Zee Cafe to premiere Survivor China

Zee Cafe part of the Zee Television network will be launching the latest edition of Survivor - Survivor : China - which commenced September 20th on CBS, early next month. This decision was taken after six months of research where it was found that people found out about brand new shows or their seasons and could not wait for several months or years to see them.

Zee Cafe has lined up about 11 different programmes for launch between today and early next year. These programmes will be premiering as they are launched in the US.

Survivor is a popular reality show in Sri Lanka and those who watch it have not been able to since no Sri Lankan channel has been able to telecast the programme consistently ever since MTV stopped telecasting the show several years ago. Art TV showed one season "Survivor : Palau" last year and after that there has been nothing. So now at least those who are able to afford pay television will be able to watch this popular reality show once again.

Zee Cafe is available on pay television providers Dialog TV, LBN and on the soon to be launched Comet Digital.

Source : Zee Cafe launches 11 fresh shows currently on air in the US

Latest English Station "REAL RADIO" hits the airwaves

Sri Lanka's latest English Language station "REAL RADIO" has made its entrance on Sri Lanka's airwaves. Operating on 87.8FM this station has made what we would call a low key entrance. We are unable to confirm the format of the music adopted by this station but it seems that it a mix of the oldies and the latest hits. At the moment this station does not carry out any news updates as well as the DJ's are silent most of the time compared to some of Sri Lanka's other radio stations. According to unconfirmed sources some DJ's from Sun FM, Gold FM are said to have joined this station.

The station is said to be operated by Voice of Asia Networks which operates Siyatha FM. Siyatha is due to launch a television station in due course.

Even though the station is supposed to be broadcasting from Colombo it seems that there is some interference on FM 87.8 and we hope that these are sorted out soon. In addition we wonder whether any of the listeners are having any problems tuning into this station since some of the Hi Fi systems that we tried to check out this new station did not contain any frequencies below FM 88. Wonder whether any of our bloggers are having that problem, we know that some car radio's are unable to tune past FM 90 but this can be corrected so we presume that a problem such as this can also be corrected.

The music played on "REAL RADIO" appeals to all age groups and since the banter of the DJ's is less, this station will no doubt prove very popular among listeners who are sick and tired of the endless yapping. We are sure the management of "REAL RADIO" will welcome feedback from their listeners regarding reception and the music, so please call them on (011) 2304387.

We wish the management of "REAL RADIO" all the best in their future endeavors.

Latest Sinhala Station "RAN FM" now on air

The latest Sinhala Language Radio Station "RAN FM" is now on air on 102.2FM. It seems that this station is operated by the EAP group. After a test transmission spanning a few months this station was launched last morning.

The station is said to be broadcasting from Colombo and has a host of frequencies for other parts of the country. We hope that anyone who has a list of the other frequencies would post a comment giving a list of those frequencies.

We wish the management of this new radio station all the best in their new venture.

State of news presentation on English FM stations

It is very pathetic to note that the standard of English used during news bulletins has dropped on all English FM stations in Sri Lanka. Words are not pronounced properly and full stops do not seem to exist. The worst station when it came to news was and still is E FM (the relaunch has not seemed to have made any changes to news presentation) however the other stations are at times better but no one can be described as good. Yes FM is better but some presenters are extremely bad, Sun FM/Gold FM presenters are also bad at reading the news and TNL Radio/Lite FM can be rated depending on who is reading the bulletin. SLBC English is generally okay but that too depends on the presenter at times.

Anyone who is learning English will be mislead if he/she listens to local English FM stations. Names of places in Sri Lanka are often messed up while being read.

We hope that the management of these stations will take steps to raise the standard of the English being presented during news bulletins.

E FM changes Blackberry promotion

After the post that we published yesterday regarding the problems in the E FM Blackberry Promotion held between 5pm and 8pm in the show called "Rush Hour" and the inconvenience it is causing, it is great to note that E FM have changed the way that their promotion is carried out.

Now there is not need for contestants to keep dialing to check whether the guessed number is correct instead they need to SMS the guessed phone number to a designated Dialog phone number.

It is great to note that E FM is taking steps in the right direction using the feedback that they get.

E FM Blackberry promotion a headache for Dialog GSM users

Subscribers of Dialog GSM are being greatly inconvenienced by a Blackberry promotion that is being carried out on the evening show on E FM between 5pm & 8pm. The show is sponsored by Dialog GSM and the phone is given courtesy the management of E FM. The promotion requires listeners to guess the phone number and the person who is able to get the correct number and make the Blackberry ring walks away with the phone. Only a few of the numbers belonging to the number of the Blackberry is revealed to the public (eg: 077 _ _ 9 _ _ 8 _ ), the blank numbers will have to be guessed by the listeners and they will have to dial randomly until they arrive at the correct phone number.

This has resulted in several Dialog GSM subscribers receiving calls asking whether it is E FM. Due to the amount of people taking part in the promotion trying to win a Blackberry phone some subscribers get several calls.

We hope that E FM will make sure that others are not inconvenienced by their promotions and will therefore change the format of the promotion. Dialog GSM should take steps to make sure that their subscribers are not inconvenienced by promotions such as these. We believe that being sponsors of the show Dialog GSM would be able to make sure that this type of inconvenience does not happen again.

Sony bags rights for New Zealand Cricket

SET India has bagged the broadcasting rights for New Zealand Cricket at a cost of $ 50 Million for the next four years. This brings Sony back into the cricketing game after the ICC Cricket World Cup 2007. According to information the broadcast rights for cricket played in England and Australia have been acquired by ESPN Star Sports now broadcast rights for cricket played in New Zealand are with Sony. The broadcast rights for the cricket played in Pakistan, Sri Lanka, West Indies, South Africa and New Zealand would be up for bidding soon and Sony may bid for any of these broadcast rights too. In addition Sony is interested in bidding for the Indian Premier League Twenty20 tournament which is an League operated by the BCCI and also for the Champions Twenty20 League which includes cricketing boards of cricketing nations such as Australia, England, South Africa and India.

Global Rights for ICC tournaments such as ICC World Cup, ICC Twenty20 tournament and ICC Champions Trophy for the next 11 years are held by ESPN Star Sports.

It is expected that the Sony MAX television channel will be carrying the cricket broadcasts since the channel was originally launched as a cricket and movies channel. MAX was the major broadcaster for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2007 and the sister channels SAB and PIX was used for cricket broadcasts when more than one cricket match was being played on any given day.

Sony MAX and SAB are available on pay television network Dialog TV. At present Sony SAB has been temporarily dropped on Dialog TV due to reception issues and bad quality programming.

Source : Indian Television - "Sony back in cricket telecast game, bags New Zealand rights"

e fm takes on a new look

English Language Radio Station e fm took on an whole new look today. As reported earlier former Yes FM morning show co host Mark has taken over as Programmes Manager. Brad Stevens is also now on e fm along with a few other DJ's who have moved over from other stations.

Their style of music has changed to include a mix of 80's, 90's and the latest hits. Instead of fast paced music being played all the time the new play list contains what we believe to be a good mix. The promotions have being changed with a few being retained.

Whether this station will make an impact on the English music industry is yet to be seen. In the morning show front, the e fm morning show has a lot of potential and we believe that it will improve as the station settles into its new format. How this will affect the popularity of the other stations morning shows is yet to be seen since most of the other stations have some loyal listeners. If this morning show increases in popularity then they will be able to woo in some new listeners who have been loyal to other stations. Mark fans are sure to cross over to e fm. However we believe that the e fm morning show will have a very bad impact on the Sun FM morning show which from today has become the "worst morning show on Sri Lankan radio".

It is still early days for this new look e fm and time will reveal how things are progressing. We like to take this opportunity to convey our best wishes to the management and staff of e fm in their new endeavor.

Web site : http://www.efm.lk/

E FM to be relaunched tomorrow?

According to unconfirmed information being received as well as information gathered from the shows it is highly likely that the E FM relaunch will be held tomorrow.

The notoriously unpopular segment "Rick the Rooster" was held for the final time today and the morning show ended with the indication that something new will be happening tomorrow morning at 6am. This is being mentioned on all shows today.

We are still unable to confirm what type of changes can be expected and the newspaper advertisements being carried out on "The Daily Mirror" seems to be highlighting the "e" as well as a person who closely resembles Mark is on the advertisement.

The trailers indicate that the station may be changing its music format, who knows they may even change the name. This has being a long time coming and we hope that they have a target audience as well as a much better music format including better promotions and DJ combinations.

Please keep us updated on the latest regarding E FM as the day progresses.

Twenty20 World Cup starts today on ESPN/Star Cricket and Sirasa TV/Shakthi TV

The Twenty20 World Cup gets underway today live on free to air stations Sirasa TV and Shakthi TV and pay television channels ESPN in English and Star Cricket in Hindi.

The tournament that lasts approximately two weeks will end on September 24th. This is the first tournament of its kind and it is the first major International sporting event being telecast by the Maharaja Group ever since they broadcast the Olympic Games that were held in Greece in the year 2004.

A full schedule of all cricket being played is available on the link titled "Twenty 20 Tournament Schedule". Please add 5 1/2 hours to the GMT time indicated to arrive at Sri Lanka Standard Time.

ESPN and Star Cricket is available on all Sri Lankan pay television platforms.

E FM to be revamped?

It looks like English Language Radio station E FM may be gearing up to take on a whole new look. For sometime E FM was doing fairly well along with the other stations but the lack of a target audience and the departure of certain DJ's along with some really badly presented shows has brought E FM into an all time low.

With rumors that Mark may have joined the station after his departure from Yes FM it looks like the station is going to be given a face lift. According to some remarks made by the DJ's there are supposedly some new shows that will be introduced but the overall picture is still unclear. It seems that the changes may occur this month. The website has been taken replaced with a single page saying "Coming Soon" giving a further indication of the impending changes.

We are unable to confirm whether Mark has actually joined the station and we are unable to confirm on exactly when it will happen. Neither do we know whether the revamp will be total or whether it will be limited to the introduction of a few new shows.

However E FM is a station that needs a whole new look and a few new shows will not be sufficient since they have been unable to retain their listeners over the last few years with boring competitions that have lasted for years, such as "Rick the Rooster" which has become a major turn off for most listeners. For a station which has adopted the tag line "We do things differently" nothing new has surfaced on it for years.

We hope that anyone who has any information on the changes that may happen at E FM will provide the information via comments or by emailing us.

Rugby World Cup kicks off on SLRC and Neo Sports Plus

The Rugby World Cup 2007 kicks off on Rupavahini/Channel Eye via free to air television and on Neo Sports Plus on pay television just after midnight today.

The first match will kick off on Saturday 08th Sept 07 at 00:15 hrs and will be shown live on free to air and pay television in Sri Lanka. We are unable to confirm the time at which the opening ceremony will commence but according to unconfirmed sources it should start at about 10pm or 10:30pm local time today.

Please click here for the SLRC telecast schedule.
Please click here for the Neo Sports Plus telecast schedule.

Not all the matches are telecast live in this region and only selected matches are available on the free to air and pay television platforms.

Neo Sports Plus is available on Sri Lankan pay television platforms Dialog TV and LBN.

Updated - 07/09/2007 @ 4:30PM
According to information reaching us the opening ceremony will be starting just 30 minutes before the first match starts which should be at midnight today local time. The ESPN Star Sports Singapore feed schedule indicates that the opening ceremony is a 30 minute event just prior to the first match. We are unable to confirm whether any broadcaster either pay or free to air will be airing this event in Sri Lanka.

Website to check the ratings of programmes watched by your children

At present there are several free to air and pay television plaforms available in the country. These platforms carry a variety of local and foreign television programmes. Although there is no local body that rates the locally produced programmes, we hope that the website (the link is given at the bottom of the post) that we are about to introduce to you will help you check on the western programmes (mainly American ones) that are shown over the local airwaves.

This organization called the Parents Television Council is an American based organisation that provides some vital information on the contents of most American television shows and we have found that this website will be particularly helpful for parents who want to regulate or know more about the programmes watched by their children.

At present this website has rated most of the American programmes available over free to air and pay television in Sri Lanka. It is a well known fact that what is accepted socially in Sri Lanka may be quite different to what is accepted in America but we hope that this website will serve as a guide line for the concerned parents. Also note that some channels in this region air programmes by removing the offensive material that may have caused a programme to be given severe rating.

Information about how a programme is rated and what a rating indicates and at times why the programme was given the rating is available for most television programmes listed on the website. We hope that this website serves as a guideline but the parent/guardian has to be the ultimate judge. A rating can be checked on selecting the programme on the drop down box on the top left hand corner indicated by the words "Look up a TV show" just below the option "File an FCC Complain". Please note that further navigation of the website will reveal even more television shows such as those that have already being taken off air in the USA.

Parents Television Council USA : http://www.parentstv.org/