Germany’s DW TV is going high-definition in Bangladesh

Deutsche Welle is launching its television channel in high definition as an ‘advanced option’ for viewers in Bangladesh.

The German public broadcaster will be making the service available in all of Asia, starting Dec 1, alongside its standard definition channel, launched in Bangladesh in 2015. 

There has been a boom in the demand for HD viewing in Asia, said Tobias Grote-Beverborg, DW’s distribution executive for South Asia.

He was addressing guests at a dinner event at a Dhaka hotel on Monday evening, ahead of DWHD’s official launch.  

Even though the market for high-definition in Bangladesh is yet to reach its full potential, DWHD looks to provide an ‘additional and advanced option’ for viewers, Grote-Beverborg told bdnews24.com.

Both DW channels, HD and standard, offer the same programmes, he said.  

The English-language programme was available only in digital cable services, a handful in the arena dominated by analogue service providers that allow limited viewing option and fewer choices in selection of channels.

Was it then limiting to be viewed only through digital set-tops in a country where very few owned HD TVs?

Grote-Beverborg disagreed.

“I do not think it is limiting at all. We are a niche television channel. Also, digital providers here have shared with us promising plans for the market,” he said.

“Our target group is the young and urban, between 25 and 40 years of age, the group that prefers an interactive TV experience. The audience will also have to be versed in English.”

When suggested that the BBC or CNN are regular options made available by almost all analogue cable providers, Grote-Beverborg said those were large networks and the lean towards the BBC could be because of the British “legacy as past colonisers”.  

“We have been broadcasting in your language for more than 50 years. Our Bangla service remains the most exciting of our undertakings here. This growing part of our service is what we have targeted for the mass audience.”           

Deutsche Welle, which in English is German wave, stands alongside other major broadcasters to provide a ‘different perspective’ to global audiences, without messages that are too specific, said Grote-Beverborg.

Of the estimated 3 million who own televisions in Bangladesh, around 100,000 have digital set-tops, according to Ishraq Dhaly, marketing chief of Jadoo Digital.

In line with Grote-Beverborg’s hope in the potential for broadband services taking television to smartphones, Dhaly said his company has been testing a mobile app that would make television channels available on portable devices.

“Our service means to provide quality, converged and connected entertainment. In the next two years, we will be able to provide 'a la carte' method of channel selection on televisions which will bring forward more interesting channels to viewers. The plan is to provide the universe and have people choose.”