New English Language TV Channel

In the employment page of The Sunday Observer (29th October) it seems that there has been an advertisement of a new English Language Tv Station. We are unable to get information on who is operating the tv station as well as any further details about it.

As soon as we get further information about the tv station we will post it here. However if our fellow bloggers have any further information, we would like them to post the information on the blog.

We Report (make blunders), You Decide (get upset)

Yes this post is about our wonderful friends at Maharaja Broadcasting Corporation. We are getting confirmed reports that during the movie on Shakthi Tv yesterday in the afternoon, there was a news flash in Tamil that scrolled along the screen that said "Breaking News : Tamil MP killed in Sri Lanka".

Several people who were watching the movie have got alarmed and have waited for the hourly news update. Alas in the news update this has not been mentioned. This information is supposed to have been scrolled twice across the screen and the third time they have blanked the bottom part of the screen. The reason for all this. Well this movie has been recorded off Sun Tv during the month of December on the day the Tamil MP was shot. So the breaking news update off Sun Tv was never censored by these people.

Before telecasting this movie shouldn't steps have been taken to blank it out. After the mistake took place they should have at least scrolled an apology across the screen since every time they have a scroll saying that they have paid a tax of rupees whatever to show this programme.

Is this how a professional tv station behaves. We do not want repeats of mistakes of that nature anymore. Over to the authorities of MTV/MBC.

Pay Tv Piracy on the rise

Lanka Business On Line is carrying a story titled "Pay Tv Piracy on the rise in Asia" dated 24th October 2006 on lbo.lk and this is striking a chord with one of our previous posts titled "Increase in sales of illegal pay tv units" dated 17th October 2006.

If this cable tv crisis continues Sri Lanka will hold top spot for the country with illegal pay tv connections. Just like we made a landmark leap downwards on the Press Freedom ratings.

Just now we got unconfirmed news that LBN Appeals Court case has been postponed to November 28th and the CBNsat Supreme Court Case is on November 6th. This is how the learned officials in our legal system are handling this case.

Like we said, if the officials do not resolve this issue soon, people will try to get the entertainment that they were denied either legally or illegally. Now do not say we did not warn you. Do not make Sri Lanka No. 1 in Piracy of Pay Tv.

Increase in sales of illegal pay tv units

A new trend has emerged after the sealing and shutting down of LBN and CBNsat and that is the sales of illegal DTH units from India are increasing in Sri Lanka. This is mainly because the court cases of the two operators are being dragged on endlessly and many see this as an attempt of the henchmen of the politicians to ruin the cable tv industry. Please refer LBN and CBNSat Forum for more on the new twists emerging to these cases.

Sales of illegal Dish Tv units from many vendors have shot up. The GOSL is set to lose a lot of money from taxes due to this but they should have expected this to happen. The people were given a taste of what real television entertainment is, and now once they have been deprived of it, they will go to any lengths to get it back.

Satnet which is the authorised dealer for Dish Tv India and one of the companies behind this cable tv scenario has been unable to crop up sales due to lack of quality in their package and the high pricing of their package.

The illegal package offers more channels than what CBNsat and LBN offered and at cheaper prices. Existing CBNsat customers have to only change the direction of their CBNsat dish and purchase a new decoder.

The GOSL is acting in a way that is increasing the already rampant piracy issues faced by us. The GOSL which tried to put a tight noose around the cable tv industry is now faced with the fact that these illegal connections cannot be controlled and the content that will be available on these connections cannot also be monitored since they originate and are uplinked in another country. The GOSL have put the Cable TV industry in a big mess like they have put the whole country also in a big mess.

"Discovery Channel" - No. 1 International channel in India

Discovery Channel has become the No. 1 International channel in India. They have beaten competition from channels such as National Geographic, Star Movies, HBO, AXN, NDTV, etc to achieve this status.

This is indeed an achievement for a channel that is an educational channel and does not show movies and regular entertainment. It is believed that the cable tv industry in India is now reaching maturity and is well poised to take the lead in South Asia. India has hundreds of cable operators and many international channels have setup uplinking stations there. Most of the International cable tv channels have localised some of their programmes to suit India and also many of them broadcast multiple audio signals to suit the many local languages.

It is sad to note that Sri Lanka has not done anything positive to lure the International broadcasters into this country and cable tv is restricted to only the priviledged.

Channel One MTV to telecast "The Amazing Race : Asian Edition"

Channel One MTV is due to show "The Amazing Race : Asian Edition". The Amazing Race is a multi award winning television programme. The Asian Edition which is filmed and produced in Asia by AXN will be hosted by a Singaporean host.

Sri Lanka will also be represented. It is not confirmed that Channel One MTV will show this edition of the programme but initial reports indicate that they will be showing this programme. The show will commence on 9th November on AXN.

The Amazing Race is now in it's 10th Season and this is the first season of the Asian Edition.

Dialog Tv to launch in six months

The Financial Times reports that Dialog Tv will come into operational in another six months. They say that they will be launching Pay Tv operations and will promote channels such as AXN, Star World, Cinemax, etc.

There is no mention of the technology that they are planning to use, will it be DTH, etc no one knows yet. However we feel that it is just a matter of time before they reveal this information too. We have still not got confirmation whether they will buy an existing pay tv provider or set up their own one.

It is advantageous for them to buy a company such as CBNsat since they will get them along with the entire setup including the 20,000 customers.

Good Luck to Dialog in their endeavour.

TRC directed to issue cable licenses

The Daily News today reports that President Mahinda Rajapakse has directed the TRC to issue licenses for Cable Tv companies who have obtained Defense Ministry Approval.

The report also further states that this has been done due to numerous requests from the public. At the moment LBN got MoD approval whereas CBNsat has been unable to get MoD approval still.

http://www.dailynews.lk/2006/10/03/news21.asp

Dialog picks up Asset Media

Dialog Telekom has bought Asset Media the operators of Neth FM. Neth FM was planning to launch a tv station by next february and they are the first media institution to acquire the license to launch a digital tv station. The interesting thing here is that the CEO of Dialog Telekom is showing an interest in moving into Digital Terrestial Broadcasting, DTH and Mobile Television. So what's next? Will Dialog Telekom buy CBNsat?

Given below is the newsreport on lbo.lk under the heading "Four Play"

Sri Lanka's Dialog Telekom moves into television services

October 02, 2006 (LBO) – Dialog Telekom has picked up a radio and television frequency license, which gives them the edge to rollout a host of infotainment services ranging from television to mobile phone services.

A unit of Telekom Malaysia, Dialog picked up the frequency by acquiring a 90 percent stake in Asset Media (Pvt) Ltd for 325 million rupees, the telco said Monday. Asset Media’s promoters – Nihal Seneviratne Epa and Lasantha Milroy Pieris – will retain a minority 10 percent stake. A greenfield operation, Asset Media also comes with its own broadcasting studio, a free-to-air and pay tv license. The digital convergence, also known as quadruple play or four-play, allows Dialog to offer cable television, broadband, fixed-line and mobile telephone services. The strategic diversification into the television broadcasting allows Dialog to move into digital terrestrial broadcasting, direct to home or DTH and mobile television services, its CEO Hans Wijayasuriya said. The investment, he said, keeps pace with global dynamics of convergence where communication and media technologies merge with telecommunication services. Ten months ago, Dialog moved into the broadband market by picking up a network operator MTT. The company also has a CDMA (code division multiple access) license, which allows Dialog to offer fixed line telephone services using cheaper mobile technologies. Dialog's CDMA operation, through its fully owned subsidiary – Dialog Broadband Networks – is due to start next January. In August, Dialog became the first in South Asia to commercially launch third generation mobile services or 3G, giving customers the facility for high speed web browsing, video streaming, online games, music and movie downloads. Sri Lanka, which became the first South Asian nation to start mobile services, when Celltel Lanka began operations in 1989, now boasts over 4.28 million subscribers, according to Central Bank figures.

Dialog Telekom, dominates the industry with over 2.75 million subscribers, followed by Mobitel Lanka, Celltel Lanka Ltd, Hutchinson. The telecom regulator is in the process of selecting a fifth operator.