2006 : A Year in Review

Well we have come to the end of yet another year and this has been an eventful year in Sri Lanka on the television and radio media front so lets go back and have a quick review of this year.

• This year this Blog celebrated its first anniversary in July and also moved from the Blog Pages in Yahoo 360 to Blogger in April so that it will be more accessible by our readers and then being listed on Kottu. In addition we expanded our portfolio of blogs and included a separate blog for CBNsat, LBN and Comet Cable.
  

• This year saw the addition of one television channel MGM which is still under test transmission and also the rebirth of Channel One MTV as a separate television channel and this too is under test transmission still. We also witnessed the opening of satellite channel Srilakvahini.
  

• We also saw several Sinhala Language radio channels starting such as Siyatha FM, Vee FM and Max Radio (hope we did not miss anything).

• A controversial crisis hit the pay television industry with the sudden closure of CBNsat and LBN which lead to a series of lawsuits which lasted several months. During this crisis announcements were made by telecom giants Dialog Telekom and Sri Lanka Telecom that they were entering the Pay television field.

• Dialog Telekom made a massive entry into media this year by taking control of Asset Media which owns Neth FM and then ending the CBNsat closure by taking control of CBNsat which resulted in the founder chairman of CBNsat Mr. Muhunthan Canagey who can be regarded as the father of DTH in Sri Lanka resigning from his post due to pressure from vested interests who were behind the CBNsat closure.

• This year also saw the closure of Raja FM on controversial grounds

Next year promises to be even better with the official launch of MGM and Channel One MTV due. Including some new television channels such as Siyatha Tv and a few others which are due to commence transmissions including a few more radio stations. The pay television front is set to get really hot with the official launch of CBNsat under Dialog Telekom and also SLT entering the pay television front with their network. The re entry of LBN to the pay television industry is also expected to take place soon but the role of Comet Cable in all this is very uncertain due to the legal issues and the financial state of the company however we have reason to believe that they will achieve something positive next year.

Well that's all folks for this year since we are taking the weekend and January 1st 2007 off, so we will be back with you from January 2nd 2007. Please keep sending us your valuable emails and also updating this blog with your comments on the latest happenings in the television and radio front in Sri Lanka during the next few days while we are away and also throughout the New Year 2007.

We like to take this opportunity to wish all of our readers the Managements of all television and radio stations and pay television networks in Sri Lanka a Happy, Peaceful and Prosperous New Year 2007

Further Reference
2006 : A Year in Review - CBNsat
2006 : A Year in Review - LBN
2006 : A Year in Review - Comet Cable