ATN Bangla (), 'ATN' being the acronym of the unused Asian Television Network, is a Bangladeshi Bengali-language satellite and cable television channel owned by Multimedia Production Company. It is based in the Kawran Bazar neighborhood of Dhaka. ATN Bangla is the first privately owned television channel and the first to broadcast on satellite in Bangladesh. The channel began broadcasting on 15 July 1997. ATN Bangla is broadcast in over 130 countries worldwide. History As nothing of the kind existed in the country at the time, Mahfuzur Rahman had plans to establish a privately owned satellite television channel in Bangladesh, after seeing the popularity of Zee TV in India. He later rented a one-hour slot to broadcast Bengali-language programs on ATN Music, a Mumbai-based television channel, which gained popularity. After ATN Music was shut down, Rahman thought of establishing a full-fledged Bengali-language satellite television channel. ATN Bangla was the first Bangladeshi privately owned television channel to officially gain a license to broadcast. It officially began broadcasting using a Thaicom satellite on 15 July 1997, with the "Obiram Banglar Mukh" (অবিরাম বাংলার মুখ; ) slogan. It is also the first Bengali-language television channel in the world to broadcast worldwide. The name of the channel, ATN Bangla, was also derived from the defunct Indian channel. The channel broadcast commercials from advertisers that could not advertise on Bangladesh Television due to a strict policy on advertising of the network. ATN Bangla began using digital technology to broadcast, moving away from analog technology, in May 1999. In 2001, the channel began broadcasting to the Bangladeshi diaspora in Europe. ATN Bangla began broadcasting Bengali-language news programming on 16 August 2001. It later began airing English-language news programming on 1 October 2002. Naem Nizam was the first news editor of ATN Bangla. The channel was heavily praised for its coverage of the Iraq War in 2003. It also introduced hourly news bulletins at that period. In March 2004, ATN Bangla began broadcasting in the Americas. On 22 November 2004, ATN Bangla won the International Children's Day of Broadcasting Award at the 32nd International Emmy Awards for its segment, Amrao Pari (We, too, Can). The documentary was shot and directed by eighteen Bangladeshi teenagers, and was focused on the story of Abul Khaer, a 9-year-old boy who stopped a passenger train from approaching a disjointed rail track, and prevented a train disaster. The channel had also won several