Star Sports 2 to replace Star Sports 3 from tomorrow (9th Nov)

It's been a day of good news for all Dialog TV subscribers since Dialog have decided to replace the 24X7 Hindi Sports channel Star Sports 3 with Star Sports 2 with effect from tomorrow Nov 9th 2013. This is indeed a good move from Dialog TV considering the fact that Star Sports 3 will be carrying only Hindi content hereafter. As reported earlier it's likely that during multiple sporting events Star Sports 3 may carry English Language content however that would probably be in time for the 2016 Summer Olympic games for which Star Sports holds exclusive broadcast rights in this region. Until then the chances of anything like that happening are quite slim.

With Star Sports 2 coming in, Dialog will not have to worry about replacing it temporarily to be able to broadcast F1 events, however it seems that all F1 content will be on Star Sports 4.

Now the channel order will be Star Sports 4, Star Sports 1, Star Sports 2 from tomorrow and hopefully Dialog TV will sort the channels in numerical order ASAP.

It seems that Dialog TV will stick to Star Sports HD 2 in the HD offering probably because that channel will be carrying more international content in HD unlike Star Sports HD 1 which even though is a English Language channel will be carrying mostly India focused cricket and sports in HD.

This rebranding excercise is in itself a relief for Dialog TV since they were having to deal with time sharing  channels for certain sporting events due to lack of capacity to add the new channel. Now hopefully Dialog TV takes immediate steps to convert more channels to MPEG4 DVB-S2 and free up more space in existing transponders for channels.

We are almost at the end of 2013 and it seems that other than the movement of Setanta Sports & Discovery Turbo plus the switching of all Gold package subscribers to the HD enabled STB, we haven't gone too far on the total MPEG4 DVB-S2 conversion that was indicated at the end of the 1st quarter of 2013.

Now its yet to be seen if MTV India will be added before the year ends as indicated earlier. Please keep us updated on the latest on Dialog TV as the days progress.

Learn TV/HTV removed, new Nenasa channels come on air

According to reports reaching us, Learn TV/HTV have been removed and in place another Nenasa channel has being has added called "Nenasa Grade 10" and the other has been renamed as "Nenasa Grade 11".

Nenasa has always been scrambled for subscribers, we are not sure if it will be available for subscribers hereafter, its likely that one of them will be for sure considering that it was a replacement for "Learn TV".

We hope Dialog TV will continue to offer this channel FOC for all packages. In other news the Star Sports rebranding took place during the very early hours of this morning. Last night scrolls were flashed across the Star operated sports channels informing people of the rebranding exercise, this was probably done by Dialog fearing a backlash from subscribers who had no knowledge of the rebranding exercise & would have misunderstood that Dialog have replaced ESPN with another channel. However this was hardly necessary since Star Sports were carrying enough information on the screen indicating the pending change and today information viewers of the change that took place.

One thing was the absence of the scroll on Star Cricket which is now Star Sports 3, and yes its a mainly Hindi channel. It seems that Dialog TV have adopted a wait and see attitude with regards to the content of the channel but Star Sports FAQ confirm that it will be a Hindi channel. So the best option is for Dialog TV to remove it and add Star Sports 2 instead, but they should return Star Sports 3 back again ASAP since whenever there are multiple "live" sporting events, the channel may carry English sporting content.

Dialog will also have to rearrange the channels, at the moment it looks a mathematical nightmare, Star Sport 4, Star Sports 1, Star Sports 3, it should be in numerical order.

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

ESPN Star Sports to undergo major changes...

Copied from TV & Radio Sri Lanka blog - ESPN Star Sports to undergo major changes...

          ESPN Star Sports to undergo major changes...

Subcontinent feeds of sports channels ESPN Star Sports which are now managed by Star TV in India, are to undergo major changes from 6th Nov 2013. ESPN exited the joint venture last year resulting in the subsequent rebranding of ESPN as "Fox Sports" in Asia. After months of deliberations it has been decided that ESPN will be rebranded under the Star Sports brand in the subcontinent instead of Fox Sports as the rest of Asia.

As per the rebranding exercise, India is rumored to get a dedicated Hindi Sports channel which will also concentrate mainly on Indian domestic sports.

Given below is a quick round of how the channel rebranding exercise will take place

• Star Sports will become "Star Sports 1" - will showcase mainly premier cricket events.
• Star Sports 2 will remain as "Star Sports 2" - will showcase mainly premier football events, dual language feed.
• Star Cricket will become "Star Sports 3" - will showcase largely Hindi content & Indian domestic properties and will also be home to cricket involving India.
• ESPN will become "Star Sports 4" - will showcase international sports content such as F1, Baseball, etc.

• Star Cricket HD will become "Star Sports HD 1" - will mainly showcase HD cricket & football.
• ESPN HD will become "Star Sports HD 2" - will showcase HD football, F1 & Indian domestic content.

The above is just a summary of what is expected, however it's quite clear that there will be changes to the above from time-to-time since this largely depends on the "live" properties that will be carried simultaneously. The exclusive "live" rights for the 2016 Summer Olympic games are with Star Sports and its clear that all 6 channels will the carry games depending on the number of events taking place simultaneously. At the moment Star Sports, ESPN, ESPN HD & Star Cricket are on local pay television platforms meaning that after the rebranding exercise it will be "Star Sports 1", "Star Sports 4", "Star Sports HD 2" & "Star Sports 3" that will be the channels available on local platforms. 

Star Sports 3 is rumored to be mainly Hindi, so the most obvious choice for local operators will be to swap "Star Sports 3" with "Star Sports 2", however in the long run it would mean that content on Star Sports 3 will be missed by locals since it will be mainly Hindi but not 24 hours Hindi and depending on how many "live" properties are simultaneously being carried "live", it highly likely that English content will be available on Star Sports 3 too.

So the best option would be for local operators to carry all 4 SD Star Channels & HD enabled operators to carry all 6 ensuring that locals enjoy the best of sports from Star Sports.

Source - Television Post: Star to have Hindi sports channel; Star Sports to become mother brand

We hope Dialog TV will take steps to address this situation pertaining to changes being introduced by Star Sports India & make the appropriate changes. Due to lack of transponder capacity, they are totally unprepared for this sort of ramp up in programming/channels that is being carried out by Star Sports India.

It's likely that Dialog TV will replace Star Cricket which will be known from 6th Nov as Star Sports 3 with Star Sports 2, however this is not an ideal situation since as mentioned in the above article, English language content will be available on Star Sports 3 depending on the number of "live" events that will be telecast simultaneously. Besides it's not clear whether it will be Star Sports HD 1 or 2 that will be available from 6th onwards, if the present ESPN HD channel is retained then it will be Star Sports 2 HD that will be available from 6th onwards.

In addition the present channel arrangement of ESPN, Star Sports & Star Cricket will mean that it will be in the order "Star Sports 4", "Star Sports 1" & "Star Sports 3". We hope Dialog TV takes steps to rearrange the channels in a proper order from 6th Nov, plus make necessary arrangements to the channels offered in packages/plans.

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