Bangladesh television was established in the sixties, at that time it was East Pakistan television. Indian state West Bengal had no television at that time. Bangladesh television dominated this part of the world for decades.
As it was a terrestrial television, it was not easy to block it in the Bengali speaking parts of India. Indians loved Bangladeshi television programs.
But technology was changed, satellite based private televisions came and state owned televisions failed to compete with private channels. Private channels are dominating in India and Bangladesh.
Indian TV channels are screened in Bangladesh, but the Indian authority has blocked Bangladeshi private channels there. Bengali speaking Indian territories like West Bengal is a potential market for Bangladeshi channels.
Bangladeshi TV channel owners are saying that they are paying due levies to Bangladeshi government but Indian channels are not paying, moreover some Indian channels are destroying our culture, Indian authority is demanding ten crore taka as levy from Bangladeshi channels.
TV channel owners have met to finance minister and commerce minister in this regard; the ministers have assured channels owners to discuss the matter with Indian counterpart. TV channel owners also expressed their dismay on recent move by NBR, they termed it as harassment, when they are paying due taxes to the government.
