NTV

NTV (Bengali: এনটিভি), an acronym of less commonly used National Television,[2] is a Bangladeshi Bengali-language satellite and cable television channel based in the BSEC Building in Karwan Bazar, Dhaka. It was launched on 2 July 2003, and is one of Bangladesh’s most popular television channels. NTV is owned by International Television Channel Limited, with Mosaddek Ali Falu, a businessman and former vice president of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, being the channel’s chairman. On 10 February 2003, NTV was announced to set operations in April of that year, as Bangladesh’s previous privately owned television channel, Ekushey Television was shut down in 2002. It had also announced a partnership with CNN.[2] However, its official broadcasts started on 3 July 2003. In 2004, Falu bought NTV and pushed its license approval further.[4] NTV had received investment from Soundview Broadcasting owned by Shafqat Chowdhury, a Pakistani-American businessman.[5] In August 2006, the United Kingdom-based NTV Europe was launched and targeted the Bangladeshi community throughout Europe on Sky channel 826, but stopped broadcasting a year later. On 26 February 2007, a massive fire took place at the BSEC building in Karwan Bazar, killing three people and injuring over a hundred.[6] As a result, both NTV and its sister, RTV, temporarily ceased operations and forced the channel to broadcast reruns after resuming broadcasts. They worked with Banglavision to broadcast their news onto NTV since they were unable to do their own. NTV Europe was relaunched on Sky channel 834 in the United Kingdom in August 2008.