2006 : A Year in Review - CBNsat

This year turned out to be a pretty interesting and eventful year for CBNsat Subscribers. Lets take some time and have a look at what happened in 2006.

• CBNsat which was launched in 2005 turned out to be the market leader in pay television in Sri Lanka and successfully sold over 25,000 connections under one year.

• The two major channels that were launched this year were ESPN and Star Sports.

• A crisis hit the pay television industry when CBNsat was controversially closed down by vested interests and unfounded allegations were thrown at them.

• The formation of CBNsat Subscribers Unite to fight for the rights of CBNsat Customers who were unnecessarily victimized due to the closure.

• CBNsat who took the authorities to court and took part in a six month long court battle. This finally ended when Dialog Telekom took control of CBNsat and recommenced transmissions in December.
  

• The Founder Chairman of CBNSat Mr. Muhunthan Canagey who can be regarded as the Father of DTH in Sri Lanka had to unfortunately resign from his post as Chairman since he sold the company to Dialog Telekom and the resignation was more quickly than he would have desired due to threats from vested interests who were behind the CBNsat closure.

The next year seems to be a really good year for CBNsat which is expected to officially launch under Dialog Telekom early next year possibly in January. More new channels are expected to become available on CBNSat as the year progresses.

Well that's all folks for this year since we are taking the weekend and January 1st 2007 off, so we will be back with you from January 2nd 2007. Please keep sending us your valuable emails and also updating this blog with your comments on the latest happenings regarding CBNsat during the next few days while we are away and also throughout the New Year 2007. For a full review on all the events in the Sri Lankan television and radio media front please read the TV & Radio Sri Lanka Blog post called "2006 : A Year in Review".

We like to take this opportunity to wish all of our fellow Bloggers, CBNsat Subscribers Unite, the Staff and Management of CBNsat specially Mr. Muhunthan Canagey - Founder Chairman, Current Chairman CBNsat Mr. Yusof Annuar Yaacob, Chairman Dialog Telekom Dr. Hans Wijayasuriya and also Mrs. Dilani Nandasiri Manageress Legal who updated us on developments, as and when she is permitted to release information to us A Happy, Peaceful and Prosperous New Year 2007

More Channels back on air

First of all it is nice to be back and we like to thank all of you who kept this blog going by your informative comments during the past few days. We hope that you had a wonderful Christmas watching CBNsat.

Looks like CBNsat has brought back more channels back on air during the past few days and some by yesterday. Accordingly Swarnavahini came back on air some time back and CNN, Animax, Pogo and Cartoon Network are also back.

It also seems that the problem of sound coming on only one speaker (for stereo televisions) which was previously on History Channel is now on NGC and also on CNN so to get sound on both speakers of a TV you have to select the left sound channel for both speakers using the television remote control or the decoder remote control. It also seems that some of the channels are permanently on multilingual sound and it also has to be selected using the appropriate sound channel. Hopefully the CBNsat technical guys will sort this problem by allowing people to select the appropriate language using the designated function for language in the remote control and not by using the left or right sound channels. It seems that some of the channels have Tamil language broadcasts too for English programs and we believe that CBN should provide this as it will prove to be popular among the Tamils in this country.

We are still unable to confirm whether Goal TV 1, Goal TV 2, Fashion TV, Raj TV and Raj Plus have been dropped from CBNsat. We also hear that CBNSat has activated four slots for radio stations but it seems that nothing can be heard from those frequencies.

There seem to be some picture clarity problems too with some channels pixelating more than the others.

We hope that CBNsat will activate the Discovery Channels soon too and complete their original line up of channels and then move to activate their new channels and also sort out all their transmission problems before the end of this year.

Our Wishes for the season

We would like to take this opportunity to Wish the subscribers of CBNsat, the management of CBNSat, CBNSat Subscribers Unite and all our fellow readers a Very Merry Christmas and we hope that you will be able to enjoy this festive season to the fullest.

We are taking a break of one week (we should be back towards the latter part of next week) in view of the festive season so please update this blog with the latest developments regarding CBNsat. We are also updating this blog to the latest version of "Blogger", so due to this upgrade their may be some difficulties in commenting, so please bear with us if there are some problems while we are away. To minimize the problems we are compelled to activate the feature to allow Anonymous Comments so that the blog will operate smoothly and we would like to request you not to misuse this feature. We are trying our best to make sure that the switch over will be smooth and with minimum interruptions.

In addition there still seems to be some transmission problems with CBNsat and we hope that all of these are sorted out very soon and it will be great if some of the children's channels such as Pogo and Cartoon Network as well as educational channels such Discovery Channel can be added before the Christmas weekend so that there will be some quality entertainment for the family. It also seems that even though most of the new Zee Channels have been named in the transmission the actual transmission is carrying the MTV & VH1 channels on the named Zee frequencies.

Once again we would like to request all you to keep updating us on the latest regarding CBNsat as the days progress.

Commercial Launch likely in January 07

We are reliably told that it is likely that the commercial relaunch of CBNsat may place in take in Jan 07 but this commercial launch will only take place once all the channels and all the transmission problems are sorted out. However we are not sure whether the company will retain the name CBNsat since Dialog Telekom may change the brand name.

It seems that some of the channels that CBNSat had previously are still not up linked because the new management has to refresh the contracts that were signed with those service providers.

At present we believe that the following new channels are available on CBNsat.

Zee Cafe - English
Zee Studio - English
Zee Sports
Zee TV - Hindi
Zee Cinema - Hindi
Zee Trendz - Fashion Channel
Zee Music - Hindi

In addition MTV, VH1 and SET are on CBNsat however we believe that CBNSat should get SET Max as they will be showing the ICC Cricket World Cup 07 and it also doubles as a Hindi Movie channel so it should be a better option that SET.

It seems that two channels are named as "DT" and "D" and some suggest that it may be Disney Toon Channel and Disney Channel but we are not sure of this and it could be just carrying the name since this is a test transmission.

We also hope that all the local television channels and radio stations come aboard CBNsat since they will be able to access viewers and listeners who are beyond the reach of their transmitters. It also seems that CBNSat customers will be able to enjoy their services free until the commercial launch and the free is said to include HBO too.

Please keep us updated on the latest regarding CBNsat as the days progress.

New Channels on CBNsat

CBNSat has introduced some new channels on their lineup according to information that is being received by us. They include the Zee Package which consists of channels such as Zee Cinema, Zee Music, etc.

In addition the MTV, VH1 and SET channels have also returned with the activation of their second transponder.

We are getting unconfirmed reports that Goal TV 1 and Goal TV 2 are to be dropped by CBNSat and frankly no one will miss these two channels since anyone hardly watches them.

We would like our fellow bloggers to tell us exactly what are the Zee Channels that are available and do they also include Zee Cafe, Zee Sports and Zee Studio. We also hope that CBNsat will activate the Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, Travel and Living and CNN soon. Not to forget Cartoon Network and Pogo which was enjoyed by children and adults alike.

It is better if they can activate the channels that they had prior to the shutdown on a priority basis because these channels were the ones that were being enjoyed by CBNsat customers. We are not so sure on the reason behind the delay in activating the channels. There seems to be a problem in the sound being received on History Channel since only the left sound signal seems to be working according to one of our bloggers.

We are sure that CBNsat engineers are working round the clock to sort out these issues and we hope that they get all the channels and their problems sorted out before Christmas for their customers to have a CBN filled Christmas.

Please keep us updated on the latest regarding CBNSat as the days progress.

Interruption due to maintenance

We have received information that CBNsat will be interrupting their test transmission for system maintenance today (12th Dec 06) from 10AM to 6PM.

We are not sure what is the type of maintenance that they are carrying out. They be trying to sort out some of the transmission problems that they are having at the moment or they may activating the second transponder. They may also be planning to up link some of the other channels that they had prior to the shutdown.

If any of you have further information regarding this maintenance we welcome you to update this blog with the information.

Transmission Problems

Looks like CBNsat is facing some transmission problems with AXN being down for the most part during the weekend. It seems that they have not got that fixed still.

We are also receiving reports that the Barclays EPL matches shown over ESPN during the weekend were carrying Hindi commentary instead of English. To comment on this, we feel that CBN may not have selected the correct language feed since there are multiple language feeds for some of the Indian Channels. This may be due to the fact of an oversight on their part. We are reliably informed that the Star Sport Barclays EPL matches commentary were in English. From day one the Indian version of ESPN and Star Sports were being shown on CBNsat.

On the South Africa - India series it seems that since ESS got the rights for an Indian tour after a long time (usually Ten Sports shows these) so they decided to give a total Hindi broadcast over Star Sports. It was a decision by ESS that resulted in Star Sports giving the match in Hindi instead of carrying out a multiple language broadcast over ESPN. This is not something that happens usually unless the entire sporting event is Indian.

If one studies the operations of all these International channels that have Indian broadcasts like Discovery, NGC, Nick, etc they have multiple language broadcasts in Hindi, Telungu, Tamil for originally English programs and it is very rarely that they show a dubbed program only in the dubbed language. Even ESPN and Star Sports have multiple language broadcasts for very popular live events but some programs like wrestling are shown only in Hindi since Star World shows it in English we believe. Multiple language feeds are done all over the world.

We believe that CBN will link up all the other local channels which were with them prior to the shutdown once they activate their second transponder.

We hope that CBN gets their language feeds sorted out and will provide their customers with better quality feeds of the current channels where ever possible and it should also be cost effective and should not drive the subscription rates too high. Selecting higher quality feeds we believe will depend on the explanation we made on our previous post.

We also hear that ESS has got the rights for all ICC global events from 2007 to 2015 beginning after the World Cup of 2007 and under that they have the rights to broadcast two World Cups 2011 and 2015 and a minimum of three champions trophy matches and the Twenty Twenty World Cup in 2007 and 2009. Unfortunately this does not include the next World Cup in 2007 so CBNsat will have to get Sony Max in order for it's customers to watch the World Cup.

Please keep us updated on the latest regarding CBNsat.

The Channel and Feed Question plus Online Poll

There seems to be a very hearty discussion going on with our fellow bloggers regarding the channels on CBNsat and their respective feeds. We would also like to shed some light on this subject. At the moment the HBO, HBO Signature and Cinemax feeds are Far East Asia feeds whereas the other channels are South Asia feeds (a.k.a Indian Feeds).

When you take a sports channel for example when rights are issued for sporting events there are so many regulations that the broadcaster is bound by according to the coverage of the broadcaster and the region that they serve. On CBNsat we are receiving the Indian feed of Star Sports and ESPN, we believe that we may not get the other feed since if Ten Sports for example has exclusive rights for a cricket tournament in this part of the world and if Ten Sports does not have access to the East Asia market and Star shows the same matches in that East Asia then there will be a legal problem if Star allows CBNsat to have access to their East Asia feed since Ten Sports has exclusive rights for South Asia. Now channels like National Geographic, Discovery have multiple feeds but we get their Indian feed and not their East Asia feed and this may be attributed to the fact that the operator has designated Sri Lanka under their Indian feed and getting the East Asia feed will be costly or maybe their East Asia feed cannot be accessed here due to coverage issues.

It is the same for entertainment channels too. AXN East Asia which we get has the exclusive rights to show "Lost" but AXN India cannot show "Lost" because Star Movies India has the rights for "Lost" in India. Comet Cable gives the East Asia feed of Star Movies and Star Movies East Asia does not show "Lost" because AXN East Asia has the rights.

We can always request CBNSat to show the East Asia feed over the Indian feed however it also depends on the operator of the channel as well as the cost involved in getting the feed since it may result in a big difference in the package pricing.

AXN and HBO have designated Sri Lanka under their East Asia feed since their India feeds are targeting India viewers specifically whose taste is very different to those of Sri Lankans. The problem is that the operators of most of these channels have not identified Sri Lanka as a niche market for their channels due to the very low penetration of cable television here. We need to improve cable television penetration in Sri Lanka and then when we become a viable source of income for the operators of these channels then they may even include a Sinhala and Tamil language sound feed for their channels. Even strict regulation of the cable television industry will have a negative impact on the channel operators.

On the topic of channel selection. We believe that CBNsat will allow their customers to choose the channels by making their own customized package. For this to happen CBNsat will have to first increase the amount of channels that they offer on their platform and doing this now may not be a viable option. CBNsat will add more Hindi and Tamil channels if they want to capture a market outside Sri Lanka such as Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, etc. We do not think that CBNsat will be able to enter the Indian market since it is being dominated by Dish, TataSky and also because they show East Asia feeds of some channels and the Indian DTH operators will object to it. If CBNsat is to enter the Indian market then they will have to block the East Asia feeds of those channels for Indian customers.

On other technological fronts we hope that CBNsat will introduce pay per view for sporting events and movies, etc. They should also include gaming and eventually broadband internet. We believe that all these will be done but it will take some time in the light of the recent events that have taken place.

We hope that this information was helpful for our fellow bloggers.

There is an on line poll being carried out by CBNsat Subscribers Unite on the channels that you would like to be made available on CBNsat. If a channel that you like is not on the list please send an email to cbnsat@gmail.com and they will consider adding that channel also to the list.

http://82px.pollhost.com/

Local channels making a comeback on CBNsat

Looks like TNL and Derana have made it back onto the CBNsat platform once again. CBNsat was back just in time for the Sri Lanka - New Zealand cricket series which is not being shown on any of the local television channels.

We hope that all the local channels will be available on CBNsat soon and we urge them to sign up with CBNsat. It is great that the engineering team of CBNsat is working full time to get all the channels back on track. According to reports it seems that AXN is not working on CBNsat. Lets hope that the engineers get this channel back on air soon since this is a very popular channel.

Please update us on the latest developments on CBNsat as the days progress and also update us on the status of their second transponder.

Channel additions to CBNsat

On 05/12/2006

According to reports being received it seems that CBNSat has added the following channels to it's lineup

• HBO
• HBO Signature
• Cinemax

Please update this blog when more channels are added to the lineup

Great Weekend

Looks like it was a great weekend for the CBNsat Subscribers since they got their cable tv operator back on air. According to reports received the channels that are presently available are BBC World, AXN, NGC, History Channel, A1, Nick, MTV, Zone Reality (formerly known as Reality TV), ESPN, Star Sports.

Accordingly the other frequencies are running promotions of the rest of the CBNsat channels and they should be on air in due course. At the moment test transmissions are being carried out and once the test transmissions are over then all the other channels will also be back.

We are however saddened by the fact that Mr. Muhunthan Canagey has resigned from CBNsat. However we believe that a company of the calibre of Dialog Telekom under the leadership of Dr. Hans Wijesuriya will continue taking this company into greater heights.

We would also like to wish the new chairman Mr. Yusof Annuar Yaacob all the best as he takes over the leadership of this company.

According to a compilation of the channels that have been requested by CBNsat customers over a period of time we have come up with a list of channels that the should be introduced soon.

Star World
Star Movies
Ten Sports
God TV
Zee Cafe
Zee Sports
Disney Channel


We would like to thank CBNsat Subscriber Unite who took an active participation in highlighting the grievances of CBNsat Subscribers. Excellent work CBNsat you never gave up and that is greatly appreciated. We also like to thank our fellow bloggers for keeping us updated on the events that were taking place over the months that CBNsat was down. Even if we did not update the blog you guys and gals made sure that the information on the blog was kept up to date. Specially during the last weekend we were not able to update this blog on the latest on the resumption of transmission but you guys and gals kept the information flowing and we hope that you will keep it that way.

We will now focus on making sure that CBNsat continues to provide excellent service to it's subscribers and fulfill our theme "This blog is intended for CBNSat customers to tell the world about how efficient their service is, or any problems in their service or just plain congratulate them for a job well done."

This blog is for the subscribers to air their view and thoughts so CBNsat Management is always welcome to check what their subscribers require from their service as well as what they think about the service. We are also getting reports that the downtime due to rain that the subscribers are experiencing is much less that earlier.

Please keep us updated as channels are being added to CBNsat and share your views on the service provided by CBNsat.

From CBNsat Subscribers Unite

It was a victory for the CBNSat Subscribers on Saturday 2nd December after seeing the green light back on their decoders PERMANENTLY after 6 long months. It was a long time than we initially thought and finally justice has prevailed. But the process took so long than we anticipated and finally the founder CEO of CBNSat had to sell it to Dialog Telekom for the good and benefit of everyone.

We happen to see the pictures on our TV's on Saturday evening but the bitterness of the whole fiasco which unfolded during the last 6 months is a black spot in the History of Sri Lanka. Finally all the allegations made against CBNSat have just vanished into thin air.

I take this moment to thank on behalf of CBNSat Subscribers Unite for everyone who stood behind bringing in justice to us, the CBNSat Subscribers. Mr. Muhunthan who fought right throughout to bring back CBNSat online and running the customer care right throughout to keep the subscribers informed.

And a very special BIG Thank you to the blog admin. The CBNSat blog was the most happening place for the subscribers all around the island for the past 6 months. It was the sole place for gathering information on the situation and exchanging the ideas. The first of its kind in Sri Lanka. And the blog paved way for the subscribers to meet on-line and then get together to form CBNSat Subscribers Unite to act as the sole representative body on the part of subscribers to bring in justice for the victimized subscribers. And my special thanks goes to all the senior bloggers prmo, rob, cbnsatvictim and mohan for helping out tremendously in all the matters which the CBNSat Subscribers Unite came across with. And I thank all the people who signed our online petition, All the news papers who published our articles and press releases on their news papers specially Sunday Times and Daily Mirror, Rivira and Nation news papers. Also I need to thank the staff of CBNSat who stayed with the company during this painful time.

And all the others who helped CBNSat subscribers to bring back their service.

THANK YOU FOR YOU ALL !

Lisura
Convener - CBNSat SUBSCRIBERS UNITE
cbnsat@gmail.com

Media Release

Asset Media Completes CBN SAT Transaction
Services Go Live in Test Mode

Colombo, Sri Lanka, 2nd December 2006, Dialog Telekom Limited announced today that its subsidiary Asset Media (Private) Limited, had completed the acquisition of Communiq Broadband Networks (Private) Limited and CBN Sat (Private) Limited (hereinafter collectively referred to as “CBN SAT").

Following the completion of the acquisition of CBN SAT by Asset Media, the Direct to Home Satellite TV operations of CBN SAT will commence under the management of Asset Media, the Television Broadcasting subsidiary of Dialog Telekom Ltd.

Asset Media sources confirmed that transmission of CBN SAT services would commence in test transmission mode on or around the 2nd of December and would be uplifted to full commercial operations within a few days.

The acquisition was also followed by the appointment of a new Board of Directors for the acquired companies comprising of Mr. Yusof Annuar Yaacob (Chairman), Dr. Hans Wijayasuriya, Mr. Nihal Seneviratne Epa, Mr. Moksevi Prelis, and Mr. Wan Zaidan Wan Mahyudin.

Dialog Telekom termed the acquisition of CBN SAT as a key milestone in the group's strategy of achieving a quadruple play (Mobile, Fixed, Broadband, Television Media) product proposition for Sri Lankan consumers. This will result in Dialog Telekom making transformational investments in Digital Broadcast infrastructure targeting digital
terrestrial broadcast, Direct to Home (DTH) and Mobile Television service provisioning" a company source stated.

About Asset Media
Asset Media is a subsidiary of Dialog Telekom Ltd., and is licensed by the Ministry of Media to provide Television Broadcasting services, delivery of Pay Television and Cable Television Services and the operation of a Television broadcasting station.

About CBN SAT
CBN SAT is a Direct to Home Satellite TV service operated by Communiq Broadband Network (Pvt) Ltd, a fully owned subsidiary of Asset Media. CBN SAT supports a broad array of International content including CNN, BBC, HBO, Cinemax, AXN, ESPN, Discovery Channel, MTV (Music Television) and Cartoon Network, in addition to a wide portfolio of Sri Lankan television channels. CBN SAT services are based on cutting edge DVB-S digital broadcast infrastructure and reach out to over 20,000 Sri Lankan homes as of December 2006.

About Dialog Telekom Limited
Dialog Telekom Limited is the largest mobile operator in Sri Lanka with over 3Mn subscribers representing over 60% market share in the cellular sector. Dialog Telekom is also the largest listed company on the Colombo Stock Exchange in terms of Market Capitalisation with a market capitalisation (as of 30 September 2006) of LKR 161.02 Bn (USD 1.57Bn).

Dialog Telekom Limited is a subsidiary of Telekom Malaysia International and a member of the Telekom Malaysia Group. In addition to its core mobile telephony business, the company provides international services, supporting an International Gateway infrastructure providing retail and wholesale international voice and data services under the brand name of Dialog Global. The company also provides Internet services through
Dialog Internet - a fully-fledged Internet Service Provider (ISP). Dialog Telekom also operates Dialog SAT, a mobile satellite service.

CBNsat Court Verdict

To CBNsat Customers from Muhunthan Canagey

** We received the following email on December 3rd 2006. We are sorry for being unable to post this earlier.

02^nd December 2006

Dear Valued Customers,

I take this opportunity to thank all our dear valued customers for bringing us to the resolution of the CBNSat saga which we have reached today. Thank you all for being so extremely patient with us and for understanding our predicament.

At our last Supreme Court hearing the Court ordered CBNSat to recommence transmission immediately.

“Having considered submissions of Counsel and the information disclosed
in Court, we grant leave to proceed in the alleged infringement of the
Petitioner’s fundamental rights guaranteed by Article 12(1) and 14(1)
of the Constitution. We also grant to the Petitioner interim relief prayed
for in prayer (d) of the prayer to the Petition”.

“The Petitioner is permitted to recommence the service that was
provided prior to the seizure and there will be no obstruction to the
Petitioner and /or Communiq Broadband being companies owned
by the same share-holders from carrying on the transmission that was
done prior to the seizure.”

These are some of the quotes extracted from the Court order. The comprehensive Supreme Court order will be available on our website, which is www.cbnsat.com and I welcome you all to visit the site.

I have now accomplished my goal that all customers will continued to be served, all employees will continue to be employed and that all commitments to all the financial institutions and creditors of CBNSat will be honoured. Today will be my last day in office as I have decided to move on with my new venture due to the existing shares of the company being sold to Asset Media (Pvt) Ltd., a subsidiary of Dialog Telekom Limited whom I am confident will take CBNSat to the next level.

My achievement would not have been possible if I had not been backed by such wonderful people as you all and I am extremely grateful to the support given by our stakeholders, including the CBNSat Subscriber Unite group, our valued customers, our employees, the financial institutions and other parties whose patience and understanding was vital.

I hope you will all continue to enjoy CBNSat and its services.

Thanking you,

Yours sincerely,

Muhunthan Canagey

Chief Executive Officer

CBNsat tests transmission

CBNsat seems to have carried out a Test Transmission at approximately 9:30pm yesterday according to our fellow bloggers.

It seems that the recommencement of transmission is now very close and it should be on air on Saturday (02nd Dec) evening or Monday/Tuesday (4th/5th Dec) according to reports received. A saturday launch would be ideal due to the fact that this is a long weekend.

There is a comment on the TV Radio Sri Lanka blog that has been put there by the "Lanka Media Outlook" blog in order for them to increase their hits at our expense. For more on this please click on "Lanka Media Outlook trying to..........". (--> Lanka Media Outlook says that the comment that we have referred to here was not made by them. We like to thank them for the confirmation and for clearing matters.)

We request our readers to keep us updated on the latest regarding CBNsat as the days progress.

Mr. Muhunthan - Good Bye and Good Luck

It has come to our notice than Mr. Muhunthan Canagey CEO of CBNsat will be vacating his post on Saturday 02nd December 2006.

He is the pioneer of DTH broadcasting in Sri Lanka and will be remembered as the man who brought cable TV in Sri Lanka to the villages and the city without any bias whatsoever.

He had such a great vision for this country with the plan to introduce distant learning, etc which would have definitely been very beneficial to the rural areas and also help in bridging the digital divide.

Though all the false allegations that were thrown against you, still you fought tooth and nail against these extremist forces and made sure that CBNsat will be back on air and gave Sri Lanka her most advanced satellite broadcasting station. Sri Lanka is definitely proud to have a son of the soil of your calibre and even though there may be some who do not acknowledge how valuable you were to this nation. We will never forget the service that you did for this country.

Hats off to you Mr. Muhunthan we SALUTE you and wish you and your family all the very best in your future endeavors.

Attention Sri Lankans : CBNSat being threatened by Defense Officials

Please copy the email given below and forward it to everyone you know.

In the aftermath of approval by the Supreme Court allowing CBNsat to recommence transmissions and also the Share Purchase agreement which will make CBNsat a fully owned subsidiary of Dialog Telekom. The people who were originally behind the shutdown of CBNsat are frantically pulling all strings to keep the broadcaster closed. They have gone to the extent of issuing threats to CBNsat and also trying to force the police to start another investigation into CBNsat.

The only thing that is preventing them is the supreme court ruling which prevents anyone from interfering with CBNsat operations.

These people behind all these threats are top officials in the Defense circles who are making use of their positions to gain a business advantage and have no regard for the National Security of this country.

These people should be immediately removed from their posts since they are a bigger threat to the national security of this nation.

By this we understand that all the allegations brought against CBNsat were false and it was these corrupt individuals who made this all up to keep a business venture shut.

An article related to this has appeared in the Daily Mirror dated 29th Nov 2006.

Please forward this email to all your friends and relatives so that they may be aware of these corrupt individuals and know that the real truth behind the CBNsat shutdown.

We appeal to Your Excellency President Mahinda Rajapakse to sack these corrupt individuals immediately.

CBNsat Customers

Top Defense Official trying to mess with CBNsat

*** We received the following as comment and it tallies with the Daily Mirror Report that is posted below this one.

savecbnsat Says :
It is known to us the interested party who holds a high position in the defense circles (all of you know who) have got another high ranking government defense official relating to the president to order DIG Colombo to search CBNSat premises again.

He had told the police to search and find anything to delay CBNSat restarting operations. The top police official have told that because of the court order they can't harass CBNSat any further. These corrupt goons have blasted the top police official to do whatever possible to stop CBNSat recommencing transmission.

I think this country will be a hell with these idiots in top chairs. They are using "National Security" as a cover up to run down their competitors. Look what they have done to CBNSat. They got the CID to close up a successful legal business approved by the government to close for 6 months without any valid reason.

Now even after the Supreme Court judgement these crooks are not willing to give up on their dirty tricks.

If these dogs think that we do not know anything they should know that we are closely watching the situation. We know what you are up to.

We will keep the masses knowledged of what you dogs are doing. If you do not stop your dirty tricks towards CBNSat you will rot to death !!!!!!!

----------------------------------------------------------------

It looks like these people who are behind this scenario are still continuing their dirty tricks. These people who hold senior posts in the Defense circles are supposed to be serving the nation, rather they seem to be making use of those positions for their advantage.

How can we trust the security of this nation on highly corrupted people like this, PLEASE SACK THEM FROM THESE POSTS IMMEDIATELY.

CBNSat Recommences transmission - Daily Mirror 29th Nov 06

CBNSat the satellite television channel which was sealed for six months ago will reopen transmission from today despite the alleged threats by a politician.

Executing last Monday's Supreme Court decision the management of CBNSat, SonicNet Technologies (Pvt) Ltd. had started transmission.

When contacted by the Daily Mirror CEO Muhunthan Canagasooryam said that transmission would be started from midnight or probably today.

Refusing to comment on the political interference against the reopening of the TV station which had nearly 20,000 subscribers, Mr. Canagasooryam said "We cannot pay heed to these alleged threats. We will continue with the reopening."

The Daily Mirror learns that a politician had threatened against the reopening of the TV channel following the court order. The CEO said that the delay for the reopening was due to repairs to equipment which were no used for last six months.

CBNSat transmission was sealed by the CID on March 22 this year alleging an uplinking of a Tamil medium channel as part of its operation.

By Susitha R. Fernando

Death Threats

We are receiving unconfirmed reports that the CBNSat CEO Mr. Muhunthan Canagey is receiving death threats after the ruling by the Supreme Court.

This appeared as a comment on this blog but we are unable to confirm this.

The below is from a blogger called SaveCBNSAT

Death threats to CBNSat CEO

After yesterdays court hearing to restore the CBNSat transmission up and running, CEO of CBNSat has began to receive death threats from certain parties who opposed to CBNSat operations right from the start.

They have called and threatened not to start the transmission immediately. If CBNSat start they said they will bomb the uplinking station.

It is sad that even after the supreme court verdict yesterday these corrupt people are not willing to accept the judgement delivered by Hon. CJ.

Lets all hope and pray CBNSat will not be turned down again by this unethical people who ruin our country by getting close to top politicians. Now it is very clear that their intention is purely for personal gains and not for the good and benefit of the majority community.

Enough is Enough !!!!!!!!

Lets rally round CBNSat to help them to start the operations ASAP.

Call them and encourage them to not to fall pray into these corrupt people.

CBNSat : WE ARE WITH YOU !!!!!

That was followed by a comment from Lisura

Dear fellow subscribers,

This story may be true because even yesterday CBNSat have told me that soon after getting the court verdict on paper they are able to restart operations.

Actually the seals were removed few weeks back on a court order for servicing. So they should be up by at least with one channel or at least color bars.

There might be something happening underhand preventing them uplinking.

This can't go on like this ! What is the place for justice in our motherland ??? How can these corrupt people stop a verdict given by CJ.

If this story is true CBNSat should immediately inform this to CJ and act accordingly.

This country should be freed from these dog gone officials.

This must be the reason why there is a delay in the uplinking since CBNsat had previously informed that the up linking can be done within 30 minutes of the court order. They seem to have also threatened to bomb the uplinking station.

The above information may be all wrong but there is a possibility taking into account the calibre of the people who are behind all this shutdown.

IF this is true it is now time to rally around and support CBNsat more than ever. There is no need to mention the name's of the prime suspects since they are very popular among CBNsat customers and are at the receiving end of the curses of more than 20,000 customers.

We are also getting reports that CBNsat will be commencing transmissions anytime during the day today. It all depends on whether the above piece of information is true or not.

Please keep us updated on any new developments and also update this blog when the decoder light turns green.

WE ARE WITH YOU CBNSAT.

Update from CBNsat

*** The below email was received by us yesterday and we regret our inability to post this earlier

In the Supreme Court today, we requested for interim relief and got the permission for CBNSat to immediately re-commence transmission.

Our Engineering team is working on this and we expect CBNSat will be back on air tomorrow morning.

We are proud that we did not give up and that we have succeeded in resuming the transmission independently through the CBNSat name.

However, due to the six month closure where the company did its best to honour as much of its commitments as possible, the company is now financially crippled and will need fresh investment.

In this regard, an agreement was signed with Asset Media (Pvt) Ltd., a subsidiary of Dialog Telekom Limited whereby CBNSat will be purchased by them in the near future and become a subsidiary of Dialog Telekom Limited. Permission was also obtained for this transfer in the Supreme Court.

CBNSat will however remain intact and function as a separate business unit.

CBNSat is extremely grateful to the support given by its stakeholders, including the CBNSat Subscriber Unite group, the valued customers, its employees, the financial institutions and other parties whose patience and understanding was vital.”

Dilani Nandasiri
Manageress Legal

Communiq Broadband Network (Pvt.) Ltd.
83 George R. De Silva Mawatha, Colombo 13, Sri Lanka .
Tel: +94 11 460 6000 Fax: +94 11 460 6099

Dialog TV

Sri Lanka's Dialog Telekom picks up cable operator CBN Sat

November 27 2006 (LBO) – Dialog Telekom, the island's biggest mobile phone operator, Monday announced plans to acquire satellite pay television operator Communiqu Broadband Networks (Pvt) Ltd and CBN Sat (Pvt) Ltd for 532.8 million rupees.

A unit of Telekom Malaysia, Dialog said the acquisition is subject to the telco completing a share sale and purchase sale agreement with both parties. The acquisition of 100 percent of both firms' share capital, will be carried out through Dialog's subsidiary, Asset Media (Pvt) Ltd. Dialog bought Asset Media for 325 million rupees in October, and indicated plans to use its radio and television frequency license, to rollout a host of infotainment services ranging from television to mobile phone services. A greenfield operation, Asset Media also comes with its own broadcasting studio, a free-to-air and pay television license. "The acquisition of CBN/CBNSAT is expected to provide Asset Media with cutting edge DTH (direct to home) Satellite Pay TV infrastructure and strong portfolio of Content partnerships, in addition to a healthy base of Pay TV subscribers," Dialog said in a statement. Dialog said it plans to pay for the acquisition through internally generated cash. The digital convergence, also known as quadruple play or four-play, allows Dialog to offer cable television, broadband, fixed-line and mobile telephone services. Earlier this year, Dialog moved into the broadband market by picking up a network operator MTT. Re-branded as 'Dialog Broadband', MTT also had a license to offer CDMA (code division multiple access) services or cheaper fixed line telephone services by using mobile technologies. Dialog's CDMA operation, is due to start next January. In August, Dialog became the first in South Asia to commercially launch third generation mobile services or 3G, giving customers the facility for high speed web browsing, video streaming, online games, music and movie downloads. Sri Lanka, which became the first South Asian nation to start mobile services, when Celltel Lanka began operations in 1989, now boasts over 4.28 million subscribers, according to Central Bank figures.

Dialog Telekom, dominates the industry with over 3 million subscribers, followed by Mobitel Lanka, Celltel Lanka Ltd, Hutchinson. The telecom regulator is in the process of selecting a fifth operator.

SonicNet granted permission to commence operation - Daily Mirror 28th Nov 06

The Supreme Court yesterday (27) granted interim relief to SonicNet Technologies (Pvt) Ltd permitting it to recommence the operation of its Communiq Broadband Network (CBN Sat) transmission with immediate effect.

The Bench comprising Chief Justice Sarath N. Silva and Justices N. G. Amaratunga and Saleem Marsoof also granted the petitioner company SonicNet Technologies leave to proceed with the fundamental rights application for the alleged infringements of its fundamental right to equality and equal protection of the law.

The matter came up on a motion filed pursuant to the proceedings of November 6. Having considered the submission of the petitioner, court made order permitting the petitioner to negotiate a sale of the equipment and facilities to another service provider.

This order specifically stated that the negotiations could be entered into by the petitioner on the basis that the order sealing the equipment would be vacated, when negotiations are finalised.

President's Counsel Romesh de Silva appearing for the petitioner submitted that the negotiations are now being finalised and the petitioner could sell the facility to the subsidiary of Dialog Telekom Ltd. Asset Media (Pvt) Ltd wholly subsidiary of the Dialog Telekom Ltd would purchase the shares of Communiq Broadband Network.

Counsel Romesh de Silva further submitted that Asset Media has already got licence under Section 28 of the Rupavahini Corporation Act (Media licence) permitting it to broadcast and that the Dialog Telekom has a licence under and in terms of Section 17 of the Telecommunication Regulatory Commission.

He submitted that pursuant to the sale agreement with the petitioner, Dialog and /or its subsidiary would be permitted to carry on the broadcast that were carried on by the petitioner prior to the seal.

He also submitted that the petitioner company has imported equipment which have not been cleared and is kept in the port premises and that since the TRC has not granted the clearance pending these proceedings, appropriate steps be taken by the TRC to ensure that the petitioner could clear his equipments.

Court accordingly granted the petitioner interim relief pleaded in the petition (d). Petitioner was permitted to recommence the service that were provided prior to the seizure and there will be no obstruction to the petitioner and / or Communiq Broadband being all companies owned by the same share-holders from carrying on the transmission that was done prior to the seizure. Since there is a possibility of resolving the matter, no date for objection for hearing is granted. The matter was listed to be mentioned on January 16.

The petitioner cited Chief Inspector U.K. Mahindadasa, Superintendent of Police A.R.Vaidyalankara and Sub Inspector L.Tilak Bandara all of Police Commercial Crime Unit –II the IGP, The TRC and the Attorney General as respondents.

President's Counsel Romesh de Silva with Sugath Caldera, Riad Ameen and Evaj de Silva instructed by G. G. Arulpragasam appeared for the petitioner. Additional Solicitor General Sathya Hettige with Senior State Counsel Sumathi Dharmawardana appeared for 1st to 5th respondents and the Attorney General. President's Counsel D. S. Wijesinghe appeared for the intervenient petitioner the Minister of Mass Media and Information. President's Counsel Palitha Kumarasinghe appeared for the Telecommunication Regulatory Commission. Sanjeewa Jayawardane with Rajeev Amarasuriya appeared for the Dialog Telekom.

By S.S.Selvanayagam

Excellent News

After waiting 6 months and not knowing what will happen to the money that they invested in their cable tv connections, it now seems to be finally over. CBNsat was given permission to commence broadcasts immediately by the Supreme Court according to the information received by us.

The time and date of resumption of the broadcast is not known exactly since there are so many conflicting reports on that front. Some say today, some tomorrow, some next week. Well it should be noted that after waiting so long the customers of CBNsat will not mind waiting a little while more.

It looks like all the channels will not be visible as soon as CBNsat recommences transmissions and they will be implemented on a step by step basis since they will have to up link all the channels that were out for a long period of time.

According to comments being received by us on the blog it looks like Dialog GSM have struck a deal with CBNsat but we are unable to confirm this.

We would like to thank the management of CBNsat and whoever that has signed up with CBNsat and also the Honorable Chief Justice for taking into consideration the plight of the customers.

We hope that our readers will keep checking their decoders from time to time and update this blog as soon as CBNsat recommences transmission and also on any new developments.

BREAKING NEWS :

CBNSAT HAVE WON THE 6-MONTH LONG COURT BATTLE !!!!!!!!

IT IS CONFIRMED NOW THAT THE SUPREME COURT HAVE GIVEN THE ORDER TO CBNSAT TO RE-COMMENCE THEIR OPERATIONS WITH IMMEDIATE EFFECT.

SO CBNSAT WILL START THE OPERATIONS AS SOON THEY GET THE RULING ON PAPER.

WE KNOW THAT THIS IS A SOOTHING NEWS FOR ALL THE CBNSAT SUBSCRIBERS WHO WAITED PATIENTLY FOR THIS MOMENT.

WE CONGRATULATE THE CEO AND STAFF OF CBNSAT NOT GIVING UP ON THIS INJUST CLOSURE !

FINALLY THE PATIENCE HAVE PAID BACK THE SUBSCRIBERS !!!!

CBNSat Subscribers Unite

From CBNsat Subscribers Unite

BREAKING NEWS :

UNCONFIRMED REPORTS ARE COMING IN SAYING THAT SUPREME COURT HAVE ORDERED CBNSAT TO IMMEDIATELY COMMENCE OPERATIONS.

SHALL KEEP YOU UPDATED ON THIS DEVELOPING STORY.

CBNSat Subscribers Unite

Uncertain Future

Yesterdays report in The Sunday Times Financial Times has become a hope killer for most CBNsat Subscribers, particularly the statement given below.

"The Defence Ministry is yet to clear CBN (Communiq Broadband Networks Ltd), off the air since June 9 this year for a media licensing facility and is unlikely to get one, Director General of the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (TRC) of Sri Lanka, Kanchana Ratwatte, told The Sunday Times FT."

So the only option CBNsat has is to join up with another licensed provider. According to the report a CBNsat Customer Service Representative has told that the only licensed provider at present is Rupavahini. As reported in this blog the newspaper also reports that CBNsat has provided Rupavahini with the proposals and are awaiting their response.

However as new operators enter the market the options will increase but how long will it be before new entrants are also given the license and can a company survive so long. Like we said earlier we are made to understand that slow and steady progress is being made and we would appreciate it if CBNsat takes steps to keep their customers updated on the present status. We understand that everything cannot be disclosed but their will definitely have to be some information that can be disclosed to their customers since they are also stakeholders.

Questions are being raised by some bloggers regarding the credibility of information that is being released on this blog. Please understand that the information that we are bringing to you is what is being received by us. We are striving to maintain a high quality of information released via this blog.

CBNsat should now start looking for alternatives such as entering into a long term business partnership instead of just trying to sign an up linking deal. They should also try to explore possibilities such as selling the company to another party, this however is easier said than done since the person who started this company had a great vision and it is hard to let go of it.

The Defence Ministry have not cleared CBNsat still but we wonder how the TRC chairman can comment saying that "it is unlikely that CBNsat will get the clearance". It may sound like he is stating the obvious when looking at how things are proceeding at the moment but as the chairman of an state institution is it correct for him to pass the judgement before the decision is conveyed. He has to be neutral on the matter but it looks like he is biased.

We hope that CBNsat is able to recommence transmissions before the next court hearing which is on December 5th 2006.

Please keep us updated on the latest regarding CBNsat as the days progress.

Slow and Steady

We are getting reports that the agreement that CBNsat is pursuing with Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation is making slow progress but is said to be steady.

The pace of the progress may be due to the fact they are dealing with a state institution and the intricate paper work and discussions that are required.

According to unconfirmed reports that we are getting, their staff is still upbeat and are anticipating the relaunch of CBNsat.

We hope that the authorities at the SLRC will genuinely speed up the work and allow CBNsat to operate soon.

Please keep us updated on the latest regarding CBNsat as the days progress.

CBNsat settlement pending - Counsel for CBNsat (Daily News 10th November 06)

Colombo Additional Magistrate Gihan Pilapitiya yesterday put off the CBN Sat case to January 19 when President's Counsel M. L. M. Ameen appearing for the CBN Sat submitted that the Superior Court suggested a settlement and the settlement was pending.

President's Counsel Hemantha Warnakulasuriya appearing for Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation, Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation and Media Minister submitted that the Criminal Investigation Department had conducted investigations against those television channels.

If the Attorney General was satisfied that the act of those channels was deemed to be a crime under the Rupavahini Act they would file plaints against all the accused. Senior State Counsel Gihan Kulathunga appearing for the prosecution submitted that the CID had conducted the investigations and if the CBNsat could not come to a settlement they were filing the plaint.

The CID initiated the investigations when it found that several television channels were functioning without proper licence.

President's Counsel Hemantha Warnakulasuriya with Kalinga Pasquel and Inoka Gamage appeared for the Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation, Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation and Media Minister. Senior State Counsel Gihan Kulathunga appeared for the prosecution while President's Counsel M. L. M. Ameen appeared for CBNsat.

Sandasen Marasinghe

SonicNet allowed to recommence transmission through service provider - Daily mirror 07/11/2006

Could apply for licence under TRC and Rupavahini Corporation Act

The Supreme Court yesterday (6) granted permission to the SonicNet Technologies (Pvt) Ltd to enter into negotiation with a service provider for the recommencement of its transmission that was at a standstill for the last five months.

The Bench comprising Chief Justices Sarath N. Silva, Justices N.K.Udalagama and Andrew M. Somawansa granted this permission for the resumption of the transmission through any service provider that had been recommended by the Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (TRC).

The SonicNet Technologies (Pvt) Ltd had filed this application contending that Commercial Crime Unit Police personnel on June 6 unlawfully sealed and seized its equipment and prevented it from using its equipment and operating its services whereas magistrate did not order or authorise to do so in his search warrant.

When the matter came up before the Supreme Court, the President's Counsel for the petitioner SonicNet Technologies submitted that the petitioner is now agreeable to transferring the equipment and business of transmission that has come to a standstill as a result of the order made sealing the equipment.

President's Counsel Palitha Kumarasinghe for the 7th respondent TRC submitted that the TRC has considered the applications submitted by the service providers and has made recommendations to the President in respect of some of them.

In these circumstances, the petitioner SonicNet Technologies may negotiate with any one or more of the service providers that had been recommended by the TRC.

The identity of such establishment should be made known to the President's Counsel for the SonicNet Technologies to arrange a transfer of the equipment concerned of such service providers on condition that the service providers will be granted a licence in terms of Section 17 of the Sri Lanka Telecommunication Act and that broadcast under the Rupavahini Corporation Act. Such negotiations would be entered into by the petitioner SonicNet Technologies on the basis that the order of sealing and seizure of the equipment would be vacated once negotiations are finalized.

Such order would be made on the basis that the service providers will take over the contracts already entered into by the petitioner SonicNet Technologies and its associate companies with all rights and liabilities to all proceedings in the District Court, High Court, Magistrate's Court and the Court of Appeal will be terminated without costs.

The petitioner SonicNet Technologies may enter into negotiation with a service provider with suitable arrangements which may be for a period. This will not prejudice to the petitioner SonicNet Technologies from pursuing its application for a licence under the TRC and Rupavahini Corporation Act.

The matter was listed for a final order on December 5 before a Bench of which Chief Justice is a member.

Petitioner in his petition cited Chief Inspector U.K.Mahindadasa, Superintendent of Police A.R.Vaidyalankara and Sub Inspector L.Tilak Bandara all of Police Commercial Crime Unit II and the IGP and the Attorney General as respondents.

Petitioner stated that Communiq Broadband Network (CBN) is an associate company situated at No. 83, George R. De Silva Mawatha, Colombo 13.

Since May 2005, it has been responsible for providing several television channels such as BBC World, CNN News and National Geographic Channel to over 20,000 homes throughout the island.

Petitioner in the petition has asked court to grant compensation of Rs 100 million and an interim order directing the respondents to remove the seal and seizure of its equipment and not to obstruct it from using the said premises.

President's Counsel Romesh de Silva with Sugath Caldera and Riad Ameen instructed by G.G.Arulpragasam appeared for the petitioner.

President's Counsel Palitha Kumarasinghe with Indika Idroos appeared for the TRC. Deputy Solicitor General Sathya Hetige with Senior State Counsel Sumathi Dharmawardana appeared for the respondent police officers.

By S.S.Selvanayagam

Update from CBNsat

We have received the following update from CBNsat regarding the Supreme Court hearing that was held today. We would like to thank CBNsat for taking time to send us this update.

This is an update on the Supreme Court hearing today.

Our initial delay in finalizing a commercial agreement with another operator was because there was uncertainty regarding whether the transmission equipment, which was initially sealed, will be released in order to re-commence the service with another operator.

We have obtained an order from the Supreme Court today to the effect that in the event an agreement is finalized with a licensed operator, the seizure of the transmission equipment will be removed. This will now speed up the negotiations. However, it was stated that the operator will need to have both the TRC licence and the Media licence.

In the meantime, the applications that we have made to the TRC and for the media licence will continue and have not been withdrawn.

We have also submitted a proposal to the Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation and are awaiting their response.

The next date for the Supreme Court hearing is 5^th December 2006 at 10 am.

Best regards,

Dilani Nandasiri
Manageress Legal

CBNsat Supreme Court hearing today (Nov 6th)

With today 5 months have been completed since the shutdown of CBNsat. Today CBNsat will be having a hearing at the Supreme Court. We are not sure what can be expected from this hearing and whether anything good can come out of it. However according to unconfirmed information that we are receiving, CBNsat is still negotiating with an undisclosed party in order to resume transmissions and we also hear that there is considerable progress that is being made.

Whether or not this will be mentioned at courts today is not certain. However it seems that one of the individuals behind the CBNsat closure B.A.C. Abeywardena is now in trouble over an issue at the Tea Board and has been asked to resign from his post as Chairman. However it seems that he is refusing to do so. Abeywardena you should understand that what you do to others will always come back to you since you are being cursed by over 25,000 customers of CBNsat and its 100,000 viewers and also the customer base of LBN. Resign without destroying the Tea Industry in Sri Lanka.

We are not sure on the time of todays hearing so please keep us updated on it. We also request our fellow bloggers to update us on the result of todays hearing as the day progresses.

Supreme Court hearing on Nov 6th

Well on monday (Nov 6th) CBNsat will be facing Court hearing number - we have honestly lost count of these court hearings. We wonder what the Supreme Court has to discuss and hopefully the Chief Justice will not get sick.

Information is only trickling in on the rumoured agreement between CBNsat and ????? party. According to unconfirmed information that we are getting, there is something going on behind the scenes and is being kept under wraps. Rightfully so, since these people who instigated this are waiting for a chance to pounce.

Please keep us updated on any developments regarding CBNsat as the days progress.

FILEnetworks – TV & Radio Sri Lanka form partnership

We are very happy to announce that TV Radio Sri Lanka Group of Blogs and the FILEnetworks blog have formed a partnership in order to bring you the latest news and updates on TV-Radio industry and software related issues.

FILEnetworks will be bringing you the latest cracks and hacks that are available in the market place.

TV Radio Sri Lanka Group of Blogs consisting of TV Radio Sri Lanka Blog, CBNsat Blog, LBN Cable TV blog, Comet Cable Blog will be bringing you the latest in TV & Radio industry in Sri Lanka.

We hope to pass the benefits of this partnership down to our fellow bloggers.

Is this fresh hope?

There has been a comment posted on this blog by CBNsat Subscribers Unite about CBNsat which is copied below.
---------------------------------------------------
Good News Friends !

CBNSat says they are in the final stages of signing a deal with Rupavahini Corporation. They are very much hopeful that they can begin transmission very soon.

Most probably within this week or next week. They will keep the subscribers informed via SMS and public media.
---------------------------------------------------
There is exactly a week left for the CBNsat Supreme Court hearing which will be held next Monday (6th November). It is now indeed a long period of time since the sealing of Sri Lanka's leading pay tv provider and it will be a great relief for the over 20,000 customers if this is resolved soon.

This is hardly a National Security Issue

Looks like authorities have not issued MoD clearance to CBNsat still. However it seems that even if they get MoD clearance the license, it will still take ages for the TRC license to be issued. For example MoD clearance was issued to LBN and after several delays the TRC have got the license to LBN ready but now it seems that they have to get a media license in order to operate. Please refer LBN Forum for further news on this new twist.

It is now very clear that this is not an issue of National Security. If there was a threat to National Security from CBNsat and if the alleged links with the terrorists are true then why have no charges been brought against them? Why were the seals removed if there were suspected links? The authorities could have used the Emergency Regulations to apprehend the management of CBNsat if they had the slightest hint of terrorist links? But none of this has happened, which means that CBNsat is being framed to fullfil the desires of the political henchmen. These henchmen wanted to see the downfall of CBNsat and LBN and that is the main reason why they started this drama. Unfortunately there are those who have started to believe in this.

One of the people behind this scenario is now busy sacking honest individuals in the Tea Board to consolidate his position at the Tea Board and the other is trying to sell off more of his cable tv connections but has no success.

Now CBNsat is attempting to link with another operator who has the license in order to resume operations, but has anyone else been issued the license. What relief are the authorities going to give to the subscribers? Will they refund the money using their monthly salary, they should since they are in power because of the public.

Are CBNsat subscribers not legitimate citizens? Are the political henchmen more favoured than the people of this country? Where is consumer rights? Has the Supreme Court become the lapdog of the politicians?

Due to this scenario in the cable tv industry, there is an increase in the sales of illegal pay tv connections from India. The GOSL is going to lose a lot from the tax revenue from cable tv but frankly they asked for it. The people of this country have had a taste of real entertainment and now they have been deprived of it. It is only natural that they will go to any lengths to get this quality entertainment back.

Mr. President you are Executive President of this country and these henchmen within your government are tarnishing your reputation, please resolve this crisis immediately. We know that there are other issues of National importance but remember that the government should resolve all issues of the citizens of this country.

Please keep us updated on the latest regarding CBNsat as the days progress. We have about just over two weeks for the next CBNsat Supreme Court hearing.

From CBNsat Subscribers Unite

Dear Fellow Bloggers,

There seems to be a trend over the past few days with fake bloggers posting imposing as usual bloggers. We urge all the people who use this service to blog responsibly.

This is our sole source of information as all the other media is not reporting this grave injustice done to us as subscribers.

We believe the motive of these fake bloggers is that to divert us from the idea of getting our infotainment service provider back.

I need to state clearly i do not work at CBNSat or i'm not getting paid to blog here. And i'm not the blog admin. Blog is managed by a independant individual and the CBNSat Subscriber Unite have no link whatsoever with CBNSat other than being the subscribers to their service.

It's 4 months since the shutting down of CBNSat is and the time taken to resolve this issue has gone very far than we ever imagined.

EVEN AT THIS MOMENT WE URGE THE RELEVANT AUTHORITIES TO SPEED UP THE PROCESS AND ISSUE THE NECCESARY LICENCES TO CBNSAT AND IF YOU HAVE A DOUBT ABOUT THE NATIONAL SECURITY PLEASE MONITOR THEM 24*7 AS INSTRUCTED BY THE CHIEF JUSTICE.

"CBNSat Subscriber Unite" - Lisura

Clarification of issues - From CBNsat

Dear Admin,

We have noticed that certain questions have arisen over the operations of CBNSat and we would like to take this opportunity to clarify these issues.

Initially Asia Broadband Network was to be floated and used to enter into the agreements for and on behalf of CBN in the international arena, prior to the incorporation of CBN so as to move things quickly and avoid delays, however this was not necessary in the end as CBN entered into agreements in their own name.

The CID have done the necessary investigations and filed their reports in the Magistrate’s Court. All our financial records were made available to them and copies were given in order for them to conduct their investigations. The CID has given clearance on the CBNSat operations and so far not one single allegation that has been made against us has been substantiated in or out of Court.

We have received the generous support from the financial institutions that are involved with us for which we are extremely grateful, as they have stuck by us in our time of need. It is because of this that we have been able to meet our commitments to our stakeholders, and especially our employees to the best of our ability.

We have always endeavoured to maintain professionalism in everything we do and will continue to do so.

Best regards,

Dilani Nandasiri
Manageress Legal

Beware of Imposters

We have noticed some comments using id's similar to the ones that we are using. Please note that they are not posted by us and are done with the intention of breaking the focus of this blog.

User Stats

On Blogger Since	July 2005
Profile Views	2322

For confirmation regarding the authencity of the post, please check the user statistics that can be checked by clicking on the username. When comparing, the no. of profile views might be different but remember that we are blogging here from July 2005.

We would like to request all of you not to be mislead by these crooked individuals posting using duplicated user names.

We also saw a post saying that the Blog Admin, CBNsat Subscriber Unite and a few other of our regular bloggers are on the payroll of CBNsat. We know that the true believers in this fight for justice are well aware that this allegation is not true. We deny these allegations and request those concerned not make baseless and unnecessary allegations such as these.

Please keep us updated on the latest regarding CBNsat as the days progress. It is now five months since CBNsat was shutdown.

A request to all bloggers

You may have noticed earlier a post saying that "Comment Moderation" has been activated on this blog. Well we did decided to activate moderation but after a discussion with "CBNsat Subscribers Unite" we decided against it and removed the post.

The reason was not because of anti CBNsat comments, rather it was the posting of personal information of the CEO. We would like to request all of you not to post the personal information of anyone on this blog as it is not relevant to the discussion.

Please note that if personal information continues to appear we may be forced to close this blog. Whatever your point of view, it maybe supporting CBNsat or against CBNsat please do not post anyones personal information.

Please do not abuse this blog.

Admin

Hmmm......

Hmmm... Looks like some of you are convinced that CBNsat is having connections with the LTTE including some claims made that the government has the proof. Our problem is why is the proof hidden from the public, they might as well spill the beans. Unless the bean can is empty of course.

CBNsat has made a big investment in Sri Lanka and according to the news that we get a large amount of this money came from HSBC. CBNsat has sister companies in the form of EPSI computers a long standing business in Sri Lanka. They also have connections with a company in Hong Kong and so coming up with this money is not a big thing.

Now let's not get hasty since the people such as Hulla and Abey wanted this to happen so that they can be the Kings. We are playing into their hands when we form opinions like this. Like several bloggers have mentioned before "CBNSat is innocent until proven guilty".

Unfortunately we have politicians who serve themselves and their friends more than the country. If CBNsat is guilty of any offense then the authorities have had ample time to prove it and since they have been unable to prove it, we can safely say that they are innocent. At the court cases there has been no proper allegation against CBNsat and the allegations keep changing. If CBNsat was guilty they will not keep fighting this case the way that they have done at the moment. They would have closed shop and fled the country.

There is no doubt that CBNsat is innocent and maybe Hulla and Abey are fabricating the so called required evidence. CBNsat has given connections to Tsunami affected schools, sponsored the Sri Lankan contigent to the Davis Cup and also the Chilles advertising awards. They have done things that the other cable operators have been unable to do and this is how Sri Lanka rewards them.

CBNsat will be able to start negotiations with prospective partners only when the licenses are issued and as per the information we are receiving no one has been granted this license. If you have any information about any granted licenses, please update us.

It would be great to see CBNsat resuming transmissions with the present management since they worked hard to introduce this technology to this country and they should be rewarded for their endeavour. If that is not possible CBNsat should explore possibilties to sell or tie up with another company and resume operations. However this should be done soon and Dialog seems to the best option at the moment since they are also looking at DTH.

On the 6th it will be five months since CBNsat was shutdown and we are still a month away from the next Supreme Court hearing. Please keep us updated on any news regarding CBNSat as the days progress.

Is Dialog eying CBNsat?

Dialog Telekom has purchased Asset Media the operators of Neth FM. Please refer the below link.

TV Radio Sri Lanka Forum : Dialog Picks up Asset Media

What is very interesting to note is that Asset Media has the license for a FTA and a Pay Tv License. Also the following statement by the Dialog CEO is also interesting, "The strategic diversification into the television broadcasting allows Dialog to move into digital terrestrial broadcasting, direct to home or DTH and mobile television services, its CEO Hans Wijayasuriya said."

Can anyone confirm whether Dialog applied for the recent pay tv license. If Dialog enters the DTH industry there is no doubt that it will be a great service. The fact that CBNsat is a complete setup together with customers, equipment and content providers will no doubt prove to be an attractive investment for Dialog.

Although there is no way of getting an exact picture of the plans Dialog has for its DTH service there is no doubt that they are eying DTH. Exactly when is the question now? If they are planning to takeover CBNsat, it is best done soon.

There is no doubt that the CBNsat Customers will welcome this move, if it takes place and will continue to support the new management as they did the present management. Let's look at the bright side, it is way better than someone else taking over and it is definitely better than a takeover by SATnet or TV Lanka. These guys will get totally disintegrated from this competition.

Please keep us updated on the latest developments regarding CBNsat.

From CBNsat Subscribers Unite.....

Dear Fellow CBNSat Subscribers,

First of all sorry for not informing you of the actions we have taken during the past few weeks. This was actually to avoid our enemies getting the info they want regarding our actions through this open blog. They are the people who created this fiasco and they are also closely monitoring this blog and we didn’t want to get our action plan into their hands.

In the recent days there seems to a trend in the blog of accusing the Blog admin and the CBNSat Subscriber Unite of not doing anything for the subscribers. First of all we should thank the blog admin as he is the one who paved the path for us to get together and exchange our ideas otherwise we still do not have any media of communicating. Secondly from the positive responses we got this forum lead to form the “CBNSat Subscriber Unite” Which is a huge achievement. This Blog has become the sole place for information regarding the CBNSat issue as the other media is not giving coverage to this. And we do like to mention the people who just criticize the blog admin and the Subscribers Unite it is very much easy to just type out something in the blog but you have to come out of the blog to see the reality. During the last few weeks we have spent a lot of our time, money and energy over this issue. We even risk our lives as all the people behind this fiasco now know about us. In so many occasions they have stopped us from voicing out and meet the government officials including the president.

After forming CBNSat SU we have been actively involved in getting our infotainment service provider back to our lives. We have written to all the government authorities, called and even met to voice out our concerns as discriminated subscribers. Certain mass media institutions also gave coverage to our activities such as the Sunday Times, Nation and Rivira news papers. We also made our representations in the Supreme Court in the last 2 hearings.

We have thoroughly studied this whole scenario of shutting down of CBNSat and we can come to a conclusion of there is no reason proven with facts whatsoever to justify this act. The accusations made to CBNSat regarding links with the LTTE Terrorists, Technology issue, FTV issue and finally the National Security concern are now proven as baseless allegations made deliberately to delay the justice done to CBNSat and its Subscribers. And during the past months we saw these allegations came in a cycling process one after another and this cycle is being repeated over and over. Not a single of these allegations were proved in the courts of law.

Since they know that they have a risk of running out of these false allegations they came up with this “Security Clearance” from Ministry of Defense excuse. The people who created this fiasco is currently in the high ranking positions in the Ministry of Defence and they clearly know that this could be dragged on forever till CBNSat runs bankrupt and close down their operations.

If our CID is intelligent they should realize on the very first day of shutting down of CBNSat that the LTTE TV channel is not broadcasted through CBNSat platform. If it had happened so it should have stopped with the closure of CBNSat. But up to date it is operating without any disturbance. The CID has checked this later and even now they are confident that the LTTE TV Channel is not broadcasted through CBNSat platform. What did the government do to shut down the LTTE channel rather than closing CBNSat ? NOTHING ! Have they at least spoke to the PanAmSat ( owned by Intel SAT) or US government to not give satellite communication facilities to LTTE ?
NO !!!!!! And it was noted in this blog that the telephone used by LTTE TV is a Sri Lanka Telecom phone bearing number 021-2285879. So it is clear that the government do not have intentions to shut down the LTTE channel but to make it an excuse to run down a successful business to create space for their favorites.

With regards to FTV (Fashion TV) issue it’s funny that the government trying to stop a satellite channel which is free-to-air (FTA). Anyone with a normal satellite receiving system could receive FTV free of charge without linking up with CBNSat. And the government has no control to stop it as it is broadcasted from Hong Kong and India.

And we wonder what this national security issue is???? CBNSat is a public network and what the subscribers do is only receive the signal. There is nothing could be transmitted with the supplied equipment. The Dish, LNB and the receiver all are for receiving purposes only. On the other end the government has issued 3G licenses to the mobile operators and WiMAX licenses will also be issued in very near future. With these anyone could transmit high quality video to any location with a small hand held 3G devices such as a mobile phone. We are not telling the government not to issue licenses to these emerging technologies but to let them operate and monitor.

The majority of CBNSat subscribers are Singhalese. Are we all traitors to just watch the LTTE TV channel being broadcasted on CBNSat and to keep our mouths shut without complaining to authorities? And we wonder how much “National Security” we have by having people who are severely corrupt at the top to the Defense Ministry specially at the MCNS !

So it is evident to us that the government has clear intentions of closing down CBNSat permanently. This was openly stated to us when contacted government officials during the past few weeks. What they have stated is that to forget the money we paid to CBNSat. And even though the president has said he is a leader who is willing to listen to peoples problems, up to date he hasn’t even bothered to meet us or the CBNSat Management to discuss the issue.

We have consulted lawyers in this regard to proceed with legal action on behalf of the subscribers to get some relief. But what they said is that even the CBNSat lawyers have gone far in this case and since all this is controlled by an unseen force (now we all know who) it will not make any sense. All of us have already loosed our hard earned money on the equipment and entering into a never ending legal battle makes no sense.

This is the state as it is of today from the point of view of subscribers. We regret that we could not post any more details of our actions on an open blog like this but we would like to note that we have not given up. We will be closely monitoring the current situation and necessary action will be taken at the correct time. The people who have put us into this tragedy will have to face the consequences of the nature as we believe in our religions. If anyone think “OK, We have played them fool and won” they are utterly mistaken.

CBNSat Subscribers Unite