While it is commendable that Dialog TV is telecasting the SL vs Ban cricket series which is being ignored by the majority of sports channels in the region on a feed that should be largely commercial free but of course is being interrupted by Dialog inserted ads, the implementation of this commendable act has raised questions.
Firstly the cricket is being screened on Ch.No 12, which carries Neo Prime, while it is true that the Neo channels carrying considerably less live content, it should be stated that the cricket should have been screened on "Dialog Test Channel", without time sharing it with an existing channel. It seems that Dialog have got some sort of addiction, as its the case with heroine or any type of addiction, it prevents the individual from making proper decisions and thinking in a logical manner, the same is happening with Dialog TV's addiction to Timesharing & Replacing, Dialog management isn't thinking straight and is therefore making rash decisions to replace channels at their own will, without taking into account the subscribers who actually pay to watch.
The correct decision should have been is to carry the cricket on "Dialog Test Channel", in the future - whenever they sort out their ridiculous capacity issues - Dialog TV should allocate a few slots to carry content which may be ignored by the Indian centric channels, when required. We hope Dialog TV management will reconsider and move the cricket the "Dialog Test Channel" which is a waste anyway.
In other news it seems that Setanta will not telecast the 6 Nations Rugby this year, it seems that Sony Six which broadcast rugby sports content via Setanta have acquired the rights independant of Setanta and will be carrying it in this region. It's quite obvious that Sony Six is poised to become a major player in the region & is focused on non-cricketing properties. First FIFA rights, then Rugby rights, whats next for Sony Six is anyone's guess and maybe its time to add the channel, sadly in the case of Sony Six, the HD channel & SD ones carry different content at times so any service provider should then have to carry both the SD & HD feeds which means trouble for local pay television providers who on the most part are not HD ready and the only one with HD facilities is having trouble with capacity.
We hope that Dialog TV take steps to rectify all these capacity issues and at the moment make use of "Dialog Test Channel" to carry these extra sports content without timesharing or replacing ANY existing channels.
Please keep us updated on the latest on Dialog TV as the days progress.