Drop "NDTV Good Times" and "Play"

Dialog TV should take immediate steps to drop channels "NDTV Good Times" and "Play" and replace them with "AXN Beyond" and "SET English Asia". These two channels are a waste of transponder space and money for Dialog TV. No one watches any of the content on "Play" neither is "NDTV Good Times" any better.

"NDTV Good Times" is a worthless Bollywoodised English Channel. Bollywood is only popular for Hindi Movies and dubbed serials in Sri Lanka and no one watches any other Bollywood content in this country. Specially the number of English Language speaking folk who watch Indianized English content (such as that shown on NDTV Good Times) is almost non existent.

"Play" is worthless in its own sense, only trailers are shown and some of them are outdated trailers too. There is absolutely nothing to watch in the channel. If Dialog TV has transponder space to sleep on then having this worthless channel is not a problem but that is a transponder space that can be put to good use.

Another channel that should be kicked off the lineup is "Prime TV". It is turning out to be a utter failure of a channel. Outdated programmes that were gathering dust in ITN's video library are telecast over this channel. Unless this channel is a source of revenue for Dialog TV (meaning ITN is paying Dialog TV for uplinking the channel) then it is not worth retaining the channel. This channel can in no way compete with the other English Language channels on Dialog TV. In fact "Prime TV" cannot compete with the content of local FTA English channels in Sri Lanka.

We hope the management of Dialog TV wake up from their deep slumber and take immediate steps to remove the above worthless channels and introduce channels such as "AXN Beyond" and "SET English Asia". For informations sake "AXN Beyond" and "SET English Asia" telecast better content than "FX" and "Fox Crime". Now do not make this an excuse to drop "FX" and "Fox Crime" after all, we only said "better content" and did not call the channels "worthless".

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

Old Dialog TV packages rental to be increased

According to information being received Dialog TV is increasing the rental on old package subscribers from January 1st 2010, in what could termed as Dialog TV's way of wishing everyone a prosperous 2010.

The package rentals are as follows

• Old Rs 199/= package becomes Rs 250/= +Taxes.
• Old Rs 1375/= and Rs 1400/= package becomes Rs 1700/= + Taxes

This move is drawing criticism from various sectors of the their subscriber base. Instead of looking at alternative sources of revenue from such as advertising, ect. Dialog TV is continuing to increase package rentals and if they touch the other packages too then we can see a sales drop for Dialog TV.

Please keep us posted on the latest new of Dialog TV as the days progress.

Prime TV now on test

Prime TV is now testing on channel 75 of Dialog TV. Those who cannot receive the channel must scan for channnels once again to receive Prime TV. The channel is named as "Test".

Prime TV to launch on Dialog TV

According to a report in the newspapers yesterday, Prime TV the English Language sister channel of ITN will be launched on Dialog TV when it is launched on Nov 12th at 10am. Lack of transponder space on Dialog TV would mean that either Prime TV may be squeezed in or Siyatha TV will be removed and Prime TV will take its place.

It is highly likely that Siyatha TV will be removed as Siyatha is still indicated as test by Dialog TV and it has not been included in the lineup on the website.

Either way Prime TV will become the only 24 hr English channel to be on Dialog TV which we hope will pave the way for other English channels to hop on board Dialog TV.

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

Dialog TV adding Radio channels again and what is happening to MPEG4

According to reports reaching us Dialog TV have begun adding Radio channels onto their platform once again. So far the following channels are available

1) SLBC City Fm
2) SLBC Commercial Service
3) SLBC English
4) SLBC Threndal

These channels are said to be encrypted at the moment. The last time radio channels were taken off air citing bandwidth issues and we hope that this problem will not come up again. If radio channels come aboard Dialog TV it is a good move because presently the FM channels are so cluttered that is a nightmare to tune even with a digital tuner.

We hope that picture and sound quality on the television channels will not be compromised as a result of this. In addition Dialog should move from MPEG2 to MPEG4 soon as HBO is moving to HD platform from Oct 2nd (See article HBO Asia to go HD from Oct 2nd), in addition three new sports channels are in the offing with Ten Sports launching a Golf Channel and Ten Sports 2 as well as ESPN Star launching a Sports News Channel (See article New Sports channels from Ten Sports and ESPN Star in the offing).

In addition to this the happening channels AXN Beyond and SET English are yet to be added to Dialog TV. We reiterate that the MPEG2 to MPEG4 conversion should be carried out immediately or Dialog should secure another transponder to added these channels. The 7 channels in 7 weeks was a good thing by Dialog TV but not good enough. Dialog cannot hide behind marketing mumbo jumbo like that and ignore the rest of the channels that are made available which carry good programming. We would say that AXN Beyond and SET English carry better programming that FOX Crime and FX Asia.

So lets not wait for another year for another 7 channels in 7 weeks Dialog should get cracking immediately and add these channels.

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

Siyatha TV now on Dialog TV

Sri Lanka's latest FTA Sinhala Language television channel Siyatha TV commenced testing transmissions over Dialog TV from last night. The channel occupies the No. 7 slot which was blank ever since Dialog TV rearranged their lineup.

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

See TV Radio Sri Lanka Blog - Siyatha TV and Vettri TV to launch today

of local advertising and adding of AXN Beyond and SET Asia English

A local Cargills advertisement has been spotted on Dialog TV on the Discovery Channel at 1:30pm on September 1st 2009. This is the first local advertisement on Dialog TV on one of their regular channels.

As mentioned in previous posts these advertisements should not cause displeasure to the viewer. It is alright for Dialog TV to carry out local advertising for channels in place of some of those annoying Hindi ones but we reiterate that it should be carried out properly.

Once Dialog TV has a continuous flow of revenue from these advertisements it is time for them to consider reducing rentals.

We hope that Dialog TV will take steps to allocate the Channel 7 blank slot for either AXN Beyond or SET Asia English. Rival operator LBN has already added these channels and we feel that these two channels are far better than Fox Crime and Fox FX in terms of programming. Now what is done has been done, Dialog must use the Channel 7 slot for AXN Beyond then speed up the MPEG4 conversion and add SET Asia English. We have been calling for the addition of these channels for a long time and we hope that we will not have to continue like that for too long. Dialog TV can delay the addition of CCTV which is expected to be inserted in the Channel 7 slot since AXN Beyond will make better business sense than CCTV. Dialog can also remove an Hindi Channel such as "Zing" or English channel "NDTV Good Times" and add SET Asia English temporarily until they get the MPEG4 conversion sorted out.

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