DW was in Dhaka this week to provide journalists and media professionals a look at the the new 24/7 English news channel presented in cooperation with local partner Bangladesh Television (BTV). The flagship program, DW News, features a programming block that focuses on regional issues for Asia and content with regional significance in cooperation with local partners. These co-productions will maintain DW’s standards while allowing partners the flexibility to use their own graphics and on air personalities – a method that succeeds in combining international expertise with regional appeal.

In Bangladesh, DW reaches an audience of opinion leaders and people who are curious about learning and seeking information. Dorothee Ulrichs, DW’s Head of Asia Distribution said theses are people who aren’t satisfied with tag lines or headlines and want to “discover new places and understand the ‘why’ in the world around them”.

Part of the global launch of DW News last June was a promotional campaign that focused on the audience and highlighted local heroes in regions all over the world. Local heroes are people who make a difference in their communities by working, thinking, creating and innovating. Two Bangladeshi local heroes were guests at the launch in Dhaka. Their work sets an exceptional example.

Mahfuza Akter is an Infolady – volunteers who bike hundreds of miles a month to provide advice and medicine to thousands of people in remote, impoverished villages around the country. Using the Internet, they connect people with modernized methods and ideas that they cannot access elsewhere. Their work also earned them a 2013 DW Bobs online activism award. And Korvi Rakshand founded the JAAGO foundation in 2007, which provides education for disadvantaged children living in slums. The school also promotes volunteer action groups in Bangladesh through the initiative Volunteer for Bangladesh. The project has organized over 10,000 volunteers in Bangladesh who are working to enact positive social change.

Asia
Onneshon is now available in India and Bangladesh. The science show that is broadcast in Bengali will be made available in Eastern India on Doordarshan Bangla (DD Bangla).

Europe
A weekly version of Euromaxx is now being produced and broadcast in Ukrainian. The new adaptation of the classic show is being produced in cooperation with ZIK-TV, with which DW has been working with since the beginning of 2014. ZIK-TV also rebroadcasts Geofaktor and Focus on Europe.

South America
The culture magazine Camorote.21 is now being broadcast nationwide in Brazil by TV Brasil. The public broadcaster is part of the EBC (Empresa brasileira de comunicação) and focuses on informational and cultural programming.

Another first for DW: We will be broadcasting our first television series in Bengali starting April 13, 2013: Onneshon will cover science, technology, the environment and medicine and will be shown every Saturday at 6:30 pm as well as Sunday at 1:30 am and 3:30 pm on Ekushey TV in Bangladesh. Onneshon is produced by DW’s Bengali team in Bonn and will be hosted by DW’s Debarati Guha.

In addition to presenting the latest scientific developments, our reporters will also report on the different aspects of everyday life in Germany and comment on the sometimes surprising differences between Germany and South Asia. Multimedia content from the series will also be available online at www.dw.com as well as being distributed by DW’s online partners.

Ekushey TV is one of Bangladesh’s most popular private TV stations, with programming available via cable and satellite. It provides television services to more than 32 million homes in Bangladesh. Ekushey was the first Bangladeshi TV channel to broadcast content via live stream, which is available online at www.ekushey-tv.com.

Find out more about Global Ideas or check out the specifics on the project in Bangladesh.