Channel 16 (Bangladeshi TV channel)

Channel 16 (Bengali: চ্যানেল সিক্সটিন; in reference to 16 December) was a Bangladeshi Bengali-language satellite and cable music oriented television channel, owned and operated by Insight Telecast. The channel was permitted to broadcast via a Singaporean satellite and officially began broadcasting on 16 December 2011.^{[citation needed]}

It was the first and the sole music channel in Bangladesh until the launch of Gaan Bangla in 2013.^[1] Channel 16's managing director was K G Muhit, who had requested the government to let him run a downlinked privately owned satellite television channel in 2008.^[2]

Despite only being allowed to broadcast from abroad, Channel 16 illegally broadcast from Dhaka, and even via the Israel-based RRsat satellite.^[2][3] After its license for test broadcasting had expired on 30 November 2013, which had not been renewed ever since,^[4] the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission obliged Channel 16 to cease all transmissions by 2 December 2014.

However, by that point, it illegally continued broadcasting by ceasing to identify itself as Channel 16 and began using the letter 'k' as its on-screen bug,^[5] and later began identifying itself as 'MB', or sometimes 'Movie Bangla', along with its on-screen bug involving a clock.^[6] It had also been accused of broadcasting while evading revenue to the government.^[2]

References