The Bhutan Broadcasting Service Corporation’s (BBSC) signal will be soon uplinked with South Asia Satellite. Once that happens, the BBSC would be able to expand and improve its reach and coverage in the country.
The Chief Engineer of BBSC, Sherub Tharchen, said India has agreed to provide a transponder in the South Asia Satellite for the uplink. “We can’t promise when we would be able to do so,” he said.
“It will fully depend on the information and communication ministry because they are going to provide the fund and equipment.”
Officials from the information and communication ministry and the Bhutan Information and Communication Media Authority (BICMA) say various studies have been carried out to study alternatives to ensure BBS TV reaches every nook and corner of the country.
“We looked at our Bhutanese DTH, the cost implications and found it is not feasible in terms of cost as the cost of satellite transponder is huge,” said Jigme Wangdi, the Chief Communication Officer of BICMA.
“Therefore, we are asking the government to give access to our optical fibers. If that comes through, the cable operators can take the signal right to the gewog centers.”
At the moment, besides cable television, many people in the rural and semi-urban places in the country use Direct-to-Home or DTH television packages such as Dish TV or Tata Sky Services to watch BBS channel.
These DTH TV packages are recharged from the border town of Jaigaon. However, BBS TV channels were removed from the package recently by the service distributors, leaving many without access to BBS TV.
This has left many unhappy. In Chhukha, the issue made it to the recent Dzongkhag Tshogdu. “It has been few months since BBS TV channels were excluded from the Dish TV package,” said Passang, the Gup of Dungna Gewog.
“We haven’t heard about the government doing anything about it. Entertainment programmes that come on BBS TV, such as reality singing shows, engage people in the villages. In some ways, it promotes GNH.”
“I think the government must come up with a way to ensure we have access to BBS TV channels,” said Phub Dorji, the Gup of Geling Gewog. “We need it to keep ourselves abreast with the happenings in the country.”
“Without access to BBS TV channels, people in a remote gewog like Getana remain literally isolated from the rest of the country,” said Kinley, the Gup of Getana Gewog.
