Wednesday, February 28, 2007

Dangers of illegal Indian DTH pay television connections in Sri Lanka

Recently some advertisements published in some leading newspapers promoted illegal DTH pay television connections from companies such as Dish TV of India. These advertisements appear usually in classified sections but now they are becoming more adventurous by publishing larger advertisements.

At a glance one would notice that these are cheaper and have more channel offerings than some of the local providers but then there is more to these connections that what catches the eye.

Lets take for example the channel offerings, in Sri Lankan operators the HBO, HBO Signature, Cinemax, Star Movies and AXN are all East Asia feeds which is of a higher programming quality and not to mention less advertisements and in the case of HBO, HBO Signature, Star Movies and Cinemax these are also commercial free channels. Whereas in these cheap illegal ones they are all Indian feeds which have lower quality programming and far greater advertisements and the above mentioned commercial free channels are not commercial free. In addition the programming is designed to suit the Indian audience which the Sri Lankan subscriber necessarily does not enjoy.

Another drawback is the lack of control over your connections. In the case of a local provider you have the freedom to call up their call centre and make any inquiries regarding your connection and even give them a piece of your mind if things are not going satisfactorily. But in the case of these Indian ones the connection is registered under the name of an Indian with an Indian address so to call them up, you have to always place an IDD call to India and if they find out that you are calling from outside Sri Lanka which is very easy with CLI then your connection will be disconnected and chances are that you will never be reconnected again and have to forget about the money that you invested in the connection.

Bill payment is also a hassle. With Sri Lankan operators you can pay without much of an hassle. But in the case of the Indian ones even though some illegal agents claim that you can make internet payments, there have been instances of connections being disconnected because the operator traced that the payment was made outside India. You have to remit the payment to India to a known person and get them to make the payment or usually the illegal agent in Sri Lanka will make the payment once you give them the money but more often or not the illegal agent either closes shop or stops dealing with this product leaving the subscribers in the lurch.

Recently AXN India was banned for a period of two months and all those who have Indian pay television connections were unable to view the channel (the Ban will be lifted on March 1st which is 15 days in advance of the actual lifting date). The point is that laws passed in India will affect the local consumer too when using Indian pay television connections. Those who had Sri Lankan pay television connections were not affected since we have AXN East Asia.

The best thing is to avoid these illegal imports from India even though they look juicy on the outside they are potential trouble. The only advice for those who have bought them is to return them and get a refund and invest in a local operator or carefully use the connection and get rid of it as soon as possible. For those who are planning to buy one it is a big “NO” since there are better local operators in the form of Dialog TV, LBN, Comet Cable and SLT will be launching IPTV soon.

We urge the pay television industry in Sri Lanka to take joint action and educate the public on the dangers of these illegal connections and also take action against those who are dealing in them. Competition between local operators will be healthy to the market but the illegal ones will only destroy the market.

Indian DTH companies should trace the people who sell these connections because they definitely have a connection with an Indian agent who is probably authorized to sell these connections legally inside India and take action against them and strip them of their distributorship without turning a blind eye. In the recent past though there has been a crack down on illegal connections within India and most probably they will start looking into the people who are smuggling these connections outside India.

The content providers should switch off the signal and take action against these DTH pay television companies whose connections are being sold outside India illegally since it mounts to intellectual property violation of their content.

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

Pavu bang ALF,uge badatane meken kelala arinne,Blog admin local operators la kiwwama ekek amathaka wela "Shitnet",Okagen kavuda connection ganne.

Anonymous said...

THE PERSON WHO HAS ADVERTISED ABOUT THESE ILLEGAL CONNECTIONS (SUNDAY TIMES "HIT AD" PAGE 50,) IS THE "TELECAVE" LTD GUY AT DEHIWALA,WHO DOES ELECTRONIC REPAIRS AND ANTENNAS.

ITS A PITY PEOPLE LIKE MR.HULUGALLA GOES AFTER INNOCENT PEOPLE THAN THE ILLEGAL AGENTS LIKE"TELECAVE",WHO IS SELLING THE PRODUCT FOR WHICH HE IS SUPPOSED TO BE THE AUTHORIZED AGENT HERE.

HOW STRANGE?

Anonymous said...

No one will buy from huluballa,if he gives even for 100/- rupees

Anonymous said...

Actually Dish TV is not illegal in sri lanka. You can leagally purchase it. Even someone in India can gift a Dish TV connection to a person in Sri Lanka. If you are in an area that is covered within the NSS6 satellite, that's it..I know lots of indians, living in sri lanka and using Dish TV as well as TATA sky.

No need to contact hulugalle as well

Anonymous said...

Its illegal in the sense the feed is intended only for India and you cannot bring down the box purchased in India to SL,The only authorised or legal distributer of Dish tv connections in SL is Hulugalla,How bad it is you cant take that away from him.

Anonymous said...

yep he's truth only authorised or legal distributer of Dish tv connections in SL is Hulugalla (satnet) visit http://www.dishtvindia.in/static/dealerLocator.asp

Anonymous said...

That's a pitty!

Anonymous said...

I think more and more people should by Indian Dish TV and teach a lesson to Dialog and other local TV operators who charge a thumping amount for their connection.When they can provide a mobile phone connection for juct 500 rupees after investing on all the infrustructure,why cant they provide TV connections at a lesser rate.The indian DISH TV connection is less than 5000 rupees all inclusive.

Anonymous said...

U must b talking indian rupees.

Actually you should motivate buying DTV as it will eventually reduce the connection cost.

You couldn't buy a Mobile phone connection for 500 at that time.When they got the numbers they reduce the connection fee.

Anonymous said...

Telecave have an even bigger Ad than last week in the Sunday Times HitAd magazine this week (4th March)

Boldly advertising that ANY DishTV subscriber in Sri Lanka customer can pay their rental to them, (and I'm guessing, get their connections activated if previously de-activated)

I reckon Telecave does have some firm "official" authority from DishTV to make such a bold claim. I guess we'll know in a few weeks...

Anonymous said...

Telecave say that they can reconnect satnet connections and except payments on there behalf. Looks like they are legit with what they do…………………

I was amazed to find a Dish TV dealer in Mirihana in Nugegoda (160, old kottawa Rd) giving same rates as telecave. Didn’t find out if they are dealers of satnet/telecave……………………

Anonymous said...

Telecave is pretty legit as I checked up with satnet and they confirmed that telecave have been appointed sales agent for dishtv by them. Telecave even says that they will be getting the world cup matches via setmax, and are confident of themselves. they even say that they are in the process of legalising illeigal dishtv connections and payments are accepted.whats happening..... How legit is this?

TG's Blog Owner said...

Meanwhile, SATnet is the authorized dealer for DishTV in Sri Lanka, appointed by DishTV India to provide a useless load of channels. But I doubt that SATnet appointing its own autorized dealer or sales agent is legal.

Sooner or later Telecave is going to get tired of the business(less) and will give up like Hayleys did in a week. I doubt that people will really buy that without researching first. Especially after the Cable TV trouble last year.

We should actually motivate and support our local companies without running behind India for everything. Getting Indian channels is enough, but Indian DTH services must be hell. Especially with added Hulla sauce in it.

@ 8th comment
No need to teach a lesson to Dialog. They know what they are doing. Or did you buy a phone connection in the year 1999 for 500 rupees? Shut up about things you don't know and be Lankan. Buy Lankan. Dialog TV will soon get much cheaper than it is now.

Rasika said...

ANAE, Dude if you said that "be Lankan. Buy Lankan. Dialog TV will soon get much cheaper...".

FYI Dialog is a fully owned subsidary of Telekom Malaysia. In other words it is a Malayasian company you moron.

Anonymous said...

Dish TV has pretty much everything Dialog has plus another 80 channels (Mostly Indian regional language channels). There are 5 full time Tamil channels. Hence I suspect this is an attractive package to the Tamils and Muslims here as Dialog has dropped the Tamil channels after the takeover. Dish tv subscription is about half of Dialog.

Anonymous said...

I think Dialog TV and other cable TV providers should give Fashion TV and other adult related materials to their viewers on request basis. cos if they can show "adults only" films in sri lanka why the hell they cant provide these to their subscribers.

Hifni Shahzard Nazeer said...

Does the GOSL have control over Illegal DTH service providers. We are not aware of the consequences, but ironically if GOSL terminates DTH service offered by indian opperators by any means, what will happen to those subscribers inclusive of the so called indians who have purchased these illegal DTH service and using in SL?

What I reckon there is a need of a new entrant to the local DTH sevice market to spice up things and for competition. Atleast this could reduce the cost. I cant see anyone else than AirTel offering their "Digital TV DTH service" in SL.

Anonymous said...

Etisalat to launch DTH service in SL. Plus 3.8G will also be launched,,,,