Star Sports 2... coming soon to Dialog TV?

According to unconfirmed reports, Star Sports 2 will be added to Dialog TV soon. This information is coming through various subscribers who are calling Dialog TV since they are mission certain sports events which are being shifted periodically to the channel from time to time.

This would indeed be a great move by Dialog TV since they sometimes tend to replace either ESPN/Star Sports with Star Sports 2 for sporting events such as Formula 1.

Now comes the question, will Star Sports 2 come as an additional channel or will it replace an existing one. We sincerely hope it comes as a new channel and not as a replacement to an existing one. Hopefully Dialog TV is able to accelerate the MPEG4 DVB S2 conversion process which will free of transponder capacity to add MTV India, Star Sports 2 and remove the time sharing on certain time shared channels allowing them each to have a separate channel that will allow the channels to be available 24 hours a day.

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

All new subscribers receiver HD PVR enabled MPEG4 DVB-S2 set-top box

According to information reaching us all new Dialog TV subscribers are receiving the new HD PVR enabled MPEG4 DVB-S2 set-top box. However if they want to activate any of the HD sachets they will still have to pay Rs 2990/= one time start-up fee which has been presently waived for "Gold" package subscribers.

This will mean that Dialog TV is setting itself up probably for converting more channels to MPEG4 DVB-S2 in the future and unconfirmed reports indicate that MTV India will be back on the Dialog TV lineup before the end of the year.

Unconfirmed reports suggest that some existing subscribers who are not on the "Gold" package have been reportedly been receiving some MPEG4 DVB-S2 set-top boxes but not the PVR enabled box rather one that doesn't have a LED display. Probably a lower cost box.

Dialog TV did issue a trial viewing of the HD pack for 14 days commencing from the end of September/beginning of October and this trial comes to a end over the next few days. It will be interesting to see how many will actually retain the HD pack after the trial run. This trial seems to have coincided with the issuing of MPEG4 DVB-S2 set-top boxes for new subscribers & is a good offer on the part of Dialog TV.

On other news over this weekend Star Sports 2 replaced ESPN to accommodate Formula 1 on Saturday and Sunday for a few hours. The case to include Star Sports 2 to the Dialog TV lineup is growing stronger than ever & of course the lack of transponder capacity weighs heavily on Dialog TV.

It seems that we might have a few more channels taking to MPEG4 DVB-S2 before the year comes to a close, which of course is that time of the year when Dialog TV is generally naughty than nice. December has always been a controversial month with channel replacements and time sharing's been enforced, etc, etc. So hopefully this year round would be much different with increased capacity bringing in new channels and time sharing channels being allocated separate slots.

Dialog TV should refrain from adding new local FTA channels and should concentrate of making space for international channels.

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

Time Sharing Sports channels....

Over the past few weeks Dialog TV has been put in a position where they have to timeshare either ESPN or Star Sports with Star Sports 2 in order to accommodate the screening of the Formula 1 races. This mainly due to ESS India moving the F1 broadcasts to Star Sports 2. Due to the immense popularity of F1 in Sri Lanka, this was done out of necessity.

Sports is a major driver for pay television subscriptions, the inability of local FTA channels to telecast "live" sporting events has drawn people to pay television to fulfill their viewing needs. Likewise sports is a major driver for Dialog TV. It is commendable that Dialog TV is trying to give their viewers what they want but this is coming at a notably high cost. 

People want channels to be available 24hrs a day and not to be swapped with others at the whims and fancies of Dialog TV. Already 4 channels are being time shared with each other. When a channel is being time shared the viewers miss programmes running on one. 

All this is due to the inability of Dialog TV to include more channels by carrying out an expedited expansion. At the moment subscribers are being robbed due to the removal of MTV India which according to unconfirmed reports would be back on air before the end of this year. Dialog TV cannot be proud of providing subscribers with F1 action. Rather they should be ashamed of their inability to add the new channel to their lineup and provide 24hrs carriage to both channels.

Dialog TV should take immediate steps to make Star Sports 2 a separate channel on it's platform and assign separate channel slots to Learn TV, HTV, EWTN & God TV and end this channel time sharing non-sense for good and also add MTV India back.

Time Sharing MUST STOP. Time Sharing only indicates a pay television provider's inability to carry out expansion.

We urge Dialog TV to speed up the implementation of DVB-S2 MPEG4 switch the entire platform to it. It's time to stop thinking of losses and take steps to stop robbing subscribers.

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

HD pack FOC on trial for 14 days

According to reports reaching us, Dialog TV is offering the HD pack to all those subscribers, probably "Gold" package subscribers who have already got the HD set-top box. This offer is to last 14 days from yesterday or probably from the date of activation of the channels. 

Some subscribers have received an SMS informing them of the activation. This is indeed a great move by Dialog TV & one that's long overdue. It seems that Dialog is on a push to increase the penetration of their HD service in Sri Lanka. 

One of the ways that Dialog could help its cause is to tie up with some electronics supplier and offer HD television sets on a monthly payment basis which is charged for on its bill. For a start this offer could be made to long standing subscribers who have been with Dialog TV for considerable number of years.

A considerable amount of time has elapsed since Dialog TV removed MTV India and we sincerely hope the channel is returned soon. As pointed out earlier, with the recent digitization program in India, this region will see new channels catering to select audiences. We hope Dialog TV sorts out transponder capacity issues and expands with some new channels whilst retaining old ones.

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

Update on 1st Oct 2013 at 12:16pm
This free trial offer is valid to all subscribers who have the HD set-top box regardless of the package they maybe on.