Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha (BSS), state news agency of the country which was founded on January 1, 1972 is in real mess as the organization has been showing extremely poor performance. According to Wikipedia, Abul Kalam Azad is the current managing director and chief editor of the agency.
While government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is putting special emphasis on advancement of technology as part of its magnificent ‘Digital Bangladesh’, the state news agency is absent from social media platforms – such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, which are considered as most effective tools by most of the news agencies and newspapers throughout the world, as having presence on social media platforms would greatly help in spreading each of the contents to a huge number of audiences throughout the world. For the state news agency BSS, although this should have been one of the prime goals and it mainly focuses on publishing positive news and features on Bangladesh, it is a matter of great surprise as to why policymakers inside Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha are either lethargic or ignorant on this important issue.
Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha (BSS) has a YouTube channel with only 587 subscribers and 35 contents. Most surprisingly, the latest content on this YouTube channel was uploaded four months ago, while it was essential for BSS to regularly upload video contents, particularly contents related to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s recent official visit to Japan, the United States and Britain.
With its vast range of contents, if Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha would focus on its YouTube channel, this state-owned news agency could generate thousands of dollars every month from the contents.
Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha though has a Facebook page with 5,100 followers, the latest post on it dates back to March 8, 2023.
It is also learnt that state-owned Bangladesh Television has its Twitter handle with only 3 followers and only 1 tweet, though it is not confirmed if this Twitter handle is actually owned by Bangladesh Television (BTV). If this Twitter handle is fake, BTV authorities should have brought the matter to attention of Twitter.
Bangladesh Television has a verified Facebook page with 1.6 million followers. Unfortunately, it does not post any content related to development activities of the government or Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. Instead, it is publishing entertainment contents.
Although Bangladesh Television should have multiple channels on YouTube, which could also help in generating foreign exchange earnings, for unknown reasons it is not putting focus on this area.
It may be mentioned here that, most of the YouTube channels, such as G-Series, CD Choice, CMV, Eagle, Sultan, Dhruba TV etcetera are earning at least US$50-200 thousand every month simply by uploading dramas and musical contents. Since there is huge demand for Bangla dramas, BTV can easily start multiple channels on YouTube and upload its dramas, musical contents, magazine shows etcetera, which would help the organization in earning hundreds and thousands of dollars every year. Taking undue advantage of BTV’s having no YouTube channels, unscrupulous elements are illegally uploading BTV produced dramas, musical contents, magazine programs etcetera on YouTube channels and earning huge amounts of foreign currency, thus depriving the state-owned broadcast network from this income.
Similarly, Bangladesh Betar, the state-owned radio station has its Twitter handle with only 50 followers, whereas the latest tweet dates back to May 16, 2015 – more than 8 years ago. Bangladesh Betar does not have a presence on Facebook.
