Citi Hitz goes off air, AXN HD replaced

Sri Lanka's first local Sinhala language pay television channel Citi Hitz has gone off air. This was bound to happen one day or the other since the channel was barely existing & repeats content most of the time. The channel has been according to Dialog replaced "temporarily" by a new educational channel called "Revision TV". Since this is temporary either Citi Hitz could return or in turn "Revision TV" would be replaced by the channel that would take the place of Citi Hitz permanently.

In other news AXN HD has been replaced by Ten HD and it seems that this too is temporary & AXN HD will return soon possibly by October 4th. We believe the replacement is to telecast the present the Ryder Cup Golf tournament thats taking place. Maybe someone at Dialog is an ardent Golfing fan. It's sad that they charge a whopping extra Rs 1000/= on a monthly basis and replace channels almost every month, this is probably the most unstable HD pack in the world.

Going back to our first report, it just maybe that the "new local channel" that was to replace Australia Network will replace "Revision TV" at a later day. One has to wonder when that eternally testing "Dialog Test" channel will  get replaced by a channel since it's a waste of transponder space.

We are unable to confirm the launch date of Dialog TV pre-paid but it looks like the tentative date of October 1st still holds.

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

Dialog TV Prepaid Service to launch 1st October

According to reports, Dialog TV will be launching their prepaid service from 1st Oct 2012. At present the launch date is tentative but it's likely to be on or around that date. We are unable to confirm how the service will be priced but it seems that the unit will cost around Rs 10,000 exclusive of installation.

It's likely that  Dialog may charge seperately for installation. The reload rates are not available as yet but should be available as the launch date draws near.

This service is definitely capable of making the connections affordable & within the reach of many middle class Sri Lankans. Whether the prepaid pay television service would be as successful as prepaid mobile/broadband services is yet to be seen but there is no reason why it shouldn't be. We urge Dialog to take extra care when pricing this product, because the success or failure of this service will depend solely on the pricing.

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

Dialog TV to launch prepaid service as the brand new service?

Just about a week ago we made a post about a new service that is to be launched by Dialog TV and there were speculations whether it could be a DVB-T service or a Satellite Internet Service.

Information coming in suggests that it is a "pre-paid" Dialog TV service. Service's such as this are available on DTH operators in India, etc but this will be a first for Sri Lanka & could potentially put pay television within the reach of ordinary middle class Sri Lankans. The indication of this potential service is when one dials the Dialog TV USSD Portal via Dialog mobiles on #679# an option called "Pre-paid Initial Activation" is now available which wasn't available before.

If this information is correct then it could mean that Dialog could vastly increase their subscriber base and whether a Pre-paid pay television service can be as successful as Pre-paid mobile phone service only time will tell.

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

Dialog TV to launch new service

It's been a couple of days now since Discovery HD World launched & now according to information being received by us, Dialog TV is carrying out major changes in their system in order to launch a brand new service. According to this the changes have nothing to do with the content on Dialog TV. 

No information has emerged regarding this but rumors flying around indicate that it could be Digital Terrestrial Television or Satellite Internet or anything else for that matter.

Please keep us updated on the latest on Dialog TV as the days progress regarding this "new service" & all other Dialog TV related news.

Dialog to launch Discovery HD World on September 9th

Dialog will be adding Discovery HD World from tomorrow 09th September 2012 taking them to a total of 5 HD channels in their HD pack. The channel will be available at no additional cost to existing HD pack subscribers.

This is indeed a very good move by Dialog TV & we commend their commitment to add educational channels which benefit everyone from young school children to older folk since there is something new for everyone to learn from these educational channels.

According to information being received the feed is supposedly Indian as is with the SD Discovery Channels. We are unable to confirm whether this channel is commercial free or not.

We sincerely hope that Dialog TV will speed up the MPEG2 to MPEG4 conversion so that transponder space can be freed up for new channels. We strongly urge Dialog to refrain from replacing International Channels with local ones.

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

No sign of Discovery HD World & Sirasa begging

Following initial reports of Dialog TV carrying out testing Discovery HD and the subsequent loss of quality on certain other HD channels, it looks like the testing has ceased and Dialog may have dropped the plans to add this new channel. If there is no capacity then Dialog shouldn't add the channel. It's very good that infotainment channels (aka educational channels) have been given an important place on Dialog TV. Channels like those from the Discovery Network and Nat Geo channels carry very value due to the information that is available to anyone who watches them. Something which was never available from any FTA channel in Sri Lanka then and not available now, maybe available in the form of a few programmes but never on the scale of the programmes available on the channels owned and operated by Discovery & Nat Geo.

So it will be a very good move by Dialog TV to add Discovery Channel HD as soon as channel capacity is available. The argument that Nat Geo HD and Discovery Channel HD are of the "same kind" doesn't matter since anyone who watches the infotainment channels always "learn" something new plus they are a better alternative for school children to watch.

This begs the question of "Sirasa", correction actually it's "Sirasa thats begging" to be on Dialog TV. After proclaiming to the whole world that they don't need to be on pay television and that pay television is going to fail in Sri Lanka. Sirasa has been begging to get aboard pay television networks in Sri Lanka & after successfully begging themselves onto PEO TV, now the Capital Maharaja's are begging to be on Dialog TV. Sirasa TV seems to be getting people to comment on this blog and ask for Sirasa, most of the accounts that ask for Sirasa, we repeat - "most & NOT ALL" appear to have been created around July/Aug 2012. We noticed this previously too when a barrage of comments appeared on this blog asking for Sirasa TV sometime back.

If Dialog wants they can add Sirasa, they can firstly require them to pay a handsome sum of money, we are pretty sure that Dialog have figured that out and add the channel at the expense of a local channel FTA channel or wait until transponder capacity if increased. No International channel should be touched be it English Channels, Hindi Channels, Religious Channels or Tamil Channels because people bought Dialog TV because they got sick of the local FTA stuff. Yes there are people who bought & watch Dialog TV because of the English channels, some for the Hindi channels, some for the Religious Channels, some for the Tamil Channels. We repeat once again that if Sirasa is required then remove any of the local FTA channels if not wait for transponder space to be increased.

Consideration Dialog TV's tactics in the recent past, it won't be surprising if Dialog TV adds Sirasa as a "bonus channel" to the HD pack in order to lure subscribers to move to the HD pack. Yes a move such as that would be foolish but it's Dialog TV we are talking about here. Anyway such a move would be wiser than removing an International channel in favor of a local channel such as Sirasa.

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

Dialog TV testing Discovery HD World & the Sirasa Saga

Reports pouring in suggest that Dialog TV is now testing "Discovery HD World". Initially it was reported that the channel was viewable for a short period of time but now the slot appears as scrambled. Discovery HD World is reportedly a high quality channel and its good if Dialog TV can include the channel in it's HD lineup. We got reports of drop in quality of Nat Geo HD once the Discovery HD World testing began. It should be stated that the channel should only be added if only the possibility exists and not at the loss of quality of another HD channel. In addition it shouldn't be time shared with any of the existing channels nor should it replace any existing channel. If there is not enough transponder space, the Dialog should immediately halt any attempts to add this channel. However if it can be added without causing any problems then it will be regarded as an excellent channel choice by Dialog TV. 

Whether this Discovery HD World will be made available FOC to existing HD packages is yet to be seen but charging extra will be a very bad move on Dialog's part.

In addition we see a lot of comments being made regarding "Sirasa TV" on this blog. If Dialog is going to add this channel, then it would be at the cost of an existing channel. Adding a local channel such as Sirasa at the expense of any international channels be it English, Tamil or Hindi would be absurd. Channel replacements shouldn't take place so Dialog should hold off any introduction of this channel until transponder space is increased or the system is converted to MPEG4. In the event transponder space is increased then adding Sirasa TV would be a waste of transponder space. At the moment there are enough of local channels on Dialog TV and it wouldn't be wise to add more local FTA channels on the platform since these channels are freely available to anyone who has a regular antenna. However if Dialog TV wants to add "Sirasa TV" then they should do so only at the expense of an existing local channel on the platform.

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