More Information on Dialog DVB-T

Yesterday was a historic day for broadcasting in Sri Lanka since the first ever DVB-T service was launched by Dialog Telekom making it the first service in South Asia too.

Most of the newspapers carried this news story as one of the major stories in the business section. This project has been implemented in collaboration with the Media Ministry of Sri Lanka. At the moment nine channels are available on this service including Rupavahini, Channel Eye/Nethra, ITN, Derana, Swarnavahini along with two foreign channels inclusive of Al Jazeera. coverage will be made available in Colombo areas, Wattala, Gampaha and in the 2nd phase of expansion the Eastern Province will be covered. Coverage is expected to be expanded to cover the entire island. According to sources Dialog does not intend to become a content provider but rather a platform that others can use. This will enable new companies that intend to start television channels to broadcast using the Dialog platform saving the cost of setting up transmission towers. Around 500 set top boxes will be distributed for this purpose at a cost that is said to be cheaper than a mobile phone and at cost price without a profit. Additionally since this is a pilot project the service will be rental free.

We believe that those of you who have modern television sets equipped with digital receivers and are residing in areas where coverage is available will be able to receive this service if the receiver is connected to a television antenna, preferably a UHF antenna. Those of you who are able to do are requested to update us with the quality of the service. In addition this service can be received on mobile phones with equipped with DVB receivers and also on vehicles equipped with DVB receivers. Unfortunately not many in Sri Lanka posses DVB receivers.

This is indeed a stepping stone for Sri Lanka to jump onto the digital broadcasting bandwagon and with many countries already switching off Analog transmitters it is time for the TRC and the Media Ministry to formulate procedures with deadlines that will see local broadcasters setting up their own digital transmitters or connecting to a platform such as that provided by Dialog. As done with DVB it is time for the Media Ministry to get local radio stations to move into DAB (Digital Audio Broadcasting) since the FM band is more crowded than the television service.

At the moment it is not clear whether the Maharaja's (Sirasa, Channel One & Shakthi TV), ETV, Art Tv and other channels that are not present on Dialog's DTH service will become part of their terrestrial service which does not include any pay television channel but only the free to air channels. However we urge the operators of the mentioned television services to seriously consider becoming part of the platform or to setup their own digital service instead of sticking to Jurassic technology. It is highly likely that the day SLRC splits Nethra TV & Channel Eye it will be done on the digital platform rather than on the analog platform.

Link : Daily Mirror (Jan 24th 2008) - Dialog TV launches another South Asia's first DVB-T