Friday, November 30, 2012

BBC Entertainment & CBeebies BBC exit subcontinent market

A few weeks ago it was reported that BBC Entertainment & it's sister channel CBeebies BBC will exit the subcontinent today 30th Nov 2012. Therefore today will be last day these channels will be broadcasting in this region. This decision was taken by largely considering the Indian pay television market. No consideration was given by BBC to the other countries in the region such as Sri Lanka where the local pay television network operators do not charge carriage fees unlike in India where the channel pays the pay television network operators to make the channel available on their networks.

The two BBC channels which are commercial free have no commercial viability due to the payment of carriage fees to the operator.

Whether BBC Entertainment & CBeebies BBC is available or not in India is not the concern of this blog, rather BBC Management should take steps to open up another Asian feed for a market such as ours which is more friendly towards the pay television channels.

We hope BBC takes necessary steps to retain their two channels to their viewers in Sri Lanka.

Friday, November 09, 2012

Everlasting Radio & ESPN Star Sports buyout

English Radio station Everlasting Radio which was allocated FM 101.50MHz has ceased broadcasting over the airwaves & is presently available only online for the past several days. Everlasting Radio are calling it "routine maintenance", but it seems to be more than that. Normally Radio Stations don't cease broadcasting to carry out maintenance. It seems that they have some problem with the frequency allocated and thereby had to cease broadcasting. We hope "Everlasting Radio" returns with a more powerful signal since there were several complains after the frequency allocation regarding the clarity of the channel.

In other news, the operators of Star Television Network & Fox International Channels "News Corp" have completed the buyout of the Disney stake in ESPN Star Sports joint venture. This makes ESPN Star Sports a wholly owned operation of News Corp unlike earlier. This will eventually result in the rebranding of ESPN as another "Star Sports" or would most likely lead to the introduction of "Fox Sports" to the Indian subcontinent. We believe that the rebranding could take place as early as next year. As per the details of the joint venture termination, Disney could return to the sports market in Asia with ESPN after a period of approximately 5 years due to a non competitive clause being built into the agreement.

Friday, November 02, 2012

TRC mucks up "Everlasting Radio" frequency allocation

The TRC which carried out the reorganization of frequencies to the local FM radio stations in order to prevent frequencies from interfering with each other have right royally messed up with the allocation of the "Everlasting Radio" frequency. The frequency allocated to "Everlasting Radio" is the same allocated to the "The Buddhist" & is therefore causing interference between the two stations.

Even though "Everlasting Radio" says that it will be increasing the power of their transmitters to improve coverage throughout Colombo & the suburbs, it's quite evident that they will not be able to provide island wide coverage. Even "The Buddhist" will not be able to provide island wide coverage due to this problem. Even though "The Buddhist" has also been allocated FM 101.3MHz, interference with "Everlasting Radio"  will occur once power is increased on that frequency.

The TRC carried out the very thing they were trying to avoid in the case of "Everlasting Radio" & "The Buddhist". We hope immediate steps are taken to rectify the situation so that both channels can broadcast island wide without any interference by reallocation once again the frequency issued to "The Buddhist:" or "Everlasting Radio".

In other news it's reported that the reception of stations such as Lite FM & some SLBC channels are not good as they used to be prior to the reallocation. We hope the stations concerned will address the issues faced by their listeners. The problems seem to exist mainly with listeners who reside outside Colombo.



Thursday, November 01, 2012

Sha FM, Everlasting Radio, etc, etc

The ABC Radio network operated Sha FM has returned to the airwaves on FM 90.9Mhz & 91.1MHz after a lapse of several years according to information being received. The launch coincided with the reorganization of frequencies of all the FM radio stations in the island. At the moment Sha will operate as a 24X7 non-stop music channel.

In other news, several other radio stations are in the pipeline such as Global Radio & Lakviru FM which are expected to launch in due course.

Everlasting Radio which was operating on FM 97MHz has ceased transmissions since last night and was expected to launch today with a brand new frequency but no information has been released as yet on the status of the channel.

Overall the frequency reallocation seems to have progressed without any problems. A few grey area's in coverage exist when the channels switch frequencies. We hope these are addressed as soon as possible.

Please keep us updated on the latest on Everlasting Radio as well as the impact of the frequency reallocation as the hours & days progress.