Country | Bangladesh |
---|---|
Broadcast area | Nationwide |
Headquarters | 57 Sohrawardi Avenue, Baridhara, Dhaka |
Programming | |
Language(s) | Bengali |
Picture format | 1080i HDTV (downscaled to 16:9 576i for SDTV sets) |
Ownership | |
Owner | Meghna Group of Industries |
History | |
Launched | 21 June 2012 |
Links | |
Website | www |
Ekattor TV | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
YouTube information | |||||||
Channel | |||||||
Years active | 2006–present | ||||||
Genre | News (In Bengali) | ||||||
Subscribers | 5.60 million[1] | ||||||
Total views | 2.20 billion[1] | ||||||
| |||||||
Last updated: 30 Jan 2023 |
Ekattor TV (Bengali: একাত্তর; lit. 'seventy-one', in reference to the 1971 War)[3] is a Bangladeshi Bengali-language satellite and cable news television channel owned by the Meghna Group of Industries,[4] commencing transmissions on 21 January 2007, as Bangladesh's first news-oriented television channel broadcasting in full HD. In 2023, Rumor Scanner, a fact-checking organization, listed Ekattor TV as the fifth biggest publisher of fake news in Bangladesh.[5] The channel broadcasts from its headquarters in the Sohrawardi Avenue of Baridhara.[citation needed]
After the change of political power in 2009, Mozammel Hossain sold half of the shares owned by himself and his relatives in the name of Mustafa Kamal and his one son and two daughters in Meghna Group.[6]
Ekattor received its broadcasting license from the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission, along with several other privately owned Bangladeshi television channels, on 20 October 2004.[7] It was officially launched on 21 January 2007 by former chairman Fazlul Haque Khan, with its slogan being "Sangbad Noy Songjog" (সংবাদ নয় সংযোগ; lit. 'Connection, not news'), as the fourth news-oriented television channel in Bangladesh.[8][9][10] Ekattor was one of the nine Bangladeshi television channels to sign an agreement with Bdnews24.com to subscribe to a video-based news agency run by children called Prism in May 2016.[11]
In July 2017, Ekattor, along with four other television channels in Bangladesh, signed an agreement with UNICEF to air children's programming for one minute.[12] In December 2018, Ekattor began broadcasting using the Bangabandhu-1 satellite.[13] On 13 August 2022, Ekattor broadcast a meeting regarding global energy crisis and the challenges of Bangladesh live.[14]
In 2017, Ekattor's website was hacked by Islamists who demanded "atheist media" to halt all "anti-Islam" activities.[15] Ekattor was accused of airing "anti-social" news reports and Nurul Haq Nur even called for a boycott of the channel in 2020, which was condemned by Editors Guild Bangladesh.[16] Bangladeshi Islamic scholars, such as Mizanur Rahman Azhari, also called for a boycott of Ekattor as it was accused of airing anti-Islam content.[17][18][19]