After being suspended for a day, TV channels of India’s Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd are back on air in Bangladesh after what distributors and cable operators said a ‘misunderstanding’.
Popular TV channels like, Zee Bangla, Zee TV could not be watched from Bangladesh on Tuesday (Apr 2), which were back on the air on Wednesday (Apr 2), Cable Operators Association of Bangladesh (COAB) confirmed.
“The channels went off air on Apr 2 and could be watched again after midnight but on a limited scale. Around 11am on Apr 3, they were back again on a full-scale,” its President SM Anwar Parvez told Bangla Tribune.
The channels went off air after the government pulled two distributors for airing local advertisements on foreign channels.
On Monday (Apr 1), the information ministry served notices on Nationwide Media Ltd and Jadoo Vision Ltd seeking their explanations over the advertisement issue.
The popular Zee channels started disappeared from television screens at Bangladeshi homes on Tuesday only to be back after some 24 hours on Wednesday.
However, neither the distributors nor the cable operators provided an explanation over the blackout except for describing the whole issue as a “misunderstanding”, that too on condition of anonymity.
Speaking to Bangla Tribune on Wednesday, COAB President Parvez evaded a direct answer and said, “I am in a meeting now; will come up with details later.”
An official of one of two distributors, asking not to be named, said, “It was a case of misinterpretation.”
Soon after the channels went off air on Tuesday, the government made it clear that it did not order to shut any channel.
Speaking to the media at his offices, Information Minister Hasan Mahmud said they didn’t stop transmission of any channel but enforced the law only.
The Cable Television Network Act bars airing of advertisements of local products on foreign channels. But some local advertisements were being aired on some foreign TV channels broadcast in Bangladesh, which is against the regulation.
“We served the notice asking to telecast without displaying advertisements. We will decide after getting the reply of the notice,” the information minister said.
Earlier, the ministry had served several notices urging all cable operators of the country to stop airing Bangladeshi advertisements in foreign channels from Apr 1.