Channel 16 (Bengali: চ্যানেল সিক্সটিন; in reference to 16 December) was a Bangladeshi Bengali-language satellite and cable music-oriented television channel owned and operated by Insight Telecast. The channel was permitted to broadcast via a Singaporean satellite and officially began broadcasting on 16 December 2011. It was ordered to be shut down by Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission on 2 December 2014.[2]
It was the first and the sole music channel in Bangladesh until the launch of Gaan Bangla in 2013. Channel 16's managing director was K G Muhit, who had requested the government to let him run a downlinked privately owned satellite television channel in 2008.[3] Despite only being allowed to broadcast from abroad, Channel 16 illegally broadcast from Dhaka, and even via the Israel-based RRsat satellite.[3][4]
Closure order
After its license for test broadcasting expired on 30 November 2013, being left unrenewed since then,[5] the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission obliged Channel 16 to cease all transmissions by 2 December 2014.[6] Prior to this, in July 2014, the Association of Television Channel Owners sent a letter to the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting demanding Channel 16 be taken off the air, accusing the channel of violating government regulations.[7][8]
However, by that point, it illegally continued broadcasting by ceasing to identify itself as Channel 16 and began using the letter 'k' as its on-screen bug,[6] and later began identifying itself as 'MB', or sometimes 'Movie Bangla', along with its on-screen bug involving a clock.[9] It has also been accused of broadcasting while evading government fees and alleged forgery of signature when they sent a letter to the ministry which allegedly had the name and forged signature of Dhaka Zilla Council administrator Hasina Doula, who denied connections with the channel.[3]
