Happy New Year 2013

We take this opportunity to wish all our fellow bloggers the management and staff of Dialog TV,

"A Happy, Prosperous & Blessed New Year 2013"

2012 - The Year in review

Well we are now approaching the final few days of 2012, we would like to take a look back at the year that was on Dialog TV. Firstly before we start we wish to state that we are unable to confirm the arrival of Sirasa TV, Shakthi TV & MTV Sports on the Dialog TV platform. We reiterate that any moves to introduce the channels that categorically ridiculed the pay television concept on national newspapers and is now begging to be added to every pay service in the island should not be carried out at the expense of international channels be it English, Tamil or Hindi. If Dialog wants to add the Maharaja's then it should be done only at the expense of existing local channels, however we don't advocate channel replacements so the Maharaja's should be kept waiting until transponder space is increased. After all they are the ones who first pulled their channels out of pay television networks.

Now lets back to the focal point of this post and thats Dialog TV's 2012. Well it has been a mixed bag, but there has been a positive aspect to Dialog TV this year compared to the last few years. Dialog managed to introduced HD, though exorbitantly priced and now within the purse of the average Sri Lanka the point is that they still managed to launch HD. Hopefully 2013 will see some price reductions in HD connection rentals. 

The launch of Pay Per Day television is quite exciting and we are not sure how it's faring at the moment, we are quite sure that 2013 will be a good year for Pay Per Day television. The major stumbling block is the initial cost of the equipment with a decent warranty which is almost twice the investment for a post paid connection. If Dialog is able to drop the cost of the initial investment then Pay Per Day will definitely take off, plus this concept is not promoted enough. Understandably Dialog is having difficulty convincing local television stations to carry advertisements of Dialog TV which is viewed as a competitor by local media. Sadly Dialog is only a service provider and the channels available on Dialog TV should be open to DTV advertisements.

A few channels have been introduced mainly in the HD front whilst some have been replaced on the SD and HD lineup's. The most controversial replacement would have been the dropping of Australia Network in favour of a local channel, many say Sirasa TV was the channel which would have been introduced but we will never know since Dialog reversed the decision after complains from subscribers and the entire scenario being highlighted in this blog. Dialog made a very good decision retaining Australia Network.

The reintroduction of Zee Studio & Zee Cafe at the beginning of this year is quite notable after it being abruptly taken off the lineup just about an year earlier.

2012 has been good for Dialog TV with many new services being introduced after the sleeping giant was awakened after a few years in hibernation. Dialog however still has a long way to go, the channel sharing has to be stopped and separate slots have to be allocated to the channels that are sharing one slot at the moment. This will only be possible with either the conversion of MPEG2 to MPEG4 or purchasing more transponder space.

We hope we covered 2012 in a nutshell, our apologies to all concerned if we have missed anything. Oh and not to mention that we have noted that the Maharaja's have paid some people to comment on this blog asking for Sirasa. Not all the requests are from the Maharaja stooges, many are genuine requests but there have been quite a bit from the Maharaja paid stooges too.

Please continue updating us on the latest on Dialog TV.

Merry Christmas to you all

We take this opportunity to wish our fellow bloggers, the management & staff of Dialog TV....

"A Very Merry & Blessed Christmas 2012"

Sony's beTV being tested

Sony's beTV formerly called AXN Beyond is being tested in place of BBC Entertainment in the Dialog TV HD pack according to reports reaching us. BBC Entertainment which ceased broadcasting into the region towards the end of last month. Initially Dialog TV tested "Comedy Central" as a possible replacement, which was the Indian edition. The beTV feed will be the asian feed since this channel hasn't been launched in India as yet.

We hope that a suitable replacement for BBC Entertainment will be confirmed as soon as possible.

beTV website : http://www.betvasia.com/

Dialog launches Pay Per Day TV

On sunday Dialog TV launched their latest offering being Pay Per Day Per Paid TV. This concept which makes cable television affordable to the masses is expected to increase the penetration by Dialog TV. The rentals which start at Rs 3/= per day for a limited number of channels, with the ability to add channels for various rates as little as Rs 2/= upwards (HD channels are not available under this scheme as yet). 

The major downside the initial cost of purchase which exceeds the cost of a post paid connection. A reduced purchase cost combined with a hire purchase scheme would be an incentive to lure prospective subscribers.

Initial Purchase Cost - http://www.dialog.lk/personal/tv/packages/dtv-prepaid-packages/

Daily Rental - http://www.dialog.lk/personal/tv/channels/

This is a commendable move and we hope this momentum is continued and Dialog will increase transponder capacity soon enough and add more channels to their lineup.

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

Dialog's - Pay Per Day TV - prepaid TV

According to information being received from our fellow bloggers, Dialog's much awaited Prepaid Service is to be launched on December 10th and will be called "Pay Per Day TV".

The connection details are as follows

• Rs 9,990/= with One Year Warranty.
• Rs 10,990/= with Two Year Warranty.
• Rs 11,990/= with Three Year Warranty.

The Rental per day is as follows

• Rs 3/= for 18 channels.
• Rs 6/= for 22 channels.
• Rs 9/= for 30 channels.

     ** Additional channels are said to be available at a rental ranging from Rs 2/= upto Rs 24/=.

We are unable to ascertain to what channels will be made available to subscribers in the above rental scheme's. We don't think the HD channels will be available on this scheme during launch. Another thing that existing subscribers & future prepaid subscribers will be interested in finding out is whether prepaid subscribers will be able to convert to post paid and vice versa and if so how it will affect their warranties. Initially we don't expect the facility to be made available but would be as the service gains popularity.

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

Boomerang relaunched as Toonami & Comedy Central launched

With effect from December 1st 2012 TimeWarner have discontinued the "Boomerang" cartoon channel which used to telecast old classic's and have relaunched it with "Toonami" a cartoon channel that telecast mainly newer action cartoons.

We wish to point out to our fellow bloggers that the switch was not made by Dialog TV rather it was an exercise carried out by the channel operator. We are unable to verify which feed of Toonami is being telecast by Dialog TV, it looks like the Asian feed however information being received by us suggest that it's the Indian feed.

Well in other news Dialog still continues to waste channel space by not introducing any channel into the slot titled "Dialog Test", this has remained like this for well over a year and we hope that a channel is placed in that slot as soon as possible.

In addition Comedy Central India has replaced BBC Entertainment in the Dialog TV HD package. The channel is said to be of much lower quality and could have been replaced by a better one considering the high cost of the HD package.

Please continue updating us on the latest as the days progress.