Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Decoder Time too fast.....

It looks like the time displayed on the Dialog TV decoder is approximately a good 3 to 4 minutes faster than the actual time. According to the time displayed on the decoder all channels are starting programmes late, we hope that Dialog TV takes steps to correct the time displayed on the decoder immediately.

Reports are coming in of excessive pixelation during fast moving images and we hope that Dialog TV takes immediate steps to introduce the fourth transponder and give more bandwidth to the existing channels to improve quality. We hope that before adding any more new channels, allocating more bandwidth should be the first priority.

We reiterate again that Dialog should remove SET SAB immediately and replace it with a suitable channel. If Animax cannot be reintroduced then Dialog should at least introduce Disney Channel as a replacement.

On the bandwidth issue there was an interesting report on BBC World's "Click" television programme about Digital television. They spoke of all types of digital transmission media and also the quality issue. The link is "BBC World: Making the switch to Digital TV", a transcript of the entire section plus a streamed version is available on the page.

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

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Transponder Signals

According to information being received from us it seems that the levels on transponder 2 and 3 have been inconsistent over the past few days. Over the last week or two there have been instances where transponders 2 and 3 have suddenly stopped working. This has happened on two or more occasions according to our fellow bloggers.

Generally TP1 is the one that has the highest quality and signal level and TP2 comes in second with TP3 in third. However there have been instances where TP2 has gone below TP3 and there is not a big difference between TP3 and TP2. There was an instance last week (Oct 19th) when TP2 went down for sometime and it seems that the drop in TP2 level and signal, happened after this.

We also hope that the replacement for "Animax" arrives soon since subscribers are being tortured with this no good run of the mill channel "SET SAB".

Please update this blog with the latest information as the days progress.

Friday, October 19, 2007

One week on.....

It has just been over a week since we made our last post. And no this blog is not dead, we are just taking it slow these days since nothing much is happening that is worthwhile posting about. So hereafter you might see less posts (usually once a week) appearing but as soon as something happens we will be making a post about it. However we believe that most of our bloggers are here and are not commenting since there is nothing much to comment about.

Anyway taking the past week into consideration nothing special has happened. And no, Animax has not been reintroduced yet however we hope that Dialog would at least consider introducing a channel such as "Disney" in place of that no good "SET SAB". We hope that Dialog reintroduces "Animax" along with the fourth transponder at least if not immediately.

Talking about transponders it seems that there has been an interruption in service during the morning hours today with TP2 down for some time. Apparently channel numbers have changed abruptly and some channels showing numbers such as "72". We are unable to ascertain the cause of this problem but we hope that some of you out there will post a comment with more information and whether the problem has been solved.

This week Dialog TV have been carrying out some advertising regarding the "AXN" channel. There are also other channels/programmes that Dialog TV can concentrate on such as "Survivor : China" the latest edition of Survivor being telecast over Zee Cafe. "American Inventor" on Star World and "Amazing Race Asian Edition : Season 2" which is commencing next month on AXN and a host of other programmes.

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

Friday, October 12, 2007

Of awards and operations.....

First and foremost we take this opportunity to congratulate Mr. Nushad Perera for taking top honors at the "Asia Brand Congress 2007" by being awarded the "Global Brand Leadership Award" for his achievements and effort in making Dialog Telekom the leading mobile operator in Sri Lanka.

The contribution made by him towards the success of Dialog GSM is tremendous and we hope that as he gains experience in Dialog TV, he will be able to take Dialog TV to great heights. However Dialog TV has a long way to go at the moment and the way the company is handling its subscribers specially in the case of the "Animax" removal has not gone well. We hope that the management of Dialog TV will be more professional in their approach towards their subscribers. A prospective subscriber may think that everything regarding Dialog TV is bad but that is not the case, however certain aspects of the operations have to be taken to the next level such as.

1) The attitude adopted towards older subscribers when new channels are being added should be improved.
2) The process of replacing channels with other ones should be done after seriously reviewing subscriber preferences and analyzing the importance of the channel when competing with other operators.
3) Response time of technical personnel and avoiding silly mistakes such as only adding one audio channel, not activating audio feed, activating the wrong audio feed.
4) Quality of transmission should be improved further since some channels experience pixelation.
5) Technical knowledge of customer care personnel has to be improved

The above are just some aspects and even more careful analysis may reveal even further aspects which may need to be taken into consideration.

Regarding Animax even if Dialog TV wants to put it back on air they will have to reactivate the contract since they seem to have put the contract on hold to take the channel off air and this reactivation will take some time. We reiterate that this is possibly the biggest mistake Dialog have made and this is one that may affect sales too. We urge Dialog TV to reintroduce "Animax" immediately by taking all possible measures to speed up whatever contractual and technical requirements that need to be met.

We also urge Dialog TV to cut down on a few more Hindi channels and concentrate on adding more Tamil and English channels after all Sri Lanka is not India or cut down on a few Hindi channels and increase the bandwidth allocated to other channels inorder to increase broadcast quality.

However there are instances where Dialog may not be able to do anything since some content providers are imposing the Hindi channnels as a must carry along with important English/Tamil channels on their bouquet. This is totally unfair and selfish of them since they should understand that Sri Lanka is not India and Indian tastes in entertainment are not shared by most Sri Lankans. The majority of people who watch Hindi entertainment are adequately catered to on local FTA channels and they will not acquire pay television connections to watch them since local FTA channels carry subtitles in Sinhala which is not available on Hindi pay television channels. It is upto the pay television operators in Sri Lanka to cooperate and eradicate this "must carry" menace adopted specially by content providers originating in India.

Please keep us updated on the latest regarding Dialog TV as the days progress and lets continue with emails and calls to Dialog TV in order to pressurize them to reintroduce "Animax" and also to get rid of a few run of the mill Hindi channels.

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Reintroduce Animax NOW

Pay television company Dialog TV has made a mess by removing "Animax" and replacing it with unwanted "SET SAB" and the reason given for the removal according to many bloggers is that "Animax" shows programmes that are inappropriate for children.

What should be understood is that "Animax" shows cartoons targeting Teens and Young Adults and not little children. If parents have complained like Dialog TV has claimed to some subscribers, then they should have been advised to use the channel lock facility in the decoder. Several families who have children have locked channels such as VH1, Zee Cafe, ect and some have locked "Animax" since they understood that the channel shows content that is not appropriate for little children.

Removing Animax is not the answer there are several who watch this channel. There is some information that some subscribers are being told that Dialog TV have carried out a survey among their subscribers. If any of the subscribers were part of this survey we would like them to comment here on when this was carried out?

"SET SAB" is a channel that no one even cared about once it was removed to make room make for "ISLAM Channel". If Dialog TV continue in this manner then as soon as competition arrives subscribers will switch providers or may even move to Indian DTH providers like "Dish TV".

Dr. Hans Wijesuriya said in a public speech a few days ago "Treating consumers with care and designing products to suit their needs is vital because they are the driving force of business organisations". With all due respect to Mr. Nushad who has been very effective and successful at Dialog GSM otherwise he would not be a member of the team that manages the leading mobile phone operator in Sri Lanka it seems that he and his team are lacking the vision of Dr. Hans when it comes to Dialog TV. It is high time that Dr. Hans and Telekom Malaysia either find a good adviser to guide Mr. Nushad to manage a pay television company or find a suitable replacement to head Dialog TV. Telekom Malaysia and Dialog Telekom may not have any experience in pay television operations but they have the resources that will enable them to gain the experience and hopefully mistakes such as these are corrected.

One thing that baffles us is on who decides and chooses channels and what is the criteria that they use. If there is one particular person/team that is responsible for choosing channels to be on the platform then Dialog should seriously consider reorganizing or replacing them. However one thing that is clear is that Dialog TV management and staff have a limited knowledge on the content shown on the channels on their platform.

Animax should be returned with immediate effect since those who watch programmes on this channel are missing them. Sci Fi fans who started watching the 1st episode of the final season of Andromeda are left in the lurch. Animated movie buffs watch their movies on "Animax". This channel added variety to the lineup on Dialog TV. "Animax" is also on a restructuring move that will see them add more live shows in the future including new seasons of "Gamemax" for gaming enthusiasts. One thing is that "Animax" is not a kids channel and hopefully Dialog TV will find a way of educating their present subscribers and future ones about the channels and what content you get on them.

Subscribers who want to call Dialog TV and ask for the reintroduction of "Animax" can either call them on their hotline 077-7679679 or the general number (011) 4606000 since it is more effective if the general number is called and complains are made directly to management. An email can also be sent to service@dialog.lk addressing it to the management just in case the management is always at a meeting each time a subscriber calls.

Please keep us updated on the latest regarding Dialog TV and over to the management of Dialog TV who are the only ones who can clear this mess that they have got themselves into. Dialog TV this is not the time to be silent but rather to fulfill the subscribers wishes and make yourselves known as a company that is customer oriented.

Tuesday, October 9, 2007

Stop messing around with channels

According to information being received from our fellow bloggers, it seems that Dialog have removed "Animax" from their lineup and replaced it with the no good "SET SAB". According to an email that we received from a subscriber, Dialog customer care are saying that another cartoon channel will be introduced instead of "Animax". According to them "Animax" may be returned in a few months time.

We do not believe that "SET SAB" will remain for long and may be replaced with "Citi Hitz" or the mystery cartoon channel. This is definitely a short sighted bad management decision by Dialog TV and brings a big question mark over the capabilities of Mr. Nushad Perera to continue being the head of this company. Dialog should at least employ a person with experience in managing a pay television company in order to advice Mr. Nushad and his team. Dialog nor its parent company Telekom Malaysia have any experience in operating a pay television company, so this seems to be why we are having some of these problems. However this is not an excuse and they should raise the standard of their service soon otherwise competition from LBN, SLT IPTV and Comet Digital will affect Dialog TV badly.

Undoubtedly "Animax" is one of the least viewed English Language channels on Dialog TV but is viewed more than the Hindi channels on the platform and the recent introducing of programmes such as "Supernatural" and "Andromeda" has increased the popularity of this channel. If Dialog TV wants to introduce another channel then they should launch the next transponder soon and add the channels to it, or they could remove one of the Hindi channels for this task.

If subscribers want "Animax" reintroduced they should call the Dialog TV hotline - 0777679679 or call the general number and demand that they speak to someone at top level management. Dialog TV should reintroduce "Animax" immediately for the benefit of the few who watch this channel.

We are also getting information that some channels have shifted positions in the Dialog TV lineup, so it looks like subscribers will have to do a channel rescan.

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

Monday, October 8, 2007

Peace TV replaces ISLAM Channel temporarily

Islamic Channel "Peace TV" has replaced "ISLAM Channel" temporarily after the "Islam Channel" went off air suddenly just two days ago. "Peace TV" is now in operation but a notice is permanently on screen saying that the "ISLAM Channel" will resume.

We are not sure why "ISLAM Channel" is off air however it may be due to a technical problem. The reason that Dialog TV introduced "Peace TV" in place of "ISLAM Channel" yesterday could be due to the fact that an advertisement was carried on "The Sunday Times" yesterday regarding the "ISLAM Channel".

In other news it seems that Dialog TV is having serious reception problems on "Ten Sports" with blackouts being experienced every few minutes and sometimes the message "No or Bad Signal" gets displaced quite often.

We are also receiving reports of pixelation on HBO channels as well as sound problems on HBO Family and Zee Studio where apparently the left and right sound channels have got interchanged. We hope that these get sorted out soon unless they have already rectified the problem. We also hope that this problem of "Star Movies" going off air suddenly would be sorted out since yesterday it went off air suddenly and we hope that it is back on air.

It is high time Dialog TV used their extensive Human Resources Department to employ somebody to monitor all channels so that subscribers will not have to place endless calls. We also hope that they can introduce a designated number to which subscribers could send an SMS with a description of the problem, so that engineering can act upon it immediately. They should also make sure that their hotline is toll free to Dialog GSM subscribers at least to start with.

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

Friday, October 5, 2007

Looks like decisions have been changed

After reports of Animax being replaced by a local channel called "Citi Hitz" surfaced and then the subsequent displeasure expressed by subscribers and the posts urging Dialog TV not to carry this out, it seems that Dialog TV have backed away and refrained from introducing this channel. It looks like the channel will be introduced on transponder 4 when it becomes available. Even though information is being received that transponder 4 will be introduced soon, it seems highly unlikely taking into consideration the time taken for Dialog to introduce transponder 3.

It looks like the planned price revision has not taken place either, at least the website does not reflect the revision even if it has been carried out.

There have been some pixelation issues on certain channels over the last few days but they do not occur frequently now. However even these infrequent pixelations should be sorted out.

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