AXN to premiere "Amazing Race 13" tonight

Action channel AXN will be premiering the latest season of the US edition Amazing Race 13 at 6:30pm Sri Lanka time. This telecast is just a few hours after the season premiers in the US.

With Amazing Race 13 premiering this there will be two editions of Amazing Race on AXN with Amazing Race Asia s3 being telecast on Thursday at 6:30pm.

AXN is available on all pay television networks in Sri Lanka except for PEO TV.

Surivor : Gabon, Brit Awards on premiere on Zee Cafe

International hit series "Survivor: Gabon" will be premiering on Zee Cafe commencing 1st October 2008 at 10pm just six days after premiering in the US.

Last year Zee Cafe telecast "Survivor : China" on a two week delay after the US broadcast but this time the delay has been brought down to just 6 days.

Earlier this year Zee Cafe telecast "Survivor : Fiji" which was telecast earlier last year in the US. It seems that Zee Cafe will be telecasting a Survivor series on par with the US broadcast during the second half of the year and will be telecasting an older edition (about an year old) during the first half of the year.

In addition Zee Cafe will be telecasting the "2008 Brit Awards" on October 25th @ 9pm. Zee Cafe is available on Dialog TV and LBN in Sri Lanka.

New English Language station testing on FM 104

A new English Language Radio station is testing on FM 104 from yesterday. We are not sure who owns this channel but some rumors indicate that it may be Sun FM however the station has some clarity issues near the pettah and fort area so therefore it cannot be Sun FM.

Please continue updating us on information regarding this channel as and when they are received.

TV Radio Sri Lanka expands with PEO TV

SLT launched their IPTV platform PEO TV yesterday and we have launched the PEO TV blog today.

Please continue your valuable discussions related to SLT IPTV otherwise known as PEO TV on the following address.

TV Radio Sri Lanka - PEO TV Blog

60th Annual Prime Time Emmy Awards on Zee Cafe

The prime time telecast of the 60th Annual Prime Time Emmy Awards will be on pay television channel Zee Cafe tonight at 9pm. The live telecast on Zee Cafe which commenced at 5:30am this morning was preceded by the Live telecast of the Emmy Pre Show which commenced at 3:30am.

Zee Cafe is available on all pay television platforms in Sri Lanka.

SLT IPTV to launch today

Sri Lanka Telecom IPTV will be launching today at the Cinnamon Grand. A newspaper advertisement in the Daily Mirror indicates a "Coming Soon....". No one is sure of the connection charges and the monthly rental for this service but we expect it to be less than Dialog TV since SLT would have to compete directly with them for a slice of the pay television market.

We can expect the installation charges and the rentals to be advertised over the media in the next few days.

At present channels such as Rupavahini, Channel Eye, ITN, Max, HBO, HBO Signature, HBO Hits, HBO Family, CNN, BBC World, NDTV 24X7, Al Jazeera, Ujala, Peace TV, Spacetoons, Colors, DD Sports, VH1, MTV, Nickolodean, STC, B4U Music, NDTV Good Times, Ceebies BBC, Zee Music and a few other Hindi channels are available on the IPTV platform. Notably channels such as AXN, Discovery, Animal Planet, Nat Geo, History, ESPN, Star Channels and a few others which are available on other pay television operators are not yet available but we expect these channels to come on board over the next few months.

Please update us with information on SLT IPTV as and when they arrive.

Await the launch of the SLT IPTV blog........

New channel "TV 2" on test

Sri Lanka's newest television channel "TV 2" is presently testing on UHF 53. The channel is said to be run by People's Media Network who are testing Radio 1 on 104.5 FM. This frequency was previously assigned to Udayam Television which was a pro government Tamil language television channel launched targeting the eastern Ppovince during the eastern provincial council elections and over the past few weeks this channel was also visible in the colombo area over this frequency but over the last few days it has been replaced by "TV 2". We are not sure whether Udayam TV is still available in the eastern Province, hopely some of our bloggers from the eastern province should be able to give us some information.

"TV 2" telecasts an assortment of English Songs but with some Tamil and Sinhalese songs thrown in. We are unable to ascertain whether this channel will be a multi lingual channel or a channel telecasting programmes only on a specific language. We request our fellow bloggers to keep updating us when they receive information regarding this television channel.

New look Animal Planet to be revealed in October

Animal Planet will be taking on a whole new look commencing October 1st 2008. The new look which has been revealed in some parts of the world will be implemented in the Indian Subcontinent, New Zealand and other parts of the world from the said date. The change includes a new logo and on air graphics, etc.

We believe that the new look logo will be similar to what is given below

Source : indiantelevision.com - Animal Planet to don new look from 1 October

Good news for subcontinental WWE fans

Fans of WWE in the Indian subcontinent have more reasons to cheer about since from October 2008 Ten Sports will be telecasting the WWE programming simultaneously as in the United States without the present three week delay that plagues all WWE programming this part of the world.

On the first weekend of October two weeks of WWE programming will be aired in order for Ten Sports to be able to carry out simultaneous broadcasting from the following week.

Ten Sports is available over all pay television operators in Sri Lanka.

Source : indiantelevision.com - Ten Sports to air WWE episodes simultaneously in India

SLT IPTV set top box pictures and expected channels

The channels presently available on the SLT IPTV test transmissions are Rupavahini, Channel Eye, ITN, Max, HBO, HBO Signature, HBO Hits, HBO Family, CNN, BBC World, NDTV 24X7, Al Jazeera, Ujala, Peace TV, Spacetoons, Colors, DD Sports, VH1, MTV, Nickolodean, STC, B4U Music, NDTV Good Times, Ceebies BBC, Zee Music and a few other Hindi channels.

Given below are the pictures of the IPTV set top box.

A big thank you goes out to Lisura for providing us with the above pictures.

New state planned telecom tower could solve television viewing problems

The new telecom tower to be built in Peliyagoda at a cost of US $90mn for use by television stations, radio stations and telecommunication companies could solve many problems facing television viewers at least in Colombo and the suburbs. The 250m tower is to be built on a 2 acre plot owned by the State Engineering Corporation. Television viewers all over Sri Lanka have one common problem and that is the placement of transmitting towers at different locations therefore to view all television channels clearly more than two antenna's are required generally.

If all channels hop aboard this tower then all viewers in and around Colombo can just point their VHF and UHF channels towards this tower and receive clear images. The government must take steps to encourage all television station operators to make use of this tower. Based on the success of this tower if this project is repeated throughout the whole of Sri Lanka then television viewers all over the island would benefit.

The next step the GOSL must take is to setup a DVB-T/DAB broadcast centre which can be used by all television and radio stations to transmit using digital technology.

LBO Article : Sri Lanka iconic telecom tower to cost US$90mn