly said that Indian government would look into the issue. "We will speak to the Bangladesh government," the state-run Press Trust of India news agency quoted Soni as saying. Soni had already spoken with her minister of state C M Jatua on the issue, the agency said.
Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh during his Dhaka visit earlier this month had said, "We have agreed to further intensify academic, cultural, sports, and youth exchanges. "I am aware that many Bangladeshi citizens are disappointed when they are unable to see their favourite local channels when they visit India," he had said in a lecture at the Dhaka University on Sep 7.
Manmohan had expressed his hope that commercial arrangements could be worked out so that Indian viewers have the opportunity to listen to the 'great contemporary exponents of Rabindra Sangeet and Baul in Bangladesh' or see the films of a director like Tareque Masud.
"There is no rule which prevents the broadcast of Bangladeshi channels in India," he added. The chief ministers of Meghalaya, Tripura, Assam and Mizoram, who had been assisting Manmohan, had assured Bangladeshi ministers of taking steps to broadcast programmes of Bangladesh satellite television channels in India on Sep 7, information minister Abul Kalam Azad had said.
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win win.
I really miss talk shows of Zaid Hamid (Im not kidding 
