“The barrier is from the cable operators. They charge very high fees,” he said after a meeting with visiting Indian Minister for Information and Broadcasting Prakash Javadekar at the secretariat in Dhaka on Tuesday.
Javadekar, who is also charged with the ministry for environment, arrived in Dhaka on Tuesday on a three-day visit to attend the 15th governing council of the South Asia Cooperative Environment Programme (SACEP).
The two information ministries embarked on a new era of cooperation in recent months following the historic decision of allowing state-run TV programmes to show in each other’s country. BTV can be seen in India now and DD TV in Bangladesh.
But owners of the private satellite channels, which are more than 30 in number in Bangladesh, complain that their programmes cannot be seen in India.
The information minister said he has seen Bangladeshi channels in Tripura.
“But those cannot be seen in West Bengal. It's because of the very high fee the cable operators charge. We have discussed this in detail. He will see the issue,” Hasan added.
The Indian minister said they had a very good discussion on many topics on culture, politics, film industry and television.
Javadekar said they have nade a good deal of progress on jointly making two films – one on Bangladesh’s Liberation War and the other on Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
He also invited his Bangladesh counterpart to visit India.
Hasan Mahmud said he also sought India’s support for the development of Bangabandhu Film City under the BFDC.
State Minister for Information Murad Hasan, Indian High Commissioner in Dhaka Riva Ganguly Das, and Information Secretary Abdul Malek were also present.