"The Buddhist" launches today

The channel known as "The Buddhist" is said to launch today on Dialog TV. This will be the first religious channel to be introduced on Dialog TV and is part of the two religious channels that are planned on Dialog TV, the second channel being God TV.

The entire studio for this channel which is situated at the Sri Sambodhi Viharaya has been donated by the father of DTH in Sri Lanka, Mr. Muhunthan Canagey former CEO and founder of CBNsat (now Dialog TV) and technical expertise has been provided by Dialog TV.

Most new channels except the Star Package are expected to be available by tomorrow and the Star Package probably during the first two weeks of July.

We are unable to ascertain on which package the channel will be available though. We hope that all our fellow bloggers will update this blog on the latest happenings regarding Dialog TV as the days progress.

Rs 100/= package

Dialog TV have introduced a package for which the rental is only Rs 100/=. This will no doubt cater to those who are unable to watch local channels via their regular antenna. In addition to the local channels the subscriber will be able to view channels such as Zee Cinema, Zee TV, Zee Music, Zee Sports and Al Jazeera. There are 12 channels in this entire package. In addition they have also slashed the connection fee to Rs 12,500/=.

All this comes ahead of the scheduled launch of channels such as Ten Sports, Hallmark, Neo Sports, Neo Sports Plus, HBO Family, HBO Hits, SRTV, Australia Network, NDTV, The Buddhist, God TV, Star World, Star Plus, Star Movies and Star Vijay.

We believe that the people who enjoy Hindi programming and are out of the coverage area of local channels will be drawn to this package. Dialog TV should strive hard to solve the issues that are present in their customer service and solve all technical issues too.

Press Release : Dialog TV introduces unique Rs. 100 rental package

To upgrade or not to upgrade?

Seems to be the question from many Dialog TV subscribers these days. So here is our take on this whole issue. Remember the below advice is related to the new channels and anyone who wants to view existing channels in the higher packages could go ahead with the upgrade regardless of the new channels. Higher packages meaning Rs 500 to Rs 900 to Rs 1400 but upgrades between old CBNsat packages to new Dialog TV packages such as Rs 875/= to Rs 900/= have to be very careful. Please read below for more information.

Those of you who have CBNsat Rs 500/= (cannot remember the old rate) or new Dialog TV Rs 500/= package should wait till the official launch to decide on whether to upgrade to the Rs 900/= or Rs 1400/= package depending on their new channel allocations.

Those of you who have the old Rs 850/= package should wait till the official launch to upgrade to the new Rs 900/= since if you do so now you will loose ESPN and POGO. You should do so after analyzing the new channel allocations in the new Rs 900/= package. There is a chance that ESPN and POGO will be allocated to this package but this is not confirmed as yet. You should not upgrade to the highest package just for watching the "Test Channels" since you cannot downgrade to the old Rs 850/= package once the upgrade is done.

Those of you who have the new Rs 900/= package should not upgrade to the highest Rs 1400/= package just for watching the "Test Channels" but you can downgrade back to this package though in case you do a upgrade. We believe you should upgrade after analyzing the new channels allocation on the packages.

Those of you who have the Rs 1375/= package can upgrade to the new Rs 1400/= package since there is not much of a difference at the moment. The major difference is that most Rs 1400/= subscribers can view the "Test Channels". Other than that all the other content is the same. When the launch takes place all the new channels will be available to the Rs 1400/= but not to the Rs 1375/= package.

This is a ploy to make older subscribers to upgrade to the newer packages. As a summary it is safe for Rs 1375/= subscribers to upgrade to the Rs 1400/= package but the others have to be more careful specially when moving from the older package to the newer package such as Rs 875/= to Rs 900/=. Eventually we are told that the older packages will be removed and only the Rs 500/=, Rs 900/= and Rs 1400/= packages will remain. We believe that this will be done without any old and new subscribers loosing any of the channels that are allocated to their present package.

"The Buddhist" : Soon on Dialog TV and update about scrambling issues

There is a billboard at the junction near the Technical College (on the way to Maradana) about the launch of a channel called "The Buddhist", soon on Dialog TV. This channel we believe will be launched along with the channels in the third transponder.

In other news that there is mixed information coming regarding the scrambling of channels on Dialog TV. We hope that whatever problems/decisions that resulted in the test channels being restricted for only a certain section of subscribers will be rectified soon and the channels are made available for everyone until testing is complete. If the channels are no longer testing as some other information suggests and have being packaged then an announcement should have been made that channels are not testing anymore then subscribers could have decided whether to upgrade or not. We hope that Dialog TV will make an announcement regarding this soon. Anyway since no announcement has been made yet, we can assume that the channels are still being tested. Subscribers who are desperate to watch the new channels should call (011) 4606000 and speak someone from senior management but others who can wait should could adopt a wait and see attitude until the official launch.

It seems that Dialog TV will have only three packages Rs 500, Rs 900 and Rs 1400 in the future and the older packages will be removed. This leaves a question whether older subscribers who are enjoying ESPN and POGO in the Rs 875/= package will continue to do so when they are upgraded to the Rs 900/= package. It will be very foolish if they remove these channels for the older subscribers and we do not believe that they will do this. We think that they will add ESPN and POGO to the Rs 900/= package thereby benefiting the newer Rs 900/= subscribers who are unable to view them now.

We once again stress that Dialog TV should not introduce any more packages higher that Rs 1400/= and should not raise package prices too. They should leave the package prices to the three mentioned above and use it to increase their sales. We however think that most of the new channels will be allocated to the Rs 1400/= package. In addition the upcoming religious channels such as "The Buddhist", "God TV" and fashion channel "Fashion TV" may be included to the lineup on request probably at an extra charge but it is not advisable for Dialog TV to categorize any channel as pay per view since the pay television market has not yet matured. The official launch date for the new channels is June 30th but this may change.

We like to stress that Subscribers Unite is not dead (like some have mentioned) and if you need to contact them please email dialogtv@yahoo.com, you can forward your complaints to them and they will forward it to Dialog TV.

Unscramble all testing channels please.......

There has been an explosion of blog comments regarding the issues of the new channels being scrambled for some and the channels being available for some.

We understand that this is a TESTING PERIOD but there is no harm in allowing all the subscribers to view the testing channels regardless of whether they are old subscribers or new subscribers.

We urge all Dialog Subscribers not to upgrade their packages to the highest package just to watch the testing channels unless of course you want to upgrade to watch HBO and HBO Signature.

In addition we urge Dialog TV not to increase any package rates or introduce any packages higher than Rs 1400/= since it will be utterly unsuccessful and only the rich will be able to afford it. Dialog TV should be affordable for the middle class to purchase it and the middle class is what Dialog should concentrate on, otherwise the problems that befell Comet Cable will come upon Dialog TV. If they do increase then more prospective subscribers will either buy Dish TV/Tata SKY since they are much cheaper and present subscribers may also switch over.

It is now proven that calling Customer Care is of no use, then the best option is now to call (011) 4606000 and speak to someone from senior management and ask them for explanations and pressurize them to unscramble channels during the testing period.

1) Dialog TV if this is a technical fault then "why suddenly and why has it not been sorted out still" or "are some subscribers being discriminated against specially the ones from the CBNsat era". Is this a marketing ploy to get them to change packages?
2) Why are subscribers who upgraded packages during the last few days able to view the testing channels. If so why can't the testing channels being given to all subscribers to view during testing times only? In fact giving the testing channels now will tempt many subscribers to move to higher packages once they are packaged.
3) Why most subscribers have not received programme guide and mainly those who have new Rs 1400/= have got them?

Watch out now, senior management may have meetings each time a customer calls but remember the customer is King and being persistent always pays. Subscriber Unite has also expressed their concerns to Dialog TV about this scrambling and we should lend a helping hand by calling and applying pressure. Remember calling their hotline is of no use, you have to call the general number (011) 4606000. Remember their is no need to be sarcastic and use unnecessary language, lets do this decently. If Dialog TV has a valid reason for not unscrambling the channels then lets allow them to continue as they do now. However it is very difficult for us to see any valid reasons for scrambling the channels but we can see many reasons why they should allow subscribers to view the channels.

Dialog we hope that the problem of audio being available only on the left side sound signal on AXN is sorted out soon.

Neo Sports and Neo Sports Plus now testing

Dialog TV have commenced testing of the Neo Sports and Neo Sports Plus channels. However our sources reveal that the picture quality is very low.

This could because Dialog TV added the channels a few hours back. However since this is still a period of testing the channels may go off air suddenly.

Analyzing the recent comments on this blog we would like to inform all bloggers that since Dialog TV is still testing transmissions, some may receive them and some may not. Like some bloggers have advised, if you are not receiving the channels please call Dialog TV customer care and request them to activate the channels. Due to technical difficulties if they are unable to do so then you can be rest assured that they are working out the problems and will activate the channels as soon as possible. We must remember that the channels are still being tested.

Has everyone received the June Program guide, we are getting reports that many subscribers have not received them still. We are unable to confirm this though. Hopefully more channels will be added today and it looks like a few new channels are being activated on a daily basis.

Dialog TV should sign up with the recently launched cricket oriented sports channel Star Cricket since most of the ESPN-Star Cricket content are to be moved to Star Cricket. The India-England series will be telecast on this channel in addition the Twenty20 World Cup would be telecast on this channel so if Dialog TV is able to bundle this channel with this transponder it will be a great boost to Dialog TV.

Please update us on the situation regarding Dialog TV as the days progress.

Neo Sports Website - http://www.neosports.tv/index.asp

Rugby/General Entertainment Channel and Tamil Movie Channel now testing

Australia Network which is a 24 hour channel that features entertainment, educational and sports content such as Rugby and Aussie rules football and SRTV which is a 24 hour Tamil Movie Channel are now being tested on Dialog TV. Australia Network was available since Friday 15th June and SRTV was available since Saturday 16th June. Sony SAB made a return to the television screen too on Saturday.

Certain subscribers have had the new channels scrambled over the weekend while some other were able to view them. This is due to the fact that the channels are still being tested and some managed to call customer care and get the channels activated.

We believe that Neo Sports and Neo Sports Plus were to be activated by friday but due to a technical issue this did not happen. However the channels should be activated anytime soon. During the course of this week many new channels are expected to be tested on Dialog TV. It seems that in HBO Hits the right sound signal is not working and only the left is working. Ten Sports too experienced the same problem but it has been solved but still the volume on Ten Sports is much lower compared to the others. Pixelation still exists but the picture quality is much better. However the Ten Sports EPG is now not available anymore. These problems are existing now due to this being the testing period but we hope that they are sorted out before the official launch.

Please keep us updated on the latest news on Dialog TV as the days progress.

Australia Network Website - http://australianetwork.com/

SRTV Website - http://www.srtvchannel.com/ or http://www.srtvchannel.com/aboutus.html

Ten Sports, Hallmark, HBO Hits now testing

Last night subscribers were in for a pleasant surprise when they received a message from Dialog TV stating that some of the new channels have been activated.

At the moment Ten Sports, Hallmark and HBO Hits are being tested as new channels. We are told as the days progress more channels will be added such as Neo Sports, Neo Plus, Australia Network (formerly ABC Asia Pacific), Star Package. It is likely that HBO Family will also be introduced along with the others within the course of this month.

Among the returning channels SET has been reintroduced along with Fashion TV, however the frequency carrying Fashion TV has been scrambled at the moment probably to facilitate the testing of some other channels. Furthermore according to information God TV may be introduced. This channel may be given only to subscribers who request for it and we believe that Dialog will be able to make use of this channel to promote their connections further by targeting the Christian community in Sri Lanka. Before the closure of the then CBNsat we know that they received a tremendous amount of requests for this channel. Even Fashion TV may be given only to those who request for it and these channels that have to be requested may carry an additional charge.

The new channels last night had a fairly high pixelation level but it seems that it is much better this morning. However in Ten Sports the EPG has been activated but sound is available in the left sound signal only causing the channel to have very low audio level compared to the others. We believe that there will be problems since these channels are still being tested and once testing is completed and the official launch draws near the problems would have been cleared. Please keep us updated on the latest updates on Dialog TV as the days progress.

Hallmark Channel Website - http://bd.hallmarkchannel.tv/
Ten Sports Website - http://www.tensports.com/
HBO Hits Website - http://www.hboasia.com/hits/home

Channels spotted on new transponder

According to information coming, it seems that some channels are appearing on the third transponder. The channels are presently scrambled and the names shown are as follows

1. Channels 37 to 54 shows Test 1 to 18, When selected the message is "Service is not running".
2. Channel 55 - Tensports, When selected the message shown is "Service is currently scrambled".
3. Channel 56 - Hallmark, Same message as Channel 55.
4. Channel 57 - E---5, Same message as Channel 55.
5. Channel 58 - ABC, Same message as Channel 55.

Most of the people seem to be receiving the list as given above but some seem to be getting only Channel 55 onwards (we are unable to confirm this). We are told that last night Tensports was visible for a limited period of time.

To add these channels to their lineup, subscribers will have to do a channel rescan after restoring factory defaults. We believe that Dialog TV will be launching the channels soon.

Please keep us updated on the status of these new channels and any more new channels that are being added.

Interesting weekend developments

Well it is the beginning of another week and looking back at the weekend, there were some interesting happenings over the last few days. The weekend started off with the rumor that Dialog TV will be launching the new channels in August (we are unable to confirm this). However soon afterwards Dialog TV which had enabled the "IRD Update" function over several days had an update for download and several of our fellow bloggers seem to have downloaded the software and upgraded their decoder software. It looks like this update is for those who purchased their connections before December 2006 because those who purchased after December 2006 have a different version of the software on their decoder.

Anyway after updating several of them have been able to access Multi Day EPG on certain channels and claim of better picture quality. Some of our bloggers who have been unable to update their decoders when the update was made available are unable to do so because the "IRD Update" function has now been disabled, we believe Dialog TV will enable it again at a later date.

However anyone who scans for channels using their decoder are being shown the third transponder and the amount of channels it contains but the channels do not show up on the list though.

At the rate things are progressing we believe that the channels will be launched soon, the exact date is not known and as far as the rumor regarding the postponement is concerned we do not think that it is true but we hope anyone who has information regarding the exact launch date will comment.

One year ago on a day like this (6/6/6)

Exactly one year ago at approx 9:01PM Dialog TV (formerly known as CBNsat) was sealed unfairly and unjustly by the authorities sparking a court battle that lasted almost six months. The sealing by Dialog TV was followed by the closure of LBN almost a week later.

During this time we saw the formation of CBNsat Subscribers Unite now known as Dialog TV Subscribers Unite. In December we saw the re emergence of this company and the additions of new channels from the Zee Package subsequently.

The time period from 6/6/6 upto the time LBN resumed transmissions can be described as the darkest time period in the Sri Lankan pay television industry.

We take this opportunity to salute Mr. Muhunthan Canagey, founder of CBNsat and the staff of the company who were with the company during the times of trouble, also not forgetting Dialog Telekom who took steps to takeover the company and provided the entertainment starved subscribers a reprieve. Last but not least the subscribers of Dialog TV who were with the company all throughout the months that they did not have the service since they have played a special role in making this blog and its predecessor (CBNsat Blog) a massive success.

To commemorate this day we have made a post on the CBNsat Blog which will be celebrating one year of existence on June 7th and enabled the commenting feature for a period of 24 hours for subscribers to post some of their thoughts.

Here is a link to the very first post on the CBNsat Blog which appeared on June 7th - CBNsat Ceases transmissions.

Will it be this week?

June arrived a few days ago and we see that subscribers are busy trying to get information about the new channels on Dialog TV. Information coming in suggests that the channels will be launched towards the latter part of this month but some other information suggests that it will happen during this week. We are however unable to clarify the exact date of the launch and we believe that Dialog TV are working on it and will launch the channels as soon as they are ready.

As speculated earlier transponder 4 will not be launching along with transponder 3. It seems that transponder 4 will take a few more months and will contain more channels. We are reliably informed that Star Package, Hallmark, Ten Sports, HBO Hits and Family plus a few more channels will be available with the launch of transponder 3. It is very likely that these channels will be alloted into the existing packages.

We are not aware of any of these channels being tested now, however we believe that some of our fellow bloggers have added TP3 manually and are constantly monitoring it. We hope that you update us when the new channels are available on TP3.

The new channels may be available this week or in a few weeks time but it is best to be patient since we will be receiving them this month anyway.

There still seems to be some problems with the EPG since the AXN EPG seems to be inaccurate, the Zone Reality EPG seems to be the Indian feed EPG whereas Dialog TV is carrying the African DTH feed. Hopefully these are sorted out soon. Have any of the subscribers received their programmes guides and please update us when you receive it.

Last but not least tomorrow is June 6th, the day in which exactly a year ago at approx 9:01pm, Dialog TV (then known as CBNsat) was unfairly shutdown by the authorities resulting in a court battle that lasted almost 6 months. This is a day we believe that subscribers of Dialog TV who lost services and employees of Dialog TV will not forget.