UTV Movies & World Movies Launched

Dialog TV have launched English Movie channel UTV World Movies and Hindi Movie Channel UTV Movies with effect from today.

According to information it seems that the channel has been allocated to the Rs 1949/= premium package only leaving the previous premium package of Rs 1400/= in the lurch.

This means that most channels introduced hereafter will be allocated only to the Rs 1949/= package only.

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

Aarti TV replaces Shruthi TV and new package rates

Hindu Channel Aarti TV has replaced Hindu Channel Shruthi TV. It looks like more of a case of Shruthi TV has been renamed to Aarti TV. The change happened on October 27th 2008 which was when Hindu's celebrated Deepavali.

In other news it seems that Dialog TV is increasing rentals for packages purchased after Nov 1st. The new rates are as follows

Lite 500 (same channels as Lite 100 / 250)
Super 700 (same channels as Super 500)
Great 1375 (same channels as Great 1099)
Value Plus 1949

Once notable exclusion is the Value 1499 package which comes in between the Great 1375 and Value Plus 1949 packages. Either this package has been discontinued or we may have not received the new package rate as yet.

The MPEG4 changeover has not taken place and we believe that it will take place as soon as Dialog replaces all premium decoders and has their broadcast systems ready.

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

the premium saga and more......

It has been a couple of weeks now and there is no end in sight for this Premium Package saga. This has indeed left the Dialog TV subscribers feeling sour and frustrated. Questions are being raised on why Dialog TV is placing Free To Air(FTA) channels on the premium package. Even though Dialog is paying royalities to rebroadcast these channels it is an unwise move on the part of Dialog TV management. If Dialog TV are to place FTA channels on the premium package then of course we wonder where they will place the upcoming subscription channels.

If Dialog introduces another package (higher than Rs 1949/=) for upcoming channels, there business strategy will definitely fail. Dialog is not only getting competition from local pay television providers but also from DTH operators from India. Call them "illegal", "run of the mill", "fly by night", etc they have a definite presence in Sri Lanka which is adversely affecting Dialog TV since they are taking advantage of the buzz created by Dialog TV. So instead of just dismissing these operators Dialog should take them seriously otherwise they might lead to the downfall of the company.

Dialog TV is having a lot of problems selecting the English feed of many dubbed cartoons. Instead of getting the English feed, all Dialog TV subscribers are getting the Hindi feed. However on the Indian DTH operators most of these cartoons are available in English too and therefore since Dialog TV does not provide multiple language facility to subscribers they should at least relay the correct audio feed to their subscribers.

An area that has been neglected by Dialog TV is the Tamil television audience in Sri Lanka. Dialog has been taking some steps to cater to their needs but in a country where Sinhala, Tamil & English are the dominant languages Dialog TV's Hindi channels outweigh Tamil ones. Dialog should take steps to introduce popular Tamil channels such as Sun TV (not in the premium package though) in order to be able to effectively market their product to the Tamil speaking audience. In addition channels such as Discovery, Cartoon Network, etc have Tamil Language feeds for certain programmes and if Dialog TV can introduce multiple language facility and include Tamil and English as the options then it will give them a greater leaverage.

We would like to request our fellow bloggers to limit discussions to Dialog TV on this blog and not to drag discussions relating to Dialog GSM, Broadband or CDMA since this is not forum for those services.

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

Boomerang activated for Rs 1949/= and Rs 1400/= premium packages?

According to information being received the Kids cartoon channel "Boomerang" has been added to the premium packages of Rs 1949/= and Rs 1400/=. An advertisement in the Daily News indicates that the channel is activated for the Rs 1949/= premium package, however it is available on the old DTV Rs 1,400/= package too. The Rs 1,400/= package may not have been mentioned in the newspaper advertisement since it is not valid anymore.

If all the other channels are added to the Rs 1400/= and Rs 1949/= premium packages it would certainly indicate that the reason Bloomberg TV was added to the Rs 1949/= package was to make business organizations and businessmen who may require the news broadcast by this channel upgrade to the Rs 1949/= package.

Only time will tell whether this is the tactic adopted by Dialog TV.

Please update us on the latest on Dialog TV as the days progress.

PS: We take this opportunity to welcome indi the administrator of the Sri Lankan Blog aggregator Kottu to this blog.

"Boomerang now testing on Dialog TV"

Cartoon Channel Boomerang which is a sister channel of Cartoon Network and Pogo commenced testing on Dialog TV yesterday. Most subscribers were surprised since the name "Boomerang" appeared on the list alongside "Bloomberg". Now the channel is still scrambled for many users since it may still be on testing mode.

Will Dialog take the "Bloomberg" path and add this channel only to the Rs 1949/= package or will they take decide to do some damage control and add this channel for their lower level packages too? Dialog can expect more competition to hit them since "Airtel Digital TV" launched in India today and we are certain that they will enter Sri Lanka also within the next year (for more see the TV & Radio Sri Lanka Blog).

Whether Dialog TV decided to hoodwink the business minded individuals in Sri Lanka by adding "Bloomberg" to the highest package in order to force them to upgrade for some classy business news will only be known once they carry out a package allocation for "Boomerang".

As mentioned in one of our posts last year we reiterate that Dialog TV behaved very foolishly by introducing the Rs 1949/= premium package and are now they are even more foolish by allocating channels only to it and ignoring the Rs 1400/= premium package subscribers. Many Dialog TV subscribers who can afford it are purchasing alternative connections and it is only a matter of time before others do so themselves. At present the threat of PEO TV is minimum since their present strategy would mean that with all the Dialog TV channels on PEO TV will make it more expensive that Dialog TV but since PEO TV operating costs are much lower it will only be a matter of time before they reduce rates. As stated before Dialog TV should reduce subscription rates and target more subscribers in order to become profitable.

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

Subscribers now looking for alternatives. Is this the end of Dialog TV?

Many Dialog TV subscribers specially those in the old Dialog TV premium package of Rs 1400/= and in lower packages are in the process of purchasing alternative pay television connections such as Dish TV, PEO TV or LBN. The main reason behind this is the attitude adopted by Dialog TV towards the premium susbcribers. Subscribers of the Rs 1400/= premium package were told that they will be able to access all the new channels but now only the Rs 1949/= premium package users have been allocated with the new channel Bloomberg TV. This has caused many subscribers to believe that a major portion of the new channels will be allocated to this package. Even the Rs 1949/= subscribers are weary of the situation since they are of the opinion that when Dialog TV introduces a newer higher valued package the Rs 1949/= package will loose its premium status.

This has caused many loyal Dialog TV subscribers to move to alternatives even those who were actively fighting for CBNsat during the days of the controversial closure.

The only way Dialog TV can remedy the situation is to give all channels equally for the Rs 1400/= and Rs 1949/= premium packages. We believe that Dialog TV management is not dumb to mess up a business venture such as this but then we never know.

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