ETV's erratic advertisement breaks

ETV an English language entertainment channel seems to have some of the most erratic advertisement breaks in Sri Lankan television. Just last night during the American Idol show advertisement breaks cut in half way in between songs and sometimes songs were cut into by LBO.TV segment too.

It is understandable that a station needs advertisements to survive but shouldn't they be better organised in the telecast of these commercials. One would get the impression that the people at the controls have no idea on what type of programme that they are telecasting. We hope that ETV gets their act together and if they don't, we hope that the sponsors of their top line programmes such as American Idol will pressurize them to do it.

Now the other operators have nothing to smile about since even they are guilty of this offense but it seems that it happens more often on ETV.

"Asian Tribune" Insane

Asian Tribune has an article on its website which is dated 8th April 2007 and titled "Satellite based 'Direct to Home' television companies a threat to National Security". This article we believe was written by someone who has some links to a competitor of CBNsat (now known as Dialog TV) who failed miserably trying to keep the company shut before the acquisition by Dialog Telekom.

Even though the above linked article has no relevance now since the LTTE TV and Radio stations have been taken off Intelsat it must be noted that some of the information in this article is very misleading and the work of a person who is illiterate about DTH services.

The writer has said that all subscribers of Dialog TV can view the LTTE Radio and Television channels along with the pay channels and this is absolutely false since from the very beginning when it was under the previous management the decoders have been locked and did not allow access to FTA channels. Only the channels that are provided by the service provider can be viewed. These false claims were made before too and they have been cleared and the relevant government authorities know that they were hoodwinked into sealing the company initially along with one another called LBN. They also cite that Dialog TV have been not serious about getting Intelsat to remove the LTTE transmissions. An educated person will understand that since Dialog TV customers under the present or previous management have never been able to receive FTA signals there was need for the company to think seriously about the LTTE transmissions, after all the government should have taken the initiative.

If Asian Tribune as claimed in the article played a part in pressurizing Intelsat to remove LTTE transmissions from the satellite then we commend them for that. However Asian Tribune must make sure that they get their facts right before they report. If these allegations were made against a service provider in some other country they probably will get their pants sued off but since it is Sri Lanka they seem to have escaped with it. Who knows maybe Dialog is contemplating legal action and maybe they can use the money to hire a few more transponders!

SLT IPTV to launch by the end of this year

Sri Lanka Telecom has been granted the license by the media ministry to operate IPTV and would launch their services by the end of this year according to a report in todays Daily News.

The service will initially be offered for colombo subscribers and can be used with their existing television set and the existing copper wire telephone connection. Subscribers will need to purchase a decoder costing approximately USD 100. According to the report SLT hopes to provide the decoder on an installment basis to make the service accessible for all.

SLT have not decided on the rental for this service but it is likely that the service will be billed on a usage basis. This is a concern because this method may prevent people from using the connection and if the usage charges are not realistic the subscribers may end up with thumping bills after an event like a cricket tournament for example the world cup which usually keeps viewers glued to their television sets. SLTV IPTV hopes to include local channels too and if they are charging on usage basis then the subscribers will be billed for watching the local channels for which subscribers may opt for watching the local channels via there FTA antenna instead.

In addition SLT IPTV will include other international content too and also the facility to watch a programme that was telecast a few hours ago.

Source : SLT to introduce Internet Protocol Television - Daily News 25th April 07

Star Cricket channel to launch in June

ESPN Star Sports which operates ESPN and Star Sports in this region have decided to launch their third channel Star Cricket in June to coincide with the India tour of England.

This is the 15th channel launched by ESPN Star Sports in the Asia Pacific region and as the name suggests it will be a 24 hour channel cricket centric channel. ESPN Star Sports recently acquired the ICC Global telecast rights for the next eight years and has rights to cover the matches played in England and Australia too among others.

In addition ESPN Star Sports will be telecasting the ICC Twenty20 World Cup later this year featuring 27 matches.

It is likely that most of the cricket content shown on ESPN and Star Sports will be moved to Star Cricket. In Sri Lanka ESPN and Star Sports are available on all pay television platoforms.

It is hoped that Star Cricket will be added to the local pay television platforms as soon as the launch takes place to avoid local pay television subscribers from missing any cricket action that otherwise would have been telecast on either ESPN or Star Sports.

Dialog TV and LBN will have to start negotiating with ESPN Star Sports immediately in order to add it to their lineup as soon as the launch takes place, even Comet Cable would have to negotiate soon provided their network has the capacity to include this channel or else they should include it on Multivision operated regional pay television companies.

Dialog TV to venture into HDTV

Dialog TV, Sri Lanka's fast growing pay television company has planned to venture into HDTV and could become the first in this region to do so. This will add to the regional firsts already scored by Dialog GSM.

According to an interview in "The Nation" newspaper it has been revealed that the pilot HDTV project is underway and the result would be announced in four weeks time. In addition it has been revealed that Dialog TV will be expanding their present portfolio of channels since they have already acquired another two transponders from IS-12 bringing them to a total of four transponders. These two additional transponders will enable them to add more channels to the platform as well as to increase the picture quality of their present channels. Just recently Dialog TV added "Al Jazeera English" to their lineup of channels.

To read the full text of the interview please click on "Dialog TV takes Sri Lanka by storm - The Nation (April 22nd 2007)".
For more information regarding Dialog TV please visit the Dialog TV Forum.

Radio and Satellite Television Station for Buddhists

According to a report in The Sunday Times, on April 30th 2007 Sri Lanka will be getting it's very first Buddhist Radio Station. This will be followed by the launch of a Satellite Television station for Buddhists.

Religious stations are available in many countries around the world but this is the first of it's kind in Sri Lanka.

Several religious organisations have tried to acquire licenses to start religious channels but have not been granted the license. However now since a Buddhist radio and television service will commence soon we hope that the authorities in fairness to all will grant licenses to the other religious organisations also to start their own television and radio services.

The Sunday Times April 23rd 2007 : Radio & TV station for buddhists

Maharaja launches "webtv.lk"

Webtv.lk the Capital Maharaja Broadband TV network was launched in London yesterday to cater to the expatriate population. This is the first of its kind launched by a local television service. This service can be viewed on a computer as well as on your television using MSN Tv service in the UK. Selected programmes from Sirasa TV, Shakthi TV and Channel One MTV will be available on this service.

This comes hot on the heels of a failed attempt by Capital Maharaja to make their channels available via UK DTH service provider Sky Digital. The failure was due to the high cost of subscription and the heavy indian content that was available on the channels.

The success of this new venture may be stifled due to the fact that this is a pay service whereas other channels such as Swarnavahini and Rupavahini are available on line for free viewing. In addition there are other established Sri Lanka oriented channels already available in this region. Nevertheless this service enables Sri Lankan expatriates to view more local programming than they already have.

Web Site : webtv.lk

"FA Cup" Live on Channel One MTV/Shakthi TV

Last weekend Sri Lankan viewers were able to catch the live broadcast of the FA Cup Semi Finals on Channel One MTV as well as on Shakthi TV.

The first Semi final on Saturday night was shown live via ESPN. The second Semi final shown on Sunday night was not a live broadcast but a delayed broadcast via Star Sports (The actual live telecast commenced at around 8:30pm on Star Sports but the broadcast over Channel One/Shakthi TV started after 9:30pm). Pay television subscribers in Sri Lanka were able to catch the matches live via ESPN and Star Sports. Even though the promotions suggested that the matches will be shown live, this was not the case with the second semi final.

The final will also be shown on Channel One MTV/Shakthi TV on May 19th at 3pm UK time and hopefully it is shown live and not as a delayed broadcast.