The New Nation - Internet Edition

Staff Reporter

The Bangla service of the British Broadcasting Corporation will be made available soon on FM radio in six more divisions and towns of Bangladesh in addition to the capital.

Along with Dhaka, BBC Bangla Service will be available in Chittagong, Khulna, Rajshahi, Sylhet, Rangpur and Comilla. BBC Bangla service has been relaying its programmes in Dhaka on FM since 1994.

The announcement of the expansion was made yesterday at a press conference by Neil Curry, Head of Business Development, Asia and the Pacific Region of BBC World Service at Sonargaon Hotel in the city. BBC Bangla Service Head Sabir Mustafa was present at the press conference.

It was informed that Bangladesh Betar would relay the BBC Bangla programmes from its six regional broadcasting stations four times a day for a total duration of two hours. BBC and Bangladesh Betar signed an agreement yesterday morning in this regard.

Md Mahbubul Alam, Director General of Bangladesh Betar and Neil Curry, Head of Business Development, Asia and the Pacific Region of BBC World Service signed the agreement on behalf of their respective organizations.

Information Secretary Jamil Osman was present at the signing ceremony held at the conference room of the Ministry of Information in the Bangladesh Secretariat.

The agreement will remain effective for three years. Under the agreement, Bangladesh Betar will broadcast news of BBC Bangla Service from 6:30am to 7:00am, from 7:30am to 8:00am, from 7:30pm to 8:00pm and from 10:30pm to 11:00 pm every day till March 2011. The news will be broadcast in 105.4 MHz frequencies in Chittagong, 102 MHz in Rajshahi, 105 MHz in Sylhet, 105.4 MHz in Rangpur and 101.2 MHz in Comilla.

According to the agreement, BBC will pay the Bangladesh Betar 46,000 pounds sterling (Tk 65 lakh) annually as airtime fee and, in addition, provide technical and development supports to the state-run Bangladesh Betar.

BBC Bangla Service chief Sabir Mustafa said they would try to relay their programmes in one of the towns by March 26, the Independence Day, and relaying programmes through Bangladesh Betar frequencies in all six cities is expected to begin from April 14, the Bangla New Year.

Neil Curry said Bangladesh is hugely important country as far as the BBC is concerned, because some 10 per cent of the BBC's 183 million global audience listen to Bangla service. It means more than 18 million (1.80 crore) people in Bangladesh listen to BBC's Bangla programmes regularly.

Among all the 33 languages, in which BBC broadcasts its programmes, Bangla is jointly occupied the fourth position with Hindi, he said, adding that Bangla is one of the top foreign languages in terms of the number of audience of BBC. "BBC has been getting closer to closer with the audience in Bangladesh."

"Bangla is a very important language to BBC, because of historical and fraternal ties between the peoples of Bangladesh and Britain are very close," he said.

Curry said Bangladesh represents an incredible amount of interest for BBC and seven FM in one country is a very 'strong presence and significant achievement.'

Replying to a question, Sabir Mustafa said people listened to the BBC because of the quality of journalism and objectivity of information it maintained.

"Audience listen to BBC because they think it broadcasts news in an objective and impartial manner," he said.

Sabir Mustafa also informed that there would be some more programmes to be broadcast by BBC Bangla service. During March 23-28, there will be a weeklong discussion about Dhaka city to mark its completion of 400 years.

BBC is in negotiation with the Election Commission to hold election dialogue ahead of elections in six city corporations, he said, adding that there will also be programmes in the lead-up to the national election.