On 24 March 2017, the GS Group holding company announced the sale of its share in the joint venture Beximco Communication Ltd that operates in Bangladesh under the RealVU brand. In so doing, the holding company has successfully completed an investment project to create the first satellite Pay-TV operator in the country. Beximco Communication Ltd will continue to operate the broadcasting equipment and infrastructure developed and integrated by GS Group.
The RealVU project was launched in April 2016 in partnership with BEXIMCO, a Bangladeshi diversified conglomerate. GS Group served as an investor and provided the supply and integration of its own software and hardware solutions, which will still remain the basis of RealVU even after GS Group leaves the project.
The first national DTH-platform RealVU provides high-quality digital broadcasting throughout Bangladesh. The operator offers 112 SD and HD TV channels, including international channels in English, popular Indian TV content, as well as channels with local content produced in Bangladesh. Digital TV set-top boxes developed by GS Group meet the needs of today’s TV viewers offering smart functions such as PVR and TimeShift along with an electronic program guide (EPG).
“Launching the RealVU DTH-platform as a greenfield project has been truly an exciting experience for GS Group. For the first time ever, our joint venture has provided access to digital television to a country with a population of more than 165 million people, where only poor-quality terrestrial and digital cable TV were previously available. GS Group served as an investor, supplier and integrator of its own technological solutions. RealVU is the second international broadcasting project at a national level with GS Group’s in-house solutions”, Andrew Bezrukov, Director for Strategic Marketing, GS Group.
RealVU is the second foreign broadcasting project launched with the direct involvement of GS Group. From 2012 to 2016, the holding company successfully implemented a project of creating One TV, the first nationwide DTT-operator in the Kingdom of Cambodia.