Amazing Race : All Star Edition premiers Feb 19th

The next season of the Amazing Race : All Star Edition which is Season 11 will be premiering on AXN on Feb 19th just a few hours after premiering on US television on Feb 18th on CBS.

This season will include teams which have taken part before but some of the team compositions have changed. This is the first time that previous contestants are returning to the show.

AXN East Asia is available in Sri Lanka on CBNsat, LBN, Comet Cable and all Multivision operated pay television networks.

AXN has had tremendous success with The Amazing Race so far and in addition to showing the CBS produced Amazing Race seasons they are also broadcasting their very own Amazing Race : Asian Edition for which the season finale is tomorrow (Feb 1st). The Amazing Race : Asian Edition has been equally successful and thrilling.

The Amazing Race has been winning consecutive Emmy Awards for the Best Reality Show category and it is a pity that FTA television viewers in Sri Lanka are unable to view this programme. We hope that a FTA television station will broadcast this show soon.

In other news AXN has unveiled a new look with new and better looking on screen graphics.

Web Site : The Amazing Race : All Star Edition

Channel One MTV to launch officially

It is reported that Channel One MTV will be launching on their new frequencies on 6th February and the new programme lineup will commence on 7th February. We have not got any reports whether they will operate as a 24 hour television station and the programming that will be carried. However we feel as it is with the case of Art TV which shows CNN, ETV which shows Channel News Asia it is highly likely that MTV will show Voice of America TV, however this is not confirmed, plus their current programming including new additions.

It also seems likely that Channel One MTV will shift totally to the new frequency and Shakthi TV will ramp up programming on their existing frequency since it will be for Shakthi TV only. It is likely though that Channel One MTV, Shakthi TV will become 24 hour television channels.

It should also be noted that a few areas have experienced an improvement in the reception of UHF 58 and 51 but most of the areas are still unable to receive the channel clearly.

At the moment we are unable to obtain confirmation on any of the information given above. We would like our fellow bloggers to update us on any information regarding the new and improved Channel One MTV such as the whether it will be a 24 hour station and the new programming that will be introduced. We hope that the management of Channel One MTV will update us on their plans.

Art Tv messing up "Survivor"

Art Tv has messed up the season premier of Survivor Season 10. The one hour show was shown for only half an hour by Art Tv. It makes us wonder whether Art Tv has planned to show the entire season of Survivor for half an hour every friday instead of the original one hour show.

Hopefully the management of Art TV will sort this problem out, otherwise the popularity of the show will drop.

"Survivor Palau" premiers today on Art TV

The tenth season of hit reality show Survivor Palau will premier today on Art TV from 9:30pm onwards. Survivor was initially shown on television by MTV until Season 3 or 4 but after they abruptly ended the show there was not even one television station that carried it forward. Now after several years Sri Lanka once again gets to enjoy Survivor and it is all thanks to Art TV.

The rules of this game are simple and participants are abandoned in the middle of some of the most unforgiving places on earth. Divided into teams, they take part in challenges and every three days, the losing tribe must trek to Tribal Council to vote out one of their own. Halfway through the game, the game shits to individual competitions when the tribes nerge and become one, making the game every man for himself.

In Season 10, twenty new survivors compete for a million dollars. They are forced to brave the wild island of Palau. They begin their journey unlike any other season of Survivor - with no answers concerning tribes, camp locations, or what is going on.

The friday 9:30pm to 10:30pm time slot has been allocated for reality shows by Art Tv. Since the middle of last year "The Apprentice" was telecast over this slot and then once the season ended this slot was given a break over the festive season and used for telecasting festive movies. Now with all that behind us, reality returns on this slot with Survivor.

We believe that after this season of Survivor ends it will be followed by the 2007 season of "The Apprentice" which has just commenced on US television.

Survivor is known as the father of all reality shows.

BBC World gets new look

If anyone of you have been watching BBC World recently, you will have noticed that they have adopted a new and improved look. The improvements include an updated logo, news ticker and a lot of repositioning of the elements on the screen have been done to give their viewers more clarity.

In addition when a correspondent reports "live" from anywhere in the world the local time of the country concerned is also displayed on the screen. The music and title have been updated for their headline sequences.

This total redesign has been undertaken by the BBC News Graphics team to give a more consistent look across all BBC television news brands including their domestic and international services.

Sony Max kicks off countdown to Cricket World Cup

The ICC Cricket World Cup will be held in the West Indies in another 7 weeks and Sony Max holds the exclusive rights for all the matches played in this years tournament.

Sony Max is not available in the major Sri Lankan pay television networks but according to reports CBNsat will be introducing the channel before the World Cup. Even the other networks are expected to include the channel in their lineup before the tournament begins.

Max has already started promotional activities surrounding the tournament and the Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation hold the rights for the free to air broadcast within Sri Lanka.

The main drawback that is faced by the broadcasters in this region, is due to the time difference all the matches will finish late into the night. However the enthusiasm for cricket in this region will overcome this hurdle.

Correction in post : Bharti Airtel to launch DTH & IPTV services

We would like to apologise for some errors in our post titled "Bharti Airtel to launch DTH & IPTV services". Contrary to our report that they will be launching DTH in alliance with Sun Network we have learnt that there is no such alliance as of now and Airtel has floated its own company called Bharti Telemedia for the launch of their DTH service.

Further their IPTV service will be launched in the first quarter of the next fiscal year and the test runs of the service have already started.

The DTH service is likely to be launched during this calendar year provided they are allocated transponder space in an Indian satellite by ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation). If they are not allocated then the launch will be taking place next year.

Competition will certainly be hotting up in this region with the upcoming launch of another two DTH services one by Reliance and another by the Sun Network. At present there are four DTH operators in this region namely, Dish Tv, Tata Sky, DD Direct of India and CBNsat of Sri Lanka.

We once again apologise for the errors in the said post.

Bharti Airtel to launch DTH & IPTV services

Bharti Airtel which has received the approval to become Sri Lanka's fifth mobile operator is to launch DTH services in partnership with Sun Network in India. They are expecting to roll out the service by the end of this year depending on whether they are able to secure transponder capacity on an Indian Satellite.

If the launch does not happen this year then it is expected that they will launch their DTH services early next year. In addition they are also hoping to launch IPTV services soon.

The DTH and IPTV services will be rolled out in India initially however it is yet to be seen whether the Airtel-Sun DTH service will be made available in Sri Lanka and whether their IPTV service will be also available here. It is highly likely that the DTH service will make an entrance to the Sri Lankan market since the company will be having a presence here. However as with all Indian DTH services, all the channel feeds will be Indian and we may not get the East Asia feeds of certain channels that are available on locally operated pay television networks.

Airtel is expected to rollout 2G & 3G services by the end of this year in Sri Lanka.

** There are some errors in this post and they have been corrected in the post titled "Correction in post : Bharti Airtel to launch DTH & IPTV services"

Max Tv reception very bad

Max Television which is Sri Lanka's latest television station is reported to have very bad reception in areas such as Ragama, Gampaha, Ja Ela, Kandana and several other places. It seems that most of Colombo is receiving the transmissions clearly but areas such as Panadura, etc are also experiencing very bad reception.

At present their transmission tower is in Rajagiriya and for some even turning the antenna does not seem to work.

We hope that the management of Max Television does not let this reception problem continue since it will result in a drop in terms of viewers. Please rectify the situation soon.

Unused Radio Station licenses to be cancelled

Radio Station licenses that have been issued some time back and have not been used will be canceled according to the Secretary to the Media Ministry W.B. Ganegala. Mr. Ganegala has also expressed his disappointment regarding the motives of some of the radio stations operating at present.

At present Sri Lanka has about 30 Radio Stations in operation and the media ministry is said to be receiving further requests to start more radio stations. Some would be investors have been said to have been issued licenses three to five years ago but have not yet started operations therefore all these unused licenses will be canceled and given to new investors.

We sincerely urge the authorities to issue licenses in the future for digital radio stations and not for analog ones and prepare a deadline for all radio and television stations to convert their broadcasting mechanisms to digital.

External Links "LBO - Sri Lanka plans to abort unused licenses of radio stations"

AXN India off air for two months

AXN India which is the Indian feed of Sony's international action channel AXN has been taken off cable television networks in India for telecasting obscene content in a programme titled "The Worlds Sexiest Commercials".

AXN is expected to be off for a period of two months on Indian cable television networks. However this will not have any affect on Sri Lanka since we are getting a different feed of AXN and not the Indian feed. The controversial programme is not being aired on the AXN feed that is being received by local pay television channels. The ban will affect all cable television broadcasters in India only but we are not sure whether Indian DTH providers are also affected by the ban.

Childrens Programmes and Indecent Advertising/Music Videos

Art Television seems to be running trailers of programmes such as "Desperate Housewives" and "Girl Friends" during or just before childrens programmes. These trailers are not at all suitable for children.

ETV is also guilty of showing music videos that are not at all suitable for children just before the start of their children's programming slot or immediately after.

This should be stopped immediately since this can be shown at other times slots and not during the time slots allocated for children's programming.

We hope that the management of Art Tv and ETV rectifies the matter soon before falling into trouble.

Max TV launches today

Sri Lanka's latest television channel Max Television will be commencing broadcasts officially from today. Max Tv has being testing their transmissions for a long period of time and recently moved their broadcasting tower from Weliveriya to Nugegoda.

• Max Television will be operating on UHF 30 from Colombo and UHF 56 from Kandy.

• Max Radio will be operating on FM 90.6 for Colombo and South, FM 103.2 for Kandy.

Their office is located at MGM Tower, 219A Stanley Thilakaratne Mawatha, Nugegoda. The General Manager of Max TV will be well known television personality Chamuditha Samarawikrama and the Chairman of Max Tv and Radio will be Mahinda Ramanayake and Managing Director Janaka Ramanayake.

According to a report in the Financial times today they promise to be a television channel like no other that Sri Lanka has ever seen. The main focus of the channel will be locally produced programmes but they intend to show good quality English, Hindi and Tamil programmes too.

They intend to show Educational programmes too and will also entertain their viewers by relaying well known sports channel Ten Sports over their airwaves for sports fans on a Free to Air basis. It should be said that during their test transmission Max was able to draw the fans of wrestling who were glued to Max just to watch wrestling on Ten Sports.

Max Television is also hoping to commence broadcasts online using Lanka Internet which is one of their sister companies and then expects to commence broadcasts to Sri Lankans resident overseas via satellite.

We hope that Max television will be available on DTH provider CBNsat once CBNsat acquires their third transponder during the month of February. This will enable Max to be available to locals residing overseas and also enable them to be accessible to local areas that are not covered by their transmitters.

American Idol Season 6 premiers today

The reality show that took the world by storm American Idol will be premiering on ETV at 8:00pm today (Jan 17th).

The broadcast is being carried out in Sri Lanka just a few hours after it is shown on Fox in the US. ETV will be carrying out the transmission of American Idol simultaneously with pay television channel Star World who will also be commencing the broadcast at 8pm starting today.

The show commences with a 4 hour premier which will be shown over two days (today and tomorrow for two hours each). Then from next week onwards the show will be shown every Wednesdays and Thursdays and when the competition progresses the show will be shown every Wednesday, Thursday and Friday and as the show draws to a close the competition will back on the Wednesday and Thursday slot.

The winner of the sixth season of American Idol will be announced towards the end of May.

Star World is presently available in Sri Lanka on LBN, Comet Cable and all Multivision operated regional pay television providers.

Lost Season 2 premiers Jan 15th

The second season of Lost the international hit drama series will be premiering on Jan 15th from 9:30pm onwards on Art TV.

Art Tv which completed season one just over a week ago will be heading into the second season straight away.

Lost is also being telecast on AXN which is available across all pay television platforms in Sri Lanka, however AXN has almost reached the end of the season so if you do not want to miss an episode it is better to catch the program on Art TV.

Srilakvahini special New Year greetings program

Srilakvahini a Sri Lankan Satellite television channel will be broadcasting a special New Year Greetings program from today starting at 10pm till the morning hours on Jan 13th.

Several local government institutions and well known individuals are set to take part in this program that will be broadcast to Asia, Europe, Africa, Middle East.

Srilakvahini is available on the satellite Yamal 202.

This program is expected to watched by Sri Lankans who are working and living overseas.

The Amazing Race : All Stars Edition

In February The Amazing Race : All Star Edition (Season 11) will be kicking off on CBS in the US and also on AXN across Asia including Sri Lanka.

This edition will feature teams who have taken part in the last 10 seasons of the show.

The exact date of the season premier is not known but it is definitely in February.

AXN is available in Sri Lanka across all the pay television platforms.

We hope local FTA television channels will take steps to show this award winning reality show.

Lost continues......

Art Tv which completed the first season of Lost just two weeks back aired "Destination Lost" on 08th Jan 2007 which is actually shown just before the premier of Season 2 on US television.

Even though Art Tv did not advertise the second season of "Lost" (at least we did not see any trailers) we believe that Art TV will continue with "Lost" during the coming weeks which means that what they are showing will be the second season.

We are unable to confirm whether Art TV will immediately restart the program with the Second Season or will hold back and broadcast it later however since "Destination Lost" was shown on Monday then they should continue with Season 2 from next week.

American Idol premiers 17th Jan 07 on ETV

American Idol the reality show that took the world by storm over the past few years will be premiering it's latest season from 16th Jan 2007 on US television channel FOX.

Within 24 hours of the broadcast on US television the general public in Sri Lanka will be able to watch the broadcast on ETV simultaneously with the broadcast over Star World. The show is set to kick off at 8:00pm.

American Idol is the most popular reality show in Sri Lanka among the English speaking public and also among the others.

So keep your television sets tuned to ETV on 17th Jan 07 from 8:00pm onwards for the season premier of American Idol.

Deepest Sympathies

We have got news of the untimely death of the administrator of "Lanka Media Outlook" Blog. Even though we did not share his point of view we take this opportunity to express our sorrow to the members of his family and all his friends.

It is indeed sad to loose a fellow Sri Lankan blogger.

TNL Radio placed Number One

In a survey conducted by us that lasted over one month we asked all of you to vote and tell us what you think is Sri Lanka's Best English Language Radio Station and at the end of it TNL Radio stands at the Number One spot after 400 votes had been cast.

So we would like to congratulate the management of TNL Radio and its staff on their achievement.

Given below are the official results

Sun FM and Yes FM had a close fight right throughout the survey but Sun FM just managed to edge out the competition to take second place. However TNL Radio's sister radio channel Lite 89.2 only managed last place just behind E FM.

We like to thank those of you who took part in this survey and we have more surveys lined up as the year progresses so we look forward to your participation in those surveys as well.

MGMR to launch on Jan 17th

According to reports that we are receiving MGMR will be launching as Max Television on Jan 17th. This comes after a period of intense testing and also moving the transmitter. However some residents in areas such as Nagoda, Kandana and beyond including certain areas of Dehiwala are complaining of a drop in the clarity after the transmitter was moved. We hope that the management of MGMR will take steps to increase the power of their transmitter in order to rectify this problem.

MGMR also recommenced the broadcasting of Ten Sports during the weekend.

CBNsat commences sales

CBNsat has released information about their new package structure and pricing and has also commenced sales. Please visit "CBNsat New Package Structure" for a detailed report.

MGMR television to launch soon

Finally after a test transmission that lasted ages we hear that MGMR television will be launching as Max TV towards the middle of January. At the moment the test transmission of MGMR does not carry Ten Sports and also the duration of the testing has reduced a lot but we believe that they will resume to the original state once they have completed the movement of all their equipment or after launching officially.

We would like to wish the management of MGM all the best in their business venture and would like confirmation on an exact launch date. We also hope that they make their channel available on CBNsat for the sake of viewers who are unable to receive the signals.

Now does anyone have an idea when Channel One MTV will launch officially and move totally to its new frequency or are they waiting for people to purchase new antenna's which is something that will never happen.

LBN resumes test transmissions from today

LBN is set to resume test transmissions from today. For more on this please refer the following link "LBN Resumes test transmissions from today".

On Media Ministry Announcement

There seems to have been a recent announcement by the media ministry regarding the licenses issued for Radio and Television stations in Sri Lanka. Accordingly it states that all those who have been issued licenses should commence operations of their broadcasting facility within 45 days. We welcome this decision of the Media Ministry since those who have been issued with the license should put their license to good use by entertaining the public. In addition the curbing of the sale of television and radio licenses acquired by one to another is also welcome since it would mean that people who want to earn a fast buck by selling the license at a much higher price will refrain from doing so.

However there was a good point raised by another blog whether this could pose any threat to CBNsat or to Comet Cable. Refer Link

http://lankamediaoutlook.blogspot.com/2007/01/
start-all-new-tv-radio-within-45-days.html

We believe that this is not so since Dialog did not buy the cable television license from Asset Media and use it to operate CBNsat. What Dialog did was buy Asset Media who were the owners of the license and then used it to operate CBNsat so the license was not the one that was sold, it was the whole company that was sold.

In the case of Comet Cable if the Southern Development Authority (SDA) keeps its share in Comet Cable and the other partner sells their share to some other party then there will not be any issue. However if the SDA sells it share then there could be a problem because the license it owned by the SDA.

We believe that if a license is sold to some other party it is not good, however we believe that if the entire company that holds the license is bought by some other then it will be not a good business practice to make it a requirement for the new owners to acquire the licenses again.

We however are of the view that this was targeted at those who sell their licenses for money and not on the transfer of ownership of the company that holds the license.

MGM Back on Air

Looks like MGM is back on air after changing the location of their transmitter. We are getting reports that in some areas the quality of reception has improved greatly but in some areas like in Kandana/Ja Ela it seems that the reception quality has actually dropped according to emails that are being received by us.

Please update us on the quality of reception in the area that you are living.