Bangladesh Television

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"The Logo of Bangladesh Television"

Bangladesh Television (Bengali: বাংলাদেশ টেলিভিশন), also known by its acronym BTV, is the state-owned Television network in Bangladesh. It started broadcasting Black-and-White transmission on 25 December 1964. It was known as Pakistan Television at that time, and was renamed Bangladesh Television after the independence of Bangladesh. Broadcasts in full colour started from 1980. About 2 million televisions receive transmissions from the network's 17 relay stations.^[1]

BTV has a national channel which is broadcast from Dhaka. This transmission is relayed to the whole country via local relay stations in major cities of the country. There is also a regional station located in Chittagong which broadcasts local programs in the evening. In 2004, BTV started worldwide broadcasts through its satellite based branch, BTV World.

BTV is primarily financed through the television license fees. Although it has produced many award-winning programs, it has often been criticized for being the mouth-piece of the ruling government.