Friday, January 31, 2014

Setanta Sports feed switching for RBS Six Nations

Dialog TV will switch feeds of "Setanta Sports Asia" from tomorrow Feb 1st to accommodate the "LIVE" broadcast of the RBS Six Nations Rugby. This means that during the "LIVE" rugby, Dialog will carry a different Setanta Sports feed in the channel slot allocated to Setanta Sports.

Firstly thanks should go to Setanta Sports for providing Sri Lankan rugby fans with a separate feed even though Setanta doesn't hold the rights for the majority of countries it covers & Sri Lanka is a relatively small market. Secondly thanks should go to Dialog TV for taking steps to ensure that their subscribers do not miss out on the rugby action.

Please keep us updated on the latest on Dialog TV as the days progress & please like our facebook page https://www.facebook.com/tvradiosrilanka & keep yourself abreast of all the latest.



Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Cricket on Ch.No 12 - Timesharing, Replacing & wasting

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.


Monday, January 13, 2014

Dialog TV to switch satellites?

According to unconfirmed reports being received Dialog TV is to switch satellites from Intelsat-12 to ChinaSat-12 aka SupremeSat-1. Yes, this is widely known as Sri Lanka's first satellite.

Although we are unable to confirm this development and the time frame within which Dialog TV will carry out this switch, we see the following reasons as to why Dialog TV maybe even considering this move.
  • Low cost of transponders compared to European/American operated satellites - This is actually one of the major reasons that Indian DTH operators are more cost effective, since almost all use Indian satellites.
  • Priority given to locals when allocating transponder space - One of the reasons that Dialog TV maybe unable to expand to a new transponder could be lack of free transponders on Intelsat-12.
However one major drawback could be the fact that Dialog TV will have to reposition all antenna's to the new position which means that Dialog TV should operate from both satellites used until all subscribers are switched to the new position.

It's certain that a move of this nature will benefit both Dialog TV & subscribers in the long term.

Thursday, January 9, 2014

Dialog TV subscribers in danger of losing out on content

The year 2014 is indeed seeing some major changes when it comes to the content of channels on Dialog TV. The Australian Open rights has now gone to Sony SIX plus the upcoming New Zealand vs India series, Star Movies Action is now premiering top Hollywood blockbusters along with Star Movies.  Not to mention many Sri Lankans were unable to watch the Sri Lanka vs New Zealand matches since it was on Sony SIX and had to watch a substandard broadcast on CSN.

With so much of changes happening in the region, Dialog TV is unable to keep adapting to the changes due to the sluggishness of the MPEG4 conversion as well as their inability to increase transponder capacity. For a company that boasts of "The Future Today", has been overwhelmed by the present today.

The standard Dialog TV solution is either to Time-Share or replace channels which is not what is expected from a pay television provider. Dialog moved heaven and earth to get MBC channels Sirasa TV & Shakthi TV on board, which means more money for Dialog TV. Sadly no effort is taken to increase the capacity (we stress INCREASE and don't confuse it with "replace")  of channels and make sure the subscribers has access to any channel available in this region. It's not Dialog TV's decision on what channels people will watch and what they won't, rather any paying subscriber should be able to access any channels of his/her choice.

It's time for Dialog TV to invest some money and put an end to this capacity curse. Converting from MPEG2 to MPEG4 DVB-S2 will go a longer into making that dream a reality.

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

Wednesday, January 1, 2014

Happy New Year 2014

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

"A Very Happy & Prosperous New Year 2014"

Thank You for your wonderful support during the past year and we look forward to a greater partnership this year.