In the early 80s, there were few television sets in the households of Dhaka. Only upper income households could afford televisions then. Most people used to gather at the houses of neighbours who had televisions to watch the programmes being aired on Bangladesh Television (BTV). The viewers loved the television programmes then. Some of the television drama serials like 'Dhakae Thaki', 'Sokal Sondha', 'Eaisob Din Ratri', 'Sangshoptak', 'Kothao Keo Nei', 'Rupnagar'etc. are still remembered by viewers. There were magazine programmes, movie of the week, educational programmes for children and college-going students, agricultural programme like Mati O Manush and so much more. Advertisement took only a small portion of the programme schedules of BTV in those days. Every programme was made with the motive that it can be watched and enjoyed by viewers of all ages, class, gender and faith.
Now, there are TV sets in almost every household in rural and urban areas of the country. Also, there are over 30 private and state-owned channels. But viewers do not feel the same need to watch TV now as they did in the 80s and 90s. This is because the quality of programmes is very low. Some drama serials or standalone dramas have questionable content that viewers of different age groups of the same family cannot watch together.
There is also the problem of advertisements. If a programme is aired during an hour-long slot, more than 20 minutes of this is spent in airing advertisements. These aspects annoy audiences. This is why they switch over to foreign channels.
This is a very worrying trend. Hopefully the management of television channels in the country will consider these factors and take necessary steps. They need to ensure quality in television programmes and come up with strategies that can limit the number of advertisements within a programme.
F.I. Farid,
Banker, Dhaka
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