Thursday, December 07, 2006

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.

60 comments:

Lisura said...


Dear Subscribers,

We have created an on-line polling site for you to vote for your favourite channels. Please visit

http://82px.pollhost.com/

And vote !

Please make sure to be specific on your selection.

What are the new channels you want on CBNSat ?

http://82px.pollhost.com/

Looser said...

Lisura-

Can you add some European channels to this online polling site. Some movie and sports channels would be handy. Ex. Eurosport, Hallmark, Australian Network, E! Entertainment etc.

Movie channels on Dish TV are useless except Star Movies. We don't want those kind of channels to add to CBNSat.

cableguy said...

Video on Demand can probably be made available when they are ready to provide Pay-per-view channels. There are lots more features that we can think of such as HDTV and DVR, but we will have to first let CBNSat get back to their normal transmission and then build up the customer base before they can move on to the next step.

Blog Admin:
Thank you for that very informative analysis of trials and tribulations of getting channels from different feeds.
The sad story is, you mentioned that channel providers dont consider Sri Lanka a niche market. Any hopes of even trying to become a niche market in the near future were lost, thanks to the "far-sighted" actions of our govnt. Otherwise the last 6 months would have been a great opportunity for CBN to build up a large customer base.
Dont you love the way Sri Lankan authorities like to push us back in leaps and bounds, just when we are ready to advance?
As Mr. Gehan De Silva Wijeyeratne wrote in a recent LMD article, Sri Lankan govnt authorities should definitely be on top of the Worlds' “Imbecile Index”.

riky said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

I'm sorry kaluperuma

I don't wanna trouble cbn again.
Its my choice, .
sorry if it hurts u

cableguy said...

In a perfect world, I would say anyone should have the freedom to ask for GOD TV or DOG TV. But in Sri Lanka, with this govnt, asking for GOD TV will only get CBNSat in more trouble. If they get GOD TV, someone else will want a Buddhist channel, and then another one will ask for Al-Jazeera and go on and on.... So at this point, it may be a good thing to stay away from religious channels, just so that the huluballa is not given any more weapons to come after CBNSat.

Hey! we still have FTV!!! Shhhhhhhh........keep it quite.....the "Disciplinary Police" will catch you!!!!!!!!

riky said...

Agreed Cableguy and No hard feelings Jessie, its for our own good

riky said...

Ane palyang dude yanna,Owa karanda onenam Americawatama gihilla karanna.

Dont try to put all these unwanted garbge on CBNsat.There is no need to promote relegion through DTH channels,If anyone wants to worship as someone said GO TO THE CHURCH,TEMPLE OR MOSQUE.

This is not AMERICA,No sooner you activate one CBNsat will be closed for another six months and then someone else will start something.

Nikan ponnayo wage katha karanna epadude,umbata penawane alf ge heti,u den adventure 1 wela dish tv walata awadanawa,Umba Americawe DTH gena katha karanawa,Umbalata ewilla puke erala ynakan danne ne

ARE YOU WORRIED ABOUT DESHADROHI KOTHALAWALA.

riky said...

Loverlordsrtiker -Umba hari machang eka thama wenna one,As somebody said it is essential to have the Rugby feed of Star HK or any other rugby channel that telecasts international matches.

Looser said...

Loverlordsrtiker- Why don't keep your Dish TV connection insteed of asking CBN to add the same channel to it?

CBNsat need better channels than those.

TV & Radio Sri Lanka said...

***** WARNING ************

Please do not use foul language. If foul language is being used on a regular basis. We will delete all comments belonging to that individual.

There will be no further warning!!!

riky said...

Ane adaraniya kakulowo,Oya oyage wedak balagena karagena yanna,Nikam illan kanne nethuwa,Athanatath karaganne nethuwa inna meya.Kakuluwa harhata ewidagena yanakota ape bloggers lata kelin yanna kiyanawa.

Mama hari asai crab & sweet corn suop kanna,Oya eka theum ganna meya.

Ohomoma yang kakuluwo balagena inna oyata wena de

riky said...

ADMIN MOKODA PANINNE,EYATH HARATA YANNADA HADANNE

cableguy said...

I think Mr. Kaluperuma is doing it just to instigate people and to add some spice to this blog. Many a times, he has very good points and opinions. Only if he could present those points of view, minus the filth.

ALthough I must say that I do enjoy his writings in Sinhala. Please keep those nice Sinhala writings coming Mr. Kaluperuma.
As the Dialog Ad says "Some things are best said in Sinhala. It will never mean the same when translated to English"

riky said...

Cableguy - We will listen and respect guys like you but not people who suddnely crop up and try to be funny,And we know what to do with them.

riky said...

Hari machang loveloard,Kavuda bang mei kakuluwada/kakuttada kiyanne,Okawa allala flower drum ekata dunnanam CRAB & SWEET CORN.

Methana K weda katawath bei

Alf da danne ne mei crab

riky said...

The test transmission will go on for about two weeks as there are technical aspects to be sorted and and CBNsat wants to go on full trottle with 100% perfection.

Its no wonder that some of the hardaware needs attention after 6 months of non function

riky said...

Top fan,Whats the signal strength in Kandy and whereabout do you live?

cableguy said...

Ado Kaluperuma

Looks like you have all the inside information, huh?

Horen horen apata information denawa naydha?.

Keep the info coming.

yakuza said...

whats up guys
is zone reality a new channel.
i thought i got vh1 one morning on channel 3 or 4, but its not there now.

Looser said...

Zone Realtiy is the Old Reality TV. They have changed the name

Anonymous said...

what do you think about kaluperuma?
visit the link below and vote

http://poll.pollcode.com/9od

thank you

Anonymous said...

Ok guys thanks for commenting about GodTv. I know this is Srilanka. & some people looking for a weak point of CBN to make it trouble.
But when CBN got stabilized CBN can give religious channels. I mean not only GodTv , If someone wants Buddiest channels they can request them. Muslim channels too.

once i decided not publish any comments here again. Bcos i can't get on with people like kaluperuma. But after Blog admin decided to delete comments with foul language, i decided to comment again.

kaluperuma - Pls dont shit on this responsible place. Don't put this blog to 3rd class, Thanks for understanding

riky said...

Honda news ekak awa,Dish TV eragena,CBNsat Dish eka edakaragena allignment nethi karagadda CBNsat drohi kakuttange dish re alligned karanna CBNsat eken charge karanawalu

Anonymous said...

PLEASE DON'T BLAME ON KALUPERUMA
HE IS A REAL SRI LANKAN I LIKE HIS STYLE, SINHALA, NEW IDEAS, BAD WORDS. HE KEEPS US ALIVE.

THANKS TO DIALOG TELEKOM. IMAGES ARE BACK IN CBN SAT. ALSO THANKS TO CBN FORMER CEO.

WE WERE WAITING FOR MORE THAN 06 MONTHS FOR THIS, ATLEAST WE HAVE SOME CHANNELS NOW, WAIT FOR ANOTHER 01 MORE WEEK TO GET THE COMPLETE TRANSMISSION IS NOT A BIG THING. BUT THIS IS NEED TO IMPROVE AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.

50% OF THE CHANNELS WHAT WE HAVE IS USELESS, THINK ABOUT IT . WE NEED SOMTHING NEW, BUT WE ARE VERY MUCH CONSERN ABOUT THE PRICE, IF THEY TRY TO INTRODUCE ANY NEW CHANNELS WITH PRICE SUPPLMENTS FOR EXCISTING CLIENTS, THAT WILL BE TOTALLY BULLSHIT.

I REQUEST THEM TO OFFER ANYTHING NEW FOR THE EXCISTING CLIENTS FREE. CHARGE WHAT EVER THE SUPPLEMENT FROM THE NEW CUSTOMERS.

DON'T FORGET DIALOG GSM IS VERY MUCH MONEY CONSIOUS. THINK ABOUT IT.

WE ALL LOVE CBNSAT IT GAVE US ENERGY, GAVE US SOME THING NEW.

WE NEED SOME THING NEW.

justavisitor said...

I had to replace my damaged connecting cable by myself because cbnsat support told me it would take 2-3 weeks get tech support to do it. they told me to get a 75 ohms coaxial cable. Signal strength I'm getting 60-65% and quality 45-50% but image/sound quality is same as before.

TV & Radio Sri Lanka said...

PLEASE NOTE THAT THE INDECENT COMMENTS THAT WERE IDENTIFIED BY US WERE DELETED.

PLEASE REFRAIN FROM POSTING INDECENT COMMENTS.

THOSE WHO CONTINUE WITHOUT HEEDING THIS WARNING WILL NOT BE BARRED FROM MAKING COMMENTS IN THIS BLOG.

ADMIN

Anonymous said...

Hay guys,
dont try to chase away kaluperuma from this blog guys...
He is the one who keeps this blog alive.. and common guys,
we all face filth everyday everywhere so lets not act like children
who never heard a filthy word before.. And he does
get his idea across very strongly doesn't he? And blog admin,
dont be foolish., if u try to act like this "Deleting Indecent commets"
you will defenitly loose this very active community of blogers...
Comon guys... we need guys like kaluperuma...good work pal!!!

justavisitor said...

ITN is now on NSS 6 and Yamal 202. It's uplinked through TV Lanka.

cableguy said...

I was wondering where Sirinimal sahodaraya was all these days. Good to know he is alive and kicking. Sounds more like kicking himself....from the sounds of the posting on the blog.

Looser said...

Hey what about Sky News, Fox News and Netional geographic channel Asia?

Sky News was telecasted by ETV lond time ago.

riky said...

Ado mama St Anthonys eke kolek bang,Nuwara Thamai apith,Devon ekan hari Bake house eken hari hapan Kaluwa gena,

Anith ewa gena mama comment karanne ne,Habai umbage reallign karanna charge karanne ne,Hai karana ewun dnnawa mokada wela thiyanne kiyala.

riky said...

Anith eka TOP FAN,Jesika hari umba hari inna thena hoya ganna eka mata sulu deyak,Nethuwa umbata galak kapanna newe ahuwe,Nuwara handa.

cableguy said...

I think Kaluperuma has a lot of extra information on the bloggers.
Hmmmm... wonder where he gets access to all that information about the bloggers.
I think Topfan maybe correct. He maybe working at CBNSat(just like a few other bloggers too). And that is why he single handedly opposed ALF from trying to sell DISHTV to bloggers. Well! if you are really a CBN employee Mr. Kaluperuma, I commend and compliment you for being a very loyal employee. When most of us had given up hope and tried to find other ways, you repeatedly assured us that CBN will be back(even though I didnt believe you at the time). So it could be because you had first hand information.
Your loyalty to your company is very much valued.

Please keep those nice sinhala emails coming, minus the filth. Anyway we will leave it up to the blog admin to do the editing if it is too filthy. As someone said, a little curse here or there should be fine. We are all adults and many of us would do it in a social gathering, in a lighthearted way.

riky said...

Sat_Viewer mara decent kollek,U decent iskoleka igena gaththa ekek,Ladies eke wenna ethi.Ane palayang ponnayo yanda,Umbata adugane keling chu karaganna puluwanda.

The second transponder is not activated yet,It will come around the 15th,Yes its going to be another CBNsat xmas and New year,I dont think they will sell any connection untill the exsisting subscribers are fully functional,But anyone who wants can reserve a connection(They will not accept money),Even the Bamba office is full functional now.

Anonymous said...

CBNSat needs

News
Al-Jazeera English
News 24 (english news with french perspective)

Comedy
Star world

chami_tv said...

From CBN SAT website:

To receive our channels simply power on your decoder and select channel no
01. If the LED is green please keep the decoder switched on for 24 hours for
automated activation.
If the LED is RED please follow the following instructions for reactivation.
1. Turn on the decoder and go to menu by pressing the menu button on the
remote (Ignore what ever u see on the screen)
2. Selected "Installation" and press ok
3. Enter the 4 digit password (It’s 9949 by default)
4. Select "Restore Factory defaults" and press ok, You’ll see a warning
saying all settings will be erased, press ok to that too. (No need to fear
as you won’t loose anything valuable). Restoring will take few seconds.
5. Now you’ll end up in Channel search screen with message "NIT Search
Failure". Press Exit button in the remote to go to the LNB/TP edit page.
6. Press the red button (Modify LNB).
7. In the modify LNB screen select Universal LNB and set it to ON. Then
Press Exit.
8. Press the blue button (Manual Scan)
9. In the manual scan screen make sure "Transponder" setting is set to TP1,
if not set it. As soon as you set it to TP1 the signal strength indicators
will light up. (since TP2 is not activated)
10. On the same screen select "Start Scan" and press Ok.
11. On the "Search Type" screen set "NIT Switch" to ON and "Scan Mode" to
All and press Ok.
12. Scan will be done in few seconds; you’ll see "Search failure" on TP2 but
TP1 shows 19 TV channels (As at 10:30AM Dec 03rd)
13. Press exit to go to the normal mode. You’ll have the channel list, but
none is running at the moment.

riky said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

ok kaluperuma

This is ur dancing floor. Dance well.You are the Hero now !
Other bloggers have fun.

Dear admin - you gave your word, but no action -thanks

TV & Radio Sri Lanka said...

To Jesika :

We have deleted some posts that contain filth.

Please do not blame us as we are trying our best to control filth.

To the Others :

Guys and Gals in here please carry on your conversation without offending our other bloggers.

Thank You
Admin

riky said...

Jesika - Action TV thiyanne Channel One MTV ekene,Blog admin nemei channel one karanne,Eka hinda e ahinsakayata action ganna ba.

Top fan mama Maths kare 1994,Api Nittawela set wemu Kandy match ekaka,Umba Jesikath eran waren polimak danna,Kollo godak innawane umba dannawane machang nuwara ewun ge weda,

ALF wath erang waren,Anith subject ekata bara ewunuth innawawane,

justavisitor said...

Onna onna topfan jvp/jhu style moda katha kiyanwa.

Anonymous said...

what do you think about kaluperuma?
visit the link below and vote

http://poll.pollcode.com/9od

thank you

Anonymous said...

Machang methana eka eka kelawa ganna hadanna epa. Meka api serama ekathuwela fight karapu thanane. Dan wade kara gaththata passe eka ekaa meken elawanna try karanna epa. Kalu, Umba kiyana dewal hariyatama hari. Apita ape sinhalen oone deyak kiyaganna barinam wadak nene. Eth kunuharupa ganata thiyaganin. Meken eka eka yanna gaththama blog eka dead ne.

We all enjoy with Kalu. But Machang don't blame anyone. As you have the right to say your thinking Jesika & Others too have that right.


LET'S RESPECT EVERYONE AND KEEP THIS BLOG ALIVE

Anonymous said...

GUYS SHALL WE MEET UP ONE DAY AND HAVE PARTY BEACH PARTY OR SOME THING ELSE

WHAT DO YOU THINK ????

LIKE TO HAVE SOME COMMENTS

chami_tv said...

unknown writer.. Thats an excellent Idea..

cableguy said...

Ado Topfan

Dont call Kaluperuma Naakiyek.

Age is no barrier.

CBN Bloggers Beach party ekakata set wemu.

cableguy said...

If anyone is wondering about AXN not working properly, its a problem with that channels transmission. CBN is working on fixing it.
It should be back in a day or two.

Radikal Zee said...

any idea when CBN Sat is gonna b back with all d channels ??

cableguy said...

Their Plan is to have all the channels working by the end of the month. Lets keep our fingers crossed.

Anonymous said...

what about SSmusic

Airtel lanka said...

i wished SLT took over cbn then it would be a venture conducted by the Govt and allso the telecom japan or whatever Slt has subscribed as, Even dialog did a favour by buying CBN in terms of bringing a dth envoironment

Besides Dialog Belongs to Telecom Malaysia so most of the profitiers would be TM itself

And besides 553 Million was a bargain pricing for Cbn anyway considering the costs of establishing a satelite link/other. Now slt has to see another alternative to provide Satelite services(eventhrough SLT has satelite services-its only on voice traffic/data concerns)

I hope There will be more competition On SLT/rupavahini as well so we can have a considerable decision on what service to choose from.

riky said...

Aie top fan mokada,Umbata puke arraganada one,Umba hithuwada me wage blog ekaka mage attha visthara denna,Ponnayo nikan illang kanna epa,Umbawa nethikarala danna keri wesige putha

yakuza said...

have to agree with diehard
those hindi guys are annoying
anyway thank god atleast cbn is back

Anonymous said...

Nicklodian also have that problem. Soundtrack goes after the video. I think its bcos the test transmission.

Yeah I love to watch wrestling on star, But they give commentaries in Hindi. so i'm watching it without sound

chami_tv said...

To Blog Admin

Please post a news on Hindi language problem in CBN. I think fellow blogers have comment on this above and its realy true. Don't they the Atar tv have a simaltanious English Broadcat even in International Matches.

I watched a Cricket match recently on CBN between India and South Africa event the text ( Score ) appear on Hindi.

This is really annoying and harmful to CBN MArketing aspects. I think CBN Should get an exclusive right on broadcasting an English Feed to Sri lanka. I think Hindi may be known for Pakistan and even ?Bangaldesh ( Correct me if I am wrong) But for Sri Lanka and Maldives we need English. + Why don't CBN give Swarnavahini still. We like to hear about that from CBN too. so I urge blog admin to intervin and posta news so that CBN will give there aspects..

cableguy said...

Its true that these Hindi dubbed sports events are very annoying. And I hope CBN will eventually do something about. However, guys! lets be a bit patient and allow CBN to take care of one step at a time. COnsidering, they have been left to rot for 6 months, we have to give them time to get things back together. They are doing a great job so far.

In terms of priority, Here is my list of taskd in order of importance. This is a long term plan lsit(please feel free to comment on these and add)

1. Get all the channels that existed at the time of closure, working properly.
2. Get some of the most popularly requested new channels(Star Package, Ten SPorts etc) on board.
3. Get more of the local channels included in the line up(Sirasa, MTV, ARTV,ETV)
4. Improve the on screen program guide and include info on upcoming programs for each channel. Make maximum use of the functions available in the current box and remote control.
5. Get English feeds on channels like ESPN, Star Sports and even on some AXN programs. I can live with most sports programs that are dubbed(turn off the volume) but other non sports programs are annoying to watch with Hindi or Chinese sound.
6. Introduce Pay-per-view and Video -on-demand.
7. Offer DVR box for digital recording of programs (long term plans).
8. Offer HDTV broadcast(long term plans).

I would like to hear what others have to say!!!

cableguy said...

You see Ravin. I have always wondered about it too. I think its because Bollywood movies are way ahead of Sinhala movies and they are subtitled. The stuff on CBNSat are not subtitled. Its meant for Hindi viewers.

MANIL said...

In dish TV you can simply select the Language on touch of a button(Remote)

Its better if CBNsat introduces this facility.

cableguy said...

Thanks Hush for that valuable piece of information. Never knew how to get rid of the mandarin voice before. Now I will try it.
You are right. There arent too many programs now, but Fear Factor used to be in two languages. I think.