Friday, April 27, 2007

Rumours galore on new channels and transponders

The past few days have seen an upsurge in rumors regarding the new Dialog TV transponders and upcoming channels. This further strengthens our view that the activation of the new channels and the launch of the new channels is close at hand. Let's take a look at these rumors.
  • Almost everyone is of the view that the launch will happen in May and the difference being that some say that it will be as early as 3rd May and others say that it will be the fourth week of May.
  • Several channels are being named as probable ones that may be launched from the Star TV package, to Neo Sports combination, Ten Sports, HBO Hits and Family, etc. But the only one that we can confirm is that Toon Disney and Disney Channel will be definitely on that list since those channels were signed up several months back.
There is great anticipation on the launch of these new channels. One can also be certain that channel quality will also increase once the new transponders are in place due to the increased capacity that will be available.

We stress again that the channels mentioned above and the dates are mere rumors that may turn out to be accurate and we were able to compile them by looking at the comments on this blog received over the last few days.

Please keep us updated on the information regarding the channels and the transponders as the days progress.

44 comments:

DLR said...

Hey DTV People.
tell your tech people to broadcast CHANNEL EYE just after winning the match on 28th. (It is better if you can continuously telecast both).

We want to listen to our sinhala commentators. Also like to see how our sri lankans celebrate after the match.

I’m sick of listening to 3rd class hindi actress’s cricket commentary. Also I do not like to watch sri lankan politician (Earlier great cricket hero but now only a politician Arjuna) blaming our team.

riky said...

Yes,Arjuna sucks as he tries to capitalize on cricket politics and Mandira Bedi shows only that she has a crush for Kumar Sangakkara.

riky said...

No,The disney channels will not be there after all.

Madness to think about 3rd may as it will take a minimum of around two weeks to get things right and DTV is working on it.

But the content is going to top class and will have a majority of the channels you speculate but not disney for sure.

Unknown said...

hey riky how do u know dat ? someone working there told ya?
and will the quality of the channels even be increased by 3rd of MAY? are they goona activated da transponders by then?

Gamini

619 said...

Hay !!

What is the Lightning effect for Satellite TV ?
Are they dangerous like normal TV while lightning ?

TG's Blog Owner said...

My comments about the speculated new channels

English (and mixed language)
============================
These channels will be most welcomed by the subscribers, as everyone can watch them.

1. STAR World - STAR - Entertainment
It is probably the best English entertainment channel in Asia, second to none. They carry some of the world's most popular programming. They are definitely welcome to Dialog TV.

2 STAR Movies - STAR - Movies
This channel is actually ahead of HBO at certain times, but also lags behind from time to time. HBO springs up with new and exciting movies when least expected and everyone turns to them. But STAR Movies still had the most balanced programming and more family oriented movies. They also try to broadcast the entire suite of movies (Like Star Wars, James Bond, etc.) where available and whenever possible. They provide the maximum movie experience.

3. Channel [V] - STAR - Music and Lifestyle
There are many versions of this channel, the main ones in Sri Lanka/India being Channel [V] International and Channel [V] India. Channel [V] is at the same level as VH1 and is a good addition.

4. DD Sports - Doordarshan - Sports
This channel mostly broadcasts sports for the Indian society, but does show some interesting events once in a while. Unfortunately, most sports they broadcast only involve the events in which Indian players/team participate. But other channels broadcast the full versions of the events. Nevertheless, DD Sports won't be a waste.

5. Fox News - STAR - News
This channel provides news from an American viewpoint (totally opposite Al Jazeera) and will help us to find the true story from a number of viewpoints.

6. Sky News - STAR - News
This channel is a premium from UK and provides their views to help us find the true story, as above.

7.NDTV Profit - NDTV - Business News
This channel provides a selection of business viewpoints, the first business channel on Dialog TV. You can watch this channel from time to time on the Sri Lankan Max Television too.

8.Disney Channel - STAR - Kids
9.Toon Disney - STAR - Kids
These channels have the least Hindi content for a Indian childrens' channel, at least for the moment. This will complete the selection of International Kids Channel available in Asia.

10.Ten Sports - Zee Networks/One Alliance - Sports
This channel is greatly welcome to join Dialog's channel lineup. Many Sri Lankans got to know about this channel when they got official rights for Sri Lankan cricket events. But now the great thing of this channel is broadcasting the WWE programming, since the cricket agreement has expired. The channel gained more reputation when Sri Lankan Max Television began relaying the channel for free. I'm not a fan of WWE, but I'm sure the other customers will like it.

11.SET Pix - Sony - Movies
This channel is a young newcomer to the movie channel industry, and still has much to learn. However, we can expect great things out of this channel once the competition starts increasing, with this channel, HBO and STAR Movies being the top movie channels in India.

12.HBO Family - HBO - Movies
This channel provides fully family oriented movies which everyone can watch. FOr the same reason, much of the programming is more interesting than the programming on the other HBO channels.

13.HBO HiTS - HBO - Movies
This channel is supposed to be dedicated to showing new blockbuster hits, but I have my doubts when seeing whats going on in HBO and Signature. Still, Dialog could be the first to carry this channel in Sri Lanka, the channel having being launched only last year in Asia.


Hindi
=====
Channels in this section will probably be exchanged for more English language channels if possible, but anyway, who knows? These channels might be good, especially coming from STAR.

14.STAR Plus - STAR - Entertainment
This is the #1 Hindi entertainment channel in India. It is worth keeping it in the lineup, although it does not provide subtitles in English like Zee TV does.

15.STAR Gold - STAR - Movies
This is the #1 Hindi movie channel in India. It shows good films of high quality, and its programming may sometimes be interesting for Sri Lankan viewers too (not guaranteed).

16.STAR News - STAR - News
This is a fully Hindi news channel. Don't know much about it.


Tamil
=====
These channels will be welcomed by the Tamil community of subscribers, who have being deprived of international Tamil channels since Dialog removed the little watched Raj channels.

17.STAR Vijay - STAR - Entertainment
This is STAR network's only Tamil language channel, and will be a treat for the Tamil speaking subscribers.

18.Sun TV - Sun Networks - Entertainment
This channel is among the best Tamil channels in India. It is also possible to see certain programming from Sun TV on the Sri Lankan Shakthi TV.

19.Sun Music - Sun Networks - Music
This channel is the best Tamil music channel in India today.

20.Raj TV - Raj Networks - Entertaiment
21.Raj Plus - Raj Networks - Movies
Well, I don't have much to say about these channels. As long as they were ther earlier, I rarely watched them. I don't think the programming on this channel is so good.

TG's Blog Owner said...

Sad that Sri Lanka lost yesterday. Nevermind. We are still with the Sri Lankan team, whether tehy win or lose! THough I must say, yesterdays judgement was rather unfair to Sri Lanka. Another upset by the ICC.

Lucky we could watch the Channel Eye broadcast on ITN along with SET Max, and it was not blocked. But when they turned off the electricity I went wild! Thank goodness for Dialog Mobile TV with ITN, or I would have eaten their heads off!

@ D.L.R
WEll, no more listening to that mad womens talkingo n SET Max. And Eye is back too. I wonder when Dialog will notify us about TP3 and TP4.

Did you know?
LBN has a total of 62 channels, but 13 are free local channels. That means they have only 49 international channels. THerefore, if Dialog adds at least 20 more, they will have the highest number of channels for a local pay tv provider. THats good. But we should never let it go in to Dialog's head, or we will suffer.

Looser said...
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Looser said...
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Looser said...

What will happen to EPG? No EPG on AXN and Totally wrong EPG on Zone Reality.

Yesterday AXN was freezing and the quality of most of the channels were very low.

Unknown said...

DTv Tp3
It's Not a One thing. it's many
Wait for it

TG's Blog Owner said...

@ Nishantha
Where are you getting information from?

And are you/Dialog going to copy the Nokia N95 advertising campaign?

Vishkid said...

That's just a silly little comment YG - forget it.

Please take everything about DTV with a pinch of salt.

Appreciate it when we get it - but be extremely skeptical till we get it!

Unknown said...

There is nothing to hide,DTV has the equimpment and they are working on it and transponder 3 and 4 will be activated within a maximum of four weeks.

About 60% of the channels the techno person has mentioned wont be there.

DLR said...

I’m film addict & watching at least a film per day. As I’m in middle package can watch only cinemax & Zee studio. Although cinemax is ad free, it is dedicated to Action / Thriller films. But zeeStudio’s content has good variation comparing to Cinemax. It’s “Olive collection” is good collection I saw in a TV’s recently.

BUT Zee Studios Compression ratio is very High. Some times cant recognize anything at all. I would like to suggest DTV people to give more room to this channel when the new transponders are activated.

Unknown said...

Non of the new movie channels intended for TP 3 & 4 will be available for the low and middle package,They may give some options like pay per view or differant bouquets to choose from (Like Dish TV)

DLR for someone like you,who watches lot of movies the top package seems the only option for now.

Unknown said...

@TERRY,

hey TERRY, Will there be any new movie channels for the 1500 package? will we (having the 1500 package) have to purchase a new package introduced for us to view those movie channels. Will the rental be increased?

please rep...
Gamini

Looser said...

@Terry

What about the EPG? Can we get atleast 2days EPG?

What is wrong with Zone? DTV is giving Indian EPG and showing South African feed!

DLR said...

Terry,
Actually I tried, I change my package to premium for several months. But HBO also shawing mostly Action, Horror movies. Same time both HBO & Signature shawing some series like "Deadwood", "Roam", "Six Feet Under" on our best time slots. When comparing with additional Rs.500 with this two channels it is not worth me to get those two channels.

What I'm suggesting is move ZStudio on to new transponder with good compretion ratio. or remove hindi crap like Zmusic & use that band width for Zstudio.

We all noted that no body in this blog comment for removing SET crap channel.Giving space for good channel by removing crap is worth. We want good QUALITY channels instead of Quantity

Unknown said...

DLR - You are right,but the next step would only be hitz,family and star movies,youll have to decide how good they are,but with the adiition of TP 3 & 4 the quality will defeneitly increase.

GAMINI - Hope you get the idea from the above comment,Realisticaly they should increase but may not immediatly and will look at alternatives.

LOOSER - Basically they have screwed up the EPG and there is no one with the knowledge to do at the DTV end.May be with the recruitment of some IT guy they will have the facility for about 2 weeks and its a priority in their plans.

AND I HEAR THEY ARE DOING SOME UPGRADE AT THE MOMENT(RIGHT NOW) AND YOU MAY NOT BE HAVING SERVICE,IT SEEMS THAT ITS GOING TO BE EARLY,KEEP YOUR FINGERS CROSSED.

TG's Blog Owner said...

My connection was lost for about 1 hour, but I didn't mind because I contacted customer care and was watching a DVD at the time.

Its good if the stoppage was to fix the new equipment. Or at least to do something useful. Lets all hope they speed up and get the TP3 and TP4 going.

Also, my connection quality has increased from around 45% to 51%. Not much, but something seems to be better.

@ DLR
Yes, lets hope they increase the quality of Zee Studio and Zee Cafe. These are good channels (at least Studio). And STAR Movies and HBO Family will also be good. HBO Family because they show good family programming and probably aren't boring. No sure about HBO HiTS though.

@ Terry
I was not the first to mention those channels I gave my comments about. A blogger named Nishantha gave them in the previous blog post.

And what channels will be there apart from the Star package and new HBO channels if 60% of the ones I mentioned are not there?

And yes, they were searching for osme good technicians and IT guys a few weeks ago. Hopefully they will get an experienced person to do the EPG. How hard is it, anyway?

Thanks a lot for the information, Terry. You are doing a great job. Is there any chance you could tell us how you get the information? Im not forcing you, of course. Just for knowledge.

Unknown said...

hey guys,
in da A1 channel( Adventure channel) now its NAT GEO ADVENTURE. Is it just a programme in the A1 channel or is it a new channel. Please comment. ( I maybe wrong) sorry...

dun laugh at me coz i maybe wrong.

thanx

Gamini

Unknown said...

yeah. I was wrong. A1 channel had changed its name to NAT GEO ADVENTURE from 1st of May. ( I dun watch da A1 channel as much. sorry...)

"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""

Adventure One
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


From May 1 2007 Adventure One will be rebranded as Nat Geo Adventure in all countries other than the United Kingdom.[2]

""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""

i just quoted this from the wikipedia encyclopedia. Most guys might be knowing this. sorry for da trouble caused.

Gamini

arnold perera said...

I do not understand why dialog tv is making the customers dream a lot about the channels and not making any statement about thier plans. May be they want to sell more connections with this story

Mario said...

Guys,

the may program guide is availabe on the DTV site.

Angelo said...

Yes, May – 2007 guide available at DTV website. Still no Nat Geo and Zone guide listed.

Unknown said...

Great news as far as dtv goes but I do agree with Arnold how about an official of dialog making this concrete by issuing a statement

Looking foward to a favourable response

Radikal Zee said...

Star Cricket to launch in June

The launch of Star Cricket, the dedicated cricket channel for the Indian sub-continent, by ESPN Star has meant that there is another player in the crowded cricket broadcast scene in India. Star Cricket will be on air from June, just in time for India's tour of England where they are scheduled to play four Tests and seven ODIs. The channel will be the 15th network launched by EPSN Star Sports in the Asia Pacific region. This could mean shifting of cricket content from the sub-continent feeds of ESPN and Star Sports to the new channel.

Unknown said...

hey....
so tomorow will be the 3rd of May. So does that mean that they will launch the new transponder? ( I mean only the transponder. Not the channels) Even if they launch the new transponder by then, then there will be a lot of space, so the quality of the channels would be increased. Hey guys is it possible???

anyone who knows about this plz comment

Gamini

Unknown said...

No way,It will take 2 to 3 weeks

619 said...

I'm so sad !!
No one answered my question..

I'll repeat it again

What is the Lightning effect for Satellite TV ?
Are they dangerous like normal TV while lightning ?

elakiri said...

Jesika,

As far as I know there is no effect from the dish. In other words, satellite dish don't attract lightning like traditional antenna. (Please someone correct me if I'm wrong). But it's dangerous to use any electrical equipment when there are closer lightnings. So my advice is, don't use any, if lightning is too close to your residence. You can judge the closeness of the lightning by the gap between light and sound. :-) Hope this clarifies.

Did anyone tried to get the programme guide from Zee Studio ? (http://www.zeestudio.tv/). I'm getting a syntax error :-(

619 said...

Hi Vips
Thanks for ur information

You can download Zee Studio May Program Guide from
http://www.zeetelevision.com/country.asp?country=13&channel=5

Have Fun

Jesika

Mario said...

Guys there is a post in the comet blog that comet is closing down in june. The article is supposed to be in the daily news, but i couldnt find it. Can anyone confrim this ? Admin?

chami_tv said...

Actually Satellite TV can be harmful when it comes to lighting than normal antenna.
The very basic reason is that you can't pull of the antenna cable like a normal TV antenna jack as this has threads.

Last week lighting struck to one of my dish C-band (Not DTV) and its spoiled LNB and C-Band receiver. I had aligned the C Band antenna to foremost west tr bring down one TV the best free to air English TV channel from Arab sat thus the antenna was bit “opened” for lightening as we need 45 degree aligned to get one tv.



So my advice is to keep your dish much close to floor area e.g. “on ground in a concrete or in a verandah without plants as obstacle.

elakiri said...

Thanks Jesika.

SAD® said...

Jesika,

That site gives the Zee Guides for last year.

Hmm ...

Mario said...

The sites are:

www.zeestudio.tv &

www.zeecafe.tv

elakiri said...

Oops !!!

yes. It gives last year program guide. Now http://www.zeestudio.tv fixed the error and I've downloaded the correct one :-)

Lightning_Struck_Tower said...

Sri Lanka's Dialog profits up 1% as new business drag bottom line


May 3, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka's top celco Dialog Telekom revenue grew 26 percent but consolidated profits remained flat in the March quarter as newly acquired subsidiaries dragged it's bottom-line down.

.
.
.
Dialog Broadband had shown a profit of 10.39 million (revenue 207.61 million, up 12 percent) while Asset Media had lost 136 million for the first quarter.

Asset Media Group (with Communiq Broadband Network and CBN SAT) earned revenues of 139.14 million rupees with subscribers growing 60 percent in the first quarter.

http://www.lbo.lk/fullstory.php?newsID=1242143042&no_view=1&SEARCH_TERM=5

Mario said...

ANy one has any news on the closure of Comet Cable ?

Mario said...

EPG now avaliable for DERANA & SWARANAVAHINI

TG's Blog Owner said...

EPG now on local channels!

Swarnawahini and Derana channels have now got EPG. During the morning, I checked and the EPG seemed correct. But in the night, I think the channels deviate from their own programme guides to show different programming after the beloved tele-dramas.

That is a fault of the local tv stations, and I've noticed it always happens even with the newspaper guides. For the night time, after teh teledramas, they show different programs than they said in the guide.

And the Dialog Monthly Guide may be already on its way. However, my Dialog bills came late too, so after Vesak the mail must be getting delayed at the post office. Hopefully we will get the guide before the 10th of May.

Good job, Dialog, but we're expecting more soon!

Mario said...

Hope we can have the EPG for the ZEE channels also soon, especially ZEE cafe & Studio.