About Channel S
Channel S serves as a vital platform for the global The UK community and offers a rich tapestry of programming that spans a wide range of interests, including community, current affairs, history, islamic, news, religious, talk-shows, and tv-shows
Channel S is a UK-based, free-to-air television channel targeting the British Bangladeshi community. The channel was established on 16 December 2004, by Mahee Ferdous Jalil – a Bangladeshi businessman in London.
On Sky, it had a timesharing deal with ATN Global, and then in 2005 it started to broadcast for 24 hours, 7 days a week and is currently available on Sky channel 814. As well as that, their shows such as 'Channel S News' tend to copy sounds from other companies such as the BBC. The channel claims to be the "Voice of British Bangladeshis across the world", and its slogan "Working for the community", broadcasting mainly in Bengali and occasionally in Sylheti, and programs suiting the community needs.
The television station is based at Prestige House in Walthamstow, North East London. It broadcasts programs in Bengali, Sylheti and a few in English. It is the first Bangladeshi channel to broadcast content in the Sylheti dialect, it has built up a loyal following among the Bangladeshis in the United Kingdom who the majority come from Sylhet.
Since the launch of the channel in 2004, there has been a bitter rivalry between Channel S and Bangla TV, with Channel S gaining rights to broadcast the Baishakhi Mela. A survey in the UK found Channel S was the most viewed Bengali TV channel in the UK.
History
On 16 December 2004, Channel S started to broadcast on Sky with a timesharing deal with ATN Global on channel 827. It was founded by Bangladeshi businessmen based in London, Mahee Ferdous Jalil, who is also the owner of the car insurance company Prestige Auto Group.
In March 2005, it moved to its own EPG channel 837 and started broadcasting 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and then moved to channel 814.
From 15 January 2006, it aired its programs in Bangladesh and other countries of South Asia, South East Asia, and the Middle East From August 2006, Channel S acquired the rights to broadcast two of Bangladesh's prominent satellite channels, NTV (Bangladesh) and ATN Bangla. These are also available on Sky channels 826 and 827 respectively (a few months later it had stopped broadcasting NTV, which became independent from Channel S).
In October 2008, it acquired the right to broadcast a popular Bangladeshi channel called, Channel I on channel 826. In May 2007, Channel S launch Islam4U – a channel dedicated to Islamic programs (has stopped broadcasting since).
Programs
Channel S provides viewers with a combination of cultural, political and religious programs for the viewers, including shows which help the community with legal or community issues. News is broadcast daily, with news coverage of national news and international news, the main headline and political situation in Bangladesh and the latest news headlines in Britain.
Local and community news are also broadcast from correspondents throughout the UK, including a news program dedicated to news coverage from Sylhet, there is a live bulletin at 7:00 pm and full news broadcast at 10:30 pm and 1:00 am, news coverage is of Bengali.
