 | |
| Country | Bangladesh |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | Dhaka, Bangladesh |
| Programming | |
| Language(s) | Bengali |
| Picture format | 576i SDTV |
| Ownership | |
| Owner | Insight Telecast |
| History | |
| Launched | 16 December 2011 |
| Closed | 2 December 2014 |
| Links | |
| Website | channel-16tv |
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 the first and the sole music channel in Bangladesh until the launch of Gaan Bangla in 2013.[1] 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.[2]
Despite only being allowed to broadcast from abroad, Channel 16 illegally broadcast from Dhaka, and even via the Israel-based RRsat satellite.[2][3] After its license for test broadcasting had expired on 30 November 2013, which had not been renewed ever since,[4] the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission obliged Channel 16 to cease all transmissions by 2 December 2014.
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,[5] and later began identifying itself as 'MB', or sometimes 'Movie Bangla', along with its on-screen bug involving a clock.[6] It had also been accused of broadcasting while evading revenue to the government.[2]
