[WSIS CS-Plenary] A brief overview on State of Broadcasting System in Bangladesh and Entrepreneurial Radio

[BNNRC]

A brief overview on State of Broadcasting System in Bangladesh and Entrepreneurial Radio 
Public Service Broadcasting

Bangladesh Betar (BB) is the public service broadcasting system in Bangladesh.  It covers 90% of the area of Bangladesh. There are 11 regional stations in the country. BB broadcasts a total of 237-hour programs through its regional stations everyday. 

Commercial Broadcasting

There are also four commercial broadcasting channels in Bangladesh. These are Radio Today, Radio Amar, Radio Foorti and ABC Radio. 

Community broadcasting

Community broadcasting system is on the way to start in Bangladesh. The Community Radio Installation, Operation and Broadcasting Policy-2008 has been announced on 12 March this year. Then applications for the permission of setting up community radio have been asked through advertisement since 18 March 2008. A total of 400 application forms were sold and 178 applications submitted to the Ministry of Information for the permission of community radio set-up. The Government has also formed three committees to run the community radio broadcasting successfully. The committees are National Regulatory Committee, Technical Sub-Committee and Central Monitoring Committee. About 50 community radio stations are expected to start soon in Bangladesh. 

Community Radio Academy

With the view to promoting community radio set-up, broadcasting and operation in the country, Bangladesh NGOs Network for Radio and Communication (BNNRC) has set up a Community Radio Academy as its social enterprise in its secretariat on 01 May 2008. The activities of this academy will be implemented under three departments namely 'capacity building', 'research and development' and 'technical cooperation'. 

Multi Stakeholder Partnership (MSP)

There are several possible partnership areas for entrepreneurial radio such as partnership with commercial broadcasting houses, local and national Government agencies, NGOs, international broadcasting houses like BBC, VOA, DW, CRI, cell phone companies, community radio trust fund, public broadcasting system, rural telecenter or knowledge center, UN agencies, GKP, Equal Access, CBA, AIBD, CEMCA, COL, One World South Asia and other community radio expert organizations, networks, institutes and universities. 

Further information and opinion please contact.




Bazlu-S21BR
_______________________
AHM. Bazlur Rahman-S21BR
Chief Executive Officer
Bangladesh NGOs Network for Radio and Communication(BNNRC)
&
Member, Strategy Council
UN-Global Alliance for ICT and Development (UN GAID)

House: 13/1, Road:2, Shaymoli, Dhaka-1207 
Post Box: 5095, Dhaka 1205 Bangladesh

Phone: 88-02-9130750, 88-02-9138501
01711881647 Fax: 88-02-9138501-105

E-mail: ceo at bnnrc.net, bnnrc at bd.drik.net
www.bnnrc.net
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