Are Bangladeshi TV Channels Going

Through A Decline?
Abstract:

This study will be enwrapping one of the biggest news media platforms of Bangladesh,
Channel24 through an interview with the head of news Mr.Talak Mamun. We used primary
research and secondary research data from the company’s website. Through the interview we
tried to find out how this company has been running throughout the years with gaining numerous
positive feedback and also facing critical problems. It is only normal for any news platform to
face some attacks as everyone does not receive news the same way. We tried to uncover what
marketing strategy the company used from the questions. Channel24 has stayed true to their
audience since the beginning and that has been their major reason to grow this big. We tried to
cover: (1) how Channel24 faced and solved their business related challenges through
communication; (2) what challenges they faced during the pandemic and what marketing
strategy was used to recover from it; (3) the heavy dependence on brand sponsorship; (4) the
channel infrastructure of Bangladesh with foreign news channels and disadvantages due to it; (5)
growing dependency on websites and online news portal. Our group has successfully correlated
the interview answers with the materials we have learned in this course.
Introduction:

The company, channel 24 initially took its first step in the market when they were granted to
broadcast live back in February of the year 2010 by the Bangladesh telecommunication
regulatory commission also known simply as (BTRC). They started doing test transmissions in
the year of 2011 and officially started their transmission in the test 2012. They weren't always
known for broadcasting news as we all know them for today, they used to have a more
diversified broadcasting system consisting of Sports, talk shows, dramas etc. Now they are solely
based on delivering news to their target audience of the age group of mainly adults.

This following case study is done by a group of students from BRAC University for the purpose
of finding out the marketing analysis the company uses to stay on top of the charts. It also goes
in depth about the problems that the company is currently facing or have faced in the past, and
how they have successfully tackled most of the turbulence they have faced in the way of their
long 12 year old career in the news and media industry. Moreover, it will contain how the
company got the limelight it has today and their journey so far, what their strength,
weakness,opportunity, and threats are, and a small business analysis by looking at some graphs
we have found online as their real numbers are not disclosed to the public eye.
Company Background:

Channel 24, a Bengali- language satellite and cable television channel started its journey on May
24, 2012, with the purpose of airing news and current affairs. The ownership of this TV channel
belongs to a subsidiary of Ha-Meem Group known as Times Media Limited. Initially, the
channel provided a diversified TV programming experience to its audience but later the
organization shifted from diversification to specialization by focusing only on airing news. This
shift from entertainment production to solely broadcasting news also made Channel 24 the most-
watched news channel in Bangladesh just 2 years after its launching ceremony. The head office
of the organization is currently situated at South Tejgaon Dhaka and their other office is at
Agrabad, Chittagong. They currently have a workforce of 1000-5000 members throughout
Bangladesh with the primary focus on providing the latest news. Despite the fact that Channel 24
is a subsidiary of the Ha-Meem group the channel’s broadcasting and news distribution is
completely independent which is a strategy to maintain the freedom of speech and authenticity of
the channel.

SWOT Analysis:
We will be using the SWOT analysis to find and evaluate the core strengths, weaknesses,
opportunities, and threats for Channel 24.

Strengths:

● Channel 24 is a television channel that focuses solely on news. Rather than keep on being
a diversified television channel providing multiple contents such as (insert a tv channel),
Channel 24 decided to focus solely on news content which enables them to provide high-
quality news.

● Provide neutrality on news. As Channel 24 is a private organization, the way they

operate is not influenced by the government. However, they cannot fully control the news
which gives them credibility and consumers will believe them.
Weaknesses:

● Not targeting the whole age group. (currently 25 onwards) As they broadcast news only,
their consumer demographic has become adults and elders. They are not able to capture
the youth’s attention as they don't prefer to watch the news.

● Lack of free speech due to censorship guidelines from higher authorities. Even though
they have more flexibility than state-controlled television channels, there are still
censorship guidelines that must be followed that restrict free speech.

Opportunities:

● Being one of the top-ranking news channels. Through consistently providing credible and
respectable news, Channel 24 envisions itself in the top ranks of television media
channels.

● Innovation. As time progresses, advanced technology can help to become more cost-
effective, productive, and efficient in their work.

● Online market. Channel 24 has also stepped into online platforms. As the use of smart
devices increases, the number of new consumers will increase too.

Threats:

● High numbers of competitors/ heavy competition. The television channel media is a

highly competitive market with a lot of competitors trying to stay on top.

● Future uncertainty. No matter how much forecasting is done, there is still a degree of
unpredictability of what the future holds, much like the unexpected Colvid-19 pandemic.

● More viewers for entertainment channels. The general public prefers to watch
entertainment channels than to watch the news which they find boring or uninteresting.

● Recession (lover consumption). With predictions of a recession within the next 12

months, television channels will get greatly affected. Mostly a decrease in viewership.

● Increase in false rumors and news. There has been an increase in the spread of false
rumors and news. This puts a huge toll on the news channels when they are dedicated to
providing credible and truthful news to the viewers.
● Audiences have higher involvement with foreign TV media, especially Indian. Even
though Bangladesh already has all types of local tv channels for the viewers to enjoy,
they prefer to watch foreign channels.
 Business Analysis:
Channel 24 services is available in three different platforms in their official website
(https://www.channel24bd.tv/) , Channel 24 youtube and Channel 24 satellite TV

Channel 24 range and classification of news services in the official website

Politics Sports Business International National Talk shows

Awami league Cricket Corporate America Dhaka

BNP Football Europe Khulna

ETC ETC Africa Rajshahi

Middle east Ranpur

Russia Barisal

Asia Chittagong

Sylhet
As Channel 24 is a private channel they do not disclose any of their financial
information to the public but we are able to do an overview of business
analysis through their youtube channel

Figure 1: it presents the number of subscribers, views and the estimated earning of
Channel 24. from the stats it can be concluded that the number of subscribers views is
relatively increasing.

Figure 2: It presents the increase of monthly gained subscribers views of channel 24

https://www.noxinfluencer.com/youtube/channel/UCHLqIOMPk20w-6cFgkA90jw
Discussed Questions:

1. What are the business challenges for Channel 24 in the telecommunications industry, and
how can they address these issues?

2. During covid 19 pandemic many businesses have suffered, how did the pandemic have an
impact on Channel 24 and how did it conduct its operation during the pandemic? What
was the marketing strategy at that period of time? What do the upcoming future
opportunities after the pandemic hold for the Bangladeshi Channels and how Channel 24
want to fit in?

3. We all know that Bangladeshi channels broadcast a lot of TVCs and promotional
activities for numerous brands. What is the reason behind this heavy dependence on
brand sponsorship and how do you justify this as these activities reduce a lot of screen
timing of TV programs?

4. As a solely airing news programming channel, how does channel 24 compare the channel
infrastructure of Bangladesh with the foreign news channels? What are the disadvantages
it faces due to the differences and how do they overcome them?

5. Do you think a news channel like Channel 24 should be concerned that the growing
dependency on websites and online news portals will result in the loss of a sizable portion
of the audience?
Case Summary:- To sum up the case study, channel 24 was founded by Hameem group
back in the year of 2012, and has prospered despite having weaknesses such as not being able to
attract younger age group audiences and their threats being Creed people preferring
entertainment channels more, and focusing on their strengths by providing reliable news and
opportunity being them solely focused on distributing news. We have also seen how they have
extended their reach to viewers by taking more online platforms into account. Our research has
concluded the questions we interviewed and related to the marketing strategies.

Teaching Objectives:-

The primary objective of this case study and discussion is to inform the audience and future
readers about an industry that is dominated by private organizations with restricted access to
information about their businesses. This term paper used a combination of primary research and
secondary methods that had been collected from a senior employee from Channel 24 along with
materials collected from the internet. As a result, the authors hope that this will help deliver some
insights to the audience that otherwise would not have been possible.

Target Audience:-

The target audience of this term paper and case is Undergraduate Business students, MBA and
students currently completing their higher studies in topics that require information regarding
domestic and international marketing, the strategies used by organizations throughout the world.
Suggested Answers to Discussed Question:

1) What are the business challenges for Channel 24 in the telecommunications

industry, and how can they address these issues?

Being a diversified channel had a challenge in itself. Handling all the different contents at the
same time and catering to a large group of consumers proved to be difficult. By serving a large
pool of audience, quality cannot be properly maintained with no key positioning that the
consumers can recall. Using the STP marketing model, Channel 24 divided the market into
different segments. Most notably, the age group of 15–65 years represented 64.2% of the total
population of Bangladesh in 2012 and later increased to 68.02% in 2020 (Statistics, 2022). The
older generation is the one continuing to use traditional news media as a source of information.
As a result, Channel 24 saw the potential for a news channel to gain significant success and
shifted from a diversified channel to a news-only channel, creating a customer value-driven
marketing strategy.

There are numerous news competitors with more than 20 years of experience, such as BTV and
Channel I, who have earned the trust of the older generation. Channel 24 must provide consistent
quality and neutrality in its news from credible sources in order to thrive in the market. By
analyzing and addressing customer pain points, consumers are more likely to invest their time in
watching their broadcasts.

People now spend more time on social media than they do on traditional television news media.
For this reason, they are already caught up with the latest news and trends on social media.
Young adults believe news travels faster on the internet. To address this changing behavior,
Channel 24 has to generate more digital presence to cater to those using only social media as a
source of information. They need to prioritize using YouTube, Facebook, and TikTok platforms
to upload long or short clips of news content regularly.

2) During covid 19 pandemic many businesses have suffered, how did the pandemic
have an impact on Channel 24 and how did it conduct its operation during the
pandemic? What was the marketing strategy at that period of time? What do the
upcoming future opportunities after the pandemic hold for the Bangladeshi
Channels and how Channel 24 wants to fit in?

The covid 19 pandemic was one of the hardest times in the world, just as our front-line workers,
the employees of Channel 24 did not have the luxury of working from home. News journalists
and each and every employee of Channel 24 was doing their work 24/7 with the right safety
precautions. Because the whole country did become more dependent on the news to get updates
on the Coronavirus.

Hence, their whole market segmentation has changed. The demographic segmentation changed
people of age between 18 to 45 onwards were now a part of the audience which were people
usually of the age between 25 to 45 years old.Younger generations have also started watching the
news to get information and updates on Covid 19. Due to natural causes, their customer base
increased. Hence, they delivered news more frequently and fast to catch the attention of the
younger audience and develop a new value proposition for channel 24. They also used to upload
on their YouTube channel, as the younger audience used mobile phones much more often. As
Channel 24 is a private company so it does not share its financial status. Hence, from their
YouTube channel, it can be seen that their subscription has increased from under 2 million in
2020 to 5.8 million in September 2022. Moreover, the targeted audience of Channel 24 was
always the news-seeking public, which added to their advantageChannel 24 provided
authenticity and credibility while providing as much information to the public as possible.

Channel 24 has seen huge growth both in audience size and viewership. Furthermore, to enhance
this, Channel 24 used personal marketing to sell its services. A Channel 24 journalist was
actually the first to actually interview people in covid affected places like hospitals. Hence,
during the pandemic time, their monthly subscription also increased. This boosted their channel,
and as we can already see in the chart, the views on their YouTube channel increased during
May 2020. Moreover, during the pandemic, channel 24 used social marketing to promote its
channel to a larger audience. Channel 24 introduced a new business called Telcove, where they
gave away all necessary sanitary products for covid 19 at a lower price. As a result, during the
pandemic time, their monthly subscription also increased from under 100k to over 200k in the
month of May 2020. So not just Channel 24 had growth in its satellite TV platform they also had
growth in its YouTube channel.

In the future, there is a high chance that Bangladeshi-originated TV programs will capture a huge
market share. This will be a new source of income and does not have to be dependent on TV
advertising to earn revenue. Channel 24, on the other hand, has no immediate plans to change its
current marketing strategy as a news channel. For the fact that Channel 24 used to be a
diversified channel but the huge audience base seeking entertainment from Indian Tv programs
affected not just channel 24 but most of the Bangladeshi channels.

Finally, channel 24 plans to continue updating its channel and becoming an authentic news
broadcasting channel.
 3) We all know that Bangladeshi channels broadcast a lot of TVCs and promotional
activities for numerous brands. What is the reason behind this heavy dependence on
brand sponsorship and how do you justify this as these activities reduce a lot of
screen timing of TV programs?

The Bangladeshi Television industry is heavily dependent on broadcasting Television

commercials of commercial products and services mostly which is a primary revenue source for
the tv channels. This reduces the screen time of TV programs and not to mention also distracts
the audience while viewing any program on television. Compared to other channels, Channel 24
is no different as they also show TVCs during programs, but this is practiced by the entire
industry as Bangladeshi TV channels are not paid media compared to foreign TV channels such
as CBS.

There are some channels, such as BTV, which is a national broadcasting media, that are not
dependent on TV commercials as they receive incentives from the government, which gives
them the privilege to get sufficient screen time for their TV programs. However, Channel 24 is a
private organization that has to compete in the market and for that, we try to provide authentic
quality content in order to maintain our competitive edge. To sustain ourselves we broadcast TV
commercials and we try to retain our audience with authentic news and information our audience
is willing to have this trade-off as this is followed by every channel in the Bangladesh television
media industry. Our audience has little choice in this regard as there is no better substitute
available for them when it comes to unpaid media.

Furthermore, our Bangladeshi audience is very diverse with a significant portion getting
attracted to tv commercials when trying to seek information. TV commercials are an effective
way of delivering messages which would otherwise have been dull and boring. Throughout the
last decade many important messages, especially for unsought products such as vaccines, health,
and life insurance, have been promoted to potential consumers who would otherwise have been
unaware of these varieties of brands available if other types of media such as newspapers would
have been used to promote a product. In TVCs, a message can be expressed much more clearly
where the messenger or in this regard an advertisement firm has better creative freedom while
developing an advertisement. As a result, advertisement is not an alarming issue rather it is part
of the TV experience as TVCs offer a break from all the stern facts and circumstances that are
shown in the news. Also, it is an effective way of capturing the attention of the audience through
advertisements about a particular program with a renowned personality as the chief guest. The
purpose and topic of the program generate interest in the audience's mind which subsequently
leads to a build-up of anticipation or desire in the audience's mind during the program. TVCs
work as a buffer or interval during the crucial moment of the program which results in some sort
of action after the end of the program.
In conclusion, advertisements broadcasted on TV channels create some issues for viewers as
some might find it irritating or distracting but Bangladeshi TV channels have been always
broadcasting TVC so it is safe to assume that the viewers have adapted well to the current
circumstances.

4) As a solely airing news programming channel, how does channel 24 compare the
channel infrastructure of Bangladesh with the foreign news channels? What are the
disadvantages it faces due to the differences and how do they overcome them?

The basic Comparison between the foreign and Bangladesh news media infrastructure is that the
news channels in foreign are paid channels and are based on subscriptions. They earn revenue
through daily/monthly subscriptions which are paid to them by their consumers, whereas
Bangladeshi channels do not earn monetary benefits directly through subscriptions, and earn
most of their revenue through showing ads that they stream beside their news, which is the
reason for channel 24 weakness and most of the channels and news broadcasters in the
Bangladesh market. Due to this, they usually have a low budget to carry on their programs and
run their company in such a packed market. Hence to sum it up, they earn revenue solely relying
on advertisement.

However it does have an advantage over running businesses on subscriptions, they tend to have
a lesser amount of loss incurred on revenue because they don't have to be dependent on the
number of customers/consumers are actually subscribing to their channel and gives them a
constant flow of money as the advertisements are usually based on long term contracts and the
subscriptions vary a lot as there is always the uncertainty that the consumer might go to their
competitors.

5) Do you think a news channel like Channel 24 should be concerned that the growing
dependency on websites and online news portals will result in the loss of a sizable
portion of the audience?

Channel 24 also offering their huge audience an online platform to gain more viewers has been
proven to work boomingly. As people prefer to watch the news on the go rather than in their
leisure time, their Youtube channel was more favored by the people. The young generation has
created a huge platform for them on social media too as they prefer online platforms more.
According to research, news travels faster online and anything that attracts this young generation
can travel in a blink. After channel 24 opened up its Youtube channel the number of views also
went up and started profiting out of that too so even with the traditional television news
channels, Channel 24 does not have to worry about the loss of the audience portion. But they
also have upcoming ideas on further expanding their online portals as creating an app or other
platforms.