Yes FM revamping website

English Language Radio station Yes FM is revamping its website and will launch the new look version from tomorrow Feb 1st. This seems to be an answer for E FM's use of its website extensively. Ever since the relaunch of E FM and its website being revamped, E has made of its website and has constantly updated and made use of it for promotions.

Yes FM which made use of their website in the early stages of its launch but gradually stopped as time progressed. No information is available on the contents of the revamped site but by tomorrow morning many of us will be able to find out for ourselves.

Australia - India - Sri Lanka Tri Series live on Channel Eye

State broadcaster Channel Eye will telecast the Commonwealth Bank Cricket Series featuring Australia-India-Sri Lanka from February 3rd to March 7th 2008. The matches are expected to commence early based on what region of Australia it being played on.

ESPN Star Sports will carry the live broadcast on pay television.

Telecast Schedule courtesy Channel Eye

Art TV premieres Prison Break Season 2

In a surprise move, Free to Air television channel Art Tv premiered the second season of popular television series Prison Break last night at 9:30pm. Art TV has been able to premiere the series before pay television channel Star World which reaffirms the fact that local English Free to Air television channels do not have to play second fiddle to the big pay television channels in this region.

However the premiere took many people by surprise since not much publicity was given regarding the premiere date. Even last Saturday (Jan 26th) the trailer was run but with the caption "Coming Soon" without any mention of the premiere date.

Being a television channel Art TV could have given more publicity or run a press advertisement on the leading English newspapers informing the public of the premiere. This seems to a hastily organized premiere and Art TV should either restart the programme or give prior notice to the viewer before the next repeat. During Season 1 the repeat was scheduled for 10:30PM on Wednesday however we are not sure about the Season 2 repeats.

New FM channel on air - 103.6FM

The latest FM channel hit the airwaves in Sri Lanka on 103.6FM today. The transmissions are carried out from the JAIC Hilton Towers and the station is owned by an Indian Company called United Telecom. The channel is headed by Mr. Rosmend Senarathne. The quality of the FM transmission is said to be of good quality. The name of the channel is not confirmed as yet and they hope to start a television service by the end of this year.

We wish to thank Shamitha for providing us with this valuable information.

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

Breaking News : Dialog launches DVB-T

According to information being received Dialog have launched the first Digital Terrestrial Broadcast in Sri Lanka which was declared open by the Media Minister Anura Priyadarshana Yapa a few minutes ago.

We will provide more details as and when we receive them. Those who have more information on this are requested to update us.

Defense Channel in the offing

The Sri Lanka armed forces will be launching their very own television channel commencing february 4th to coincide with the Independence day celebrations. The channel is expected to broadcast for 2 hours initially and will later be expanded to 24 hours. The channel is also expected to feature defence, political, social and entertainment programmes.

The name of the channel nor its frequency has not yet been confirmed.

American Idol season 7 premieres tonight on ETV & Star World

The seventh season of hit reality show American Idol will be premiering on local free to air television channel ETV and over pay television channel Star World at 8pm tonight.

This is the fourth time that ETV will be carrying American Idol to the local viewers. American Idol is arguably the most popular reality show carried on free to air television among the English speaking public in Sri Lanka.

ETV and Star World will be carrying the broadcast at the same time commencing today and the only major difference is that Star World is expected to carry the season finale live whereas ETV carries the recorded version. However we believe that ETV should also take steps to telecast the finale live.

Star World is available on Dialog TV, Comet Cable, LBN and all pay television service providers available in Sri Lanka.

Nethra TV - Tamil Language Channel

As in the case of Channel One MTV and Shakthi TV earlier when they were sharing the same frequency now the Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation have launched an addition channel "Nethra TV" which shares the same frequency with Channel Eye.

All tamil programmes will be telecast under the "Nethra TV" Logo and all other programmes under the "Channel Eye" Logo. We believe that as the popularity of "Nethra TV" rises, it will be allocated a separate frequency.

Zee Cafe completes Survivor : China

Last night the hit television reality series Survivor China came to an end on pay television channel Zee Cafe. Zee Cafe telecasted the show just about 2 weeks behind the broadcast on CBS in the USA.

This show is popular among the fans of English language reality programmes in Sri Lanka. Art TV carried the older "Survivor : Palau" last year but even though there were many requests to continue with the other seasons of Survivor the channel did not do so.

The next installment of Survivor which is "Survivor : Micronesia" will be premiering February 7th on CBS and hopefully Zee Cafe will telecast this edition too.

American Idol Season 7 & America's Next Top Model to premiere on ETV

Hit television reality shows American Idol Season 7 and America's Next Top Model will be premiering on free to air channel ETV during the course of this month.

America's Next Top Model will be premiering on January 7th @ 8pm and American Idol Season 7 will be premiering on January 16th @ 8pm.

American Idol will also be premiering on pay television channel Star World on January 16th @ 8pm.

For the last few years Yes FM has made it a point to announce the weekly results of American Idol before the show goes on air. For the sake of the viewers who want to get the results of the show by watching it on television we hope that they refrain from doing so. In addition when Mark was on Yes FM he too gives the results even though some listeners requested him not, therefore we hope that he does not do the same by announcing the results on the E FM Showgram before the show is telecast on their sister channel ETV. The management of ETV even if they are unable to stop other media institutions from doing so should make sure that E FM does not join the band wagon.

The finale of this years American Idol will be telecast live on Star World as they have been doing so over the last few years and we hope that ETV would also do the same for the first time.

Prison Break Season 2 to premiere on Art TV

The Second Season of Hit Drama series "Prison Break" will be premiering on Art TV. The trailers for this are being carried on Art TV at present. The significance of this is that Art TV will be telecasting this show on Terrestrial Free To Air television before the show is carried on Pay Television. Star World will be telecasting this show only towards the middle of this year but it looks like Art TV will beat them to it.

We hope Art TV will telecast the second season soon without carrying out trailers for months.

It is surprising that Star World, one of the leading pay television channels is unable to telecast "Prison Break" Season 2 before a free to air channel does so. It is an event that the Star World management can be ashamed of and Art TV can be proud of.