Bangladesh Television, also known by the acronym BTV, is the state-owned Television network in Bangladesh. It started broadcasting as Pakistan Television in what was then East Pakistan on 25 December 1964. It was renamed Bangladesh Television after the independence in 1971. Broadcasts in full colour started in 1980. About 2 million televisions receive transmissions from the network's 17 relay stations. BTV has a national channel which is broadcast from Dhaka. This transmission is relayed to the whole country via local relay stations in major cities of the country. There is also a regional station located in Chittagong which broadcasts local programmes in the evening. In the mid-1990s the nationalTV channel started to broadcast the news programs of BBC and CNN. In 2004, BTV started worldwide broadcasts through its satellite based branch, BTV World. BTV is primarily financed through the television licence fees. Although it has produced many award-winning programmes, it has often been criticised for being the mouth-piece of the ruling government and their lack of quality entertaining programmes. 1st BTV serial is Natun Bari aired around 1973 or 1974.
History
BTV started its black-and-white transmission on 25 December 1964, as a pilot project in the then East Pakistan, airing a song by the singer Ferdausi Rahman. It began from the DIT Bhaban on a four-hour basis. In 1972, after the independence of Bangladesh, the previously autonomous organisation was made a full-fledged government department. In 1975, the offices and studios were shifted to Rampura, Dhaka. BTV started colour transmission in 1980 through a programme named "Desher Gaan" produced by Selim Ashraf. In 2004, BTV launched its satellite transmission under the name of BTV World. The first drama on BTV, "Ektala Dotala", written by Munier Choudhury, was aired in 1965. In 1979, inspired by the idea of The David Frost Show on BBC, a new magazine programme, "Jodi Kichhu Mone Na Koren", was developed by Fazle Lohani. Children's competition series Notun Kuri started in 1976. The first television commercial was made in 1967 for a detergent soap 707. In 1994, BTV telecasted the first private production, a one-hour play Prachir Periye, directed by Atiqul Haque Chowdhury.
From the late 1980s to the late 2000s, BTV aired many international programs, including children's TV shows, cartoons, and many popular English TV series. BTV did not encourage dubbing those shows, as this was seen as a step in pushing children and adults alike to get acquainted with the English language and its various accents outside of the regular academic environment and in a fully entertaining form. Some of the many popular English-language TV programs and cartoons aired on BTV were:
