Channel Line up rearranged and new package rates for new subscribers

According to information being received Dialog TV have rearranged their line up of channels by shutting down the transmission from 3am to 6am. This was done in accordance with the message that was transmitted to all subscribers saying that there may be interruptions in transmission from the 13th to the 15th in order to carry out the rearrangement. We are unable to obtain the rearranged lineup and we hope that our bloggers will post a comment with the new updated lineup. Certain facilities such as EPG and the channel names are said to be wrong. Please be informed that the channel names can be corrected (if Dialog TV have assigned the correct channel name at their end) by doing a channel scan but the EPG can only be corrected by Dialog TV. It can be expected that channels will go off air on a regular basis in order for them to complete this rearrangement. We hope that this is completed before people go home after work today so that they can enjoy television without any headaches.

In other news we have received reports of the updated package rates that will be implemented by October 1st 2007. The new revised package rates are said to be
1) The Rs 500/= package will be Rs 550/= (+ vat) with addition 4 channels - Al Jazeera, NDTV 24X7, Australia Network and Star Vijay.
2) The Rs 900/= package is expected to be increased to Rs 1550/= (+vat) with additional 9 channels - Hallmark, SRTV, Star World, Star Plus and Neo Sports plus the 4 additional channels in Rs 550/= package.
3) The Rs 1400/= package will be Rs 2100(+vat) with additional channels - HBO, HBO Signature, HBO Family, HBO Hits, Cinemax, Star Movies, Neo Plus and Ten Sports plus the additional channels in the above two packages. Star Cricket is not mentioned but since the Star Package is mentioned we believe that it will be allocated to this package since Dialog are not too foolish to allocate Star Cricket to the Rs 2100/= package or are they?

The above rates are valid only for subscribers who purchase on or after October 1st 2007 and present subscribers will continue with the current subscription rates as usual. It should be said that Dialog are very foolish at implementing the new rates in this manner since this takes the connections out of the reach of the ordinary man. We correct our wording since we said that a new package over Rs 1400/= will have to be called a Millionaires Package but we correct ourselves and hereby term the new Rs 2100/= package as Billionaires Package. It is said that the fourth transponder will be available in September with another 14 channels consisting of the Fox Channels and Asian feeds of Star Sports and ESPN, etc. However since these channels are expensive they would have to be allocated to a higher package mainly for those who can afford them and these could have been in a Rs 2100 package. Changing the present Rs 1400/= package which consists of the basic pay television channels which LBN provides with more channels for Rs 1100/= is a BIG MISTAKE by Dialog. This move will result in a reduction of Dialog TV sales.

It should be said that before saying anything further one wonders whether this is all a marketing gimmick by Dialog TV to sell the maximum connections since we are sure that Dialog would have done all the market research and found out that with the rising cost of living not many will be able to afford a package at Rs 2100/=. If not then it is sad to say that Dialog is on the same road as Comet Cable and may end up in an even worse situation. Dialog TV should concentrate on taking its connections to the masses and follow the same vision as Dialog GSM and should not limit themselves to an exclusive clientele.

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