First Sinhala Language Pay television channel?

The replacement for SET SAB on Dialog TV is expected to launch soon. For almost a week the channel space occupying SET SAB has been scrambled and marked as "Test" and from yesterday the EPG on that location has been activated and it is displaying names of Sinhala Language programmes/movies.

We believe that the channel known as "Citi Hitz" will be the replacement. This may be the first pay television Sinhala Language channel in Sri Lanka. Anyone with more information regarding this channel such as the launch date and type of programmes expected, etc is welcome to comment.

In other news it seems that all transponder levels have been stabilized however at certain times their is no synchronization between the audio and video on some channels.

We hope that the December programme guide will be received soon by subscribers and also the December EPG will be updated soon and accurately by Dialog TV.

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

SET SAB taken off air

A few days ago Dialog TV removed SET SAB from their lineup and have renamed the channel as "Test" and subsequently scrambled it. We are unable to speculate on the channel that will replace SET SAB but it looks like Dialog TV are testing the replacement or are planning to test it soon.

Subscribers have been extremely unhappy ever since Animax was dropped and SET SAB was reintroduced to the lineup. Finally Dialog TV have taken steps to get rid of this run of the mill channel. We hope that the replacement would be a channel such as Disney Channel which would be enjoyed by adults and children alike.

In other news the National Geographic Channel EPG is not available and the BBC World EPG is wrong by half an hour. We hope that steps are taken to rectify the situation asap. Steps should also be taken to distribute the December Programme guide during this week before the month of December begins and steps should also be taken to make sure that the December EPG on all channels is accurate.

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

SMS Programme Updates

A few days ago Dialog TV introduced a new service that enables subscribers to receive programme updates on their mobile. This is a good service and an extra additional such as a portal where subscribers can log in and set reminders for programmes of their choice will be a welcome addition to the SMS updates.

At present subscribers are receiving two updates on a daily basis. We suggest that Dialog TV should update live events separately. Yesterday at 6:30am the American Music Awards were telecast "Live" over Star World but the Programme SMS update highlighted the repeat that was scheduled for 8pm. It would have been better if an SMS regarding the "Live" event was sent out on the previous day. The "Live" event SMS could highlight "Live" sports, music events, etc.

Dialog should also work on a WAP portal which can also be used to access the guides and set special SMS reminders. These services should be offered free of charge for all subscribers of Dialog TV. In addition the "SMS Programme Update" service should be offered to subscribers of other mobile operators and also to CDMA services.

It seems that the reduction in signal quality on certain transponders has been resolved upto a great extent with transponders showing a higher signal quality levels compared to the reduced levels that were experienced for the last few weeks. Anyone who is experiencing otherwise is welcome to comment here.

Many of us are awaiting that great day when SET SAB is officially kicked off Dialog TV's lineup. We hope that day arrives soon.

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

Of Radio channels and Transponder quality......

Just a few days ago we reported that the radio stations on Dialog TV have vanished. Apparently the reason that this was done was to allocate the bandwidth to the television channels and improve their quality. As per the information being received the radio channels will not be reintroduced anytime soon.

According to other information being received by us, the reason that the quality levels have dropped on certain transponders is because Dialog TV are carrying out some tests in order to reduce rain fade. If this report is correct then it will be great news for Dialog TV subscribers.

There are some unconfirmed reports that Dialog is planning to some channels to their lineup. We reiterate that Dialog TV should remove SET SAB and add another channel in its place. Please keep us updated on the latest on Dialog TV as the days progress.

Radio Stations vanish!

Amidst reports of a problem in the transponders and increased pixelation in the recent past, the radio stations that were available on Dialog TV vanished suddenly just a few days ago. This may have been carried out in order to increase bandwidth to the television channels to reduce pixelation.

It also seems that the transponders are experiencing lower signal quality levels in the recent past.

We hope that Dialog TV takes appropriate steps to increase bandwidth on the channels and reintroduce the radio stations. Dialog TV will have to take immediate steps to introduce the fourth transponder for this to actually materialise.

Dialog TV removed "Animax" from its lineup with a promise to replace it with another cartoon channel but it seems that the run of the mill channel "SET SAB" is still continuing despite subscriber requests.

In other news it seems that the some of the most recent SET plans introduced by Dialog TV such as bundling all sports channels together in one SET plan and all movie channels together in one SET plan is actually an improvement over the other SET plans that were previously available. There is no official information on the Dialog TV website regarding these new SET plans (actually there is no SET plan information on the website), we are unable to confirm their existence but so far the information received about these new plans seems to be positive.

The offer on the Lite 100 package with AXN bundled seems to be a bit confusing since it seems on the outset that Lite 100 package has AXN but a look on the website indicates that AXN will be available only until December 31st. We hope that someone can clear this out for prospective subscribers of Dialog TV.

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

Price Hike

A few days ago Dialog TV has increased the monthly rental on their packages even though it puts the packages out of the reach of the middle class. The new rental is ONLY for new subscribers and will not affect existing subscribers. However this hike will force almost all new subscribers to choose Dialog TV "Set Plan" instead of the regular packages.

Here are the new package details excluding the VAT component.

Lite 100 Package (no change in rental)
Super 500 Package (no change in rental)
Great 1099 Package (originally Rs 900/= package)
Value 1499 Package (seems to be a new package)
Value Plus 1949 Package (originally Rs 1400 package)

If Dialog had not introduced SET PLAN the new pricing structure will be detrimental to their marketing strategy. However we believe that in order to secure new subscribers Dialog cannot continue with the above general package structure. It is true that Dialog TV is running at a loss and the only way to overcome this is by increasing the subscriber base and not by increasing the rental.

New and existing Lite 100 subscribers have been given channel "AXN" free of charge from Nov 1st to Dec 31st. If you are a Lite 100 subscriber and if you are not able to watch AXN then you should call Dialog TV and get the channel activated and mention the free offer.

In addition it seems that the programme guide of Ten Sports and AXN on the Dialog TV printed guide is wrong. As we have said before Dialog TV should make sure that an accurate guide is distributed to their subscribers. We hope that next months guide will arrive early unlike this months. Dialog TV have corrected the problem in their History Channel and Nat Geo Adventure EPG but there seems to be a problem in the BBC EPG and hopefully this is correct too.

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

Corrections have to be made

With the month of November now upon us, it seems that Dialog TV have had some delays in their programme guide for this month. Many subscribers have not received their guide yet. Over the past few months, subscribers received their guides early with the following months guide arriving during the third week of a month. We hope that this delay trend will not continue.

In addition there are several mistakes in the Dialog TV EPG with History Channel and Nat Geo Adventure displaying the Nat Geo EPG and BBC World EPG seems to have a time zone calculation error. There seems to be problems in the EPG of some other stations too. The problem with the decoder time has not been sorted out still and hopefully they correct the time since the time is faster than those of other television stations in Sri Lanka and according to the timing programmes on all pay channels are starting late which is not a possibility at all.

We hope that these are sorted out soon and hopefully the replacement for SET SAB will arrive soon. Some bloggers are reporting of some price hikes on Dialog TV subscription. However we are unable to confirm anything and if their was a price hike then it would probably be for new subscribers.

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