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Dialog Television is looking at a break-even point in the next four years. "We need to hit 400,000 subscribers to break even and a further 100,000 to get our operations off the red. Subscribers are the key to our success," Chief Executive Officer, Dialog Television, Nushad Perera said.

He said since acquiring CBN Sat in 2006, December they have been able to attract almost 100, 000 subscribers. "To date we have invested over US$ 150 million and looking back we are very happy with our investment," he said.

CBN Sat was out of operation for almost six month said it was a challenge to turn around the company.


CEO, DTV, Nushad Perera with a DVBT booster. Picture by Geeth de Mel

Today the business has many overheads with annual channel fees alone running into US $ 80 million. "However we are confident to meet the future with confidence," he said. Perera said he was amazed to see the response for Dialog TV especially in the rural areas that clearly proves that the 'folks' needs quality entertainment.

He also disclosed that for the first time in the world, Dialog TV is still operating a one US $ dollar package which goes to prove that the idea is to connect more people. "Our packages are not only for sports and entertainment.

We offer Animal Planet, history channels and most importantly Education and religious programmes which has great following," he said. Perera said they are also waiting for approvals to launch DVBT, which will allow subscribers to watch celestial channels without paying a subscription through a special booster that will be marketed by Dialog. "This will be the future of television," he said.

"Dialog TV has supported the creation of both Citi Hits and Channel C which has added a new dimension into the broadcasting format of Sri Lankan entertainment," he said.

Dialog TV embarked on a pilot project with the Media Ministry to introduce the DVB broadcasting platform in January 2008.

Apart from this Dialog TV is also making plan to introduce MPEG4 technology to the local broadcasting industry as well, which will provide high definition television. "Dialog TV is currently working towards acquiring added satellite space to include more channels into its current range," he said.

Currently Dialog TV operates Dialog Satellite TV, a Direct-to-Home satellite television service.

Dialog TV supports a broad array of local and international channels which exceed 50 channels in total and include CNN, BBC, HBO, Cinemax, AXN, ESPN, Ten Sports, Discovery Channel, MTV (Music Television) and Cartoon Network, in addition to a wide portfolio of Sri Lankan television channels.

Currently Dialog TV enjoys a subscriber base of over 88,000 and a staff strength of over 100 experienced professionals.

Zone Reality Replacement

With Zone Reality due to cease Asia Pacific transmissions with effect from June 30. It is time for Dialog to replace the channel at no extra cost.

As of late all the new channels introduced have carried a charge of Rs 50/= but since Zone Reality is being taken off the new one must be provided FOC. Hopefully the Dialog TV management will act positively regarding this development and the replacement should be a quality English or some good Tamil channel.

According to a report in todays "Daily Mirror" Dialog TV requires 400,000 to 500,000 subscribers in 3 to 4 years in order to break even. This is actually not too difficult if the packages are actually customer centric and if the channels are of consistent quality.

To achieve this target the package/set plan rates will have to be reduced and the broadcast quality will have to increase greatly. With reductions in Set Plan/Package rates they may need to more subscribers to break even but they will be able to achieve the target, if no overhaul is carried out then Dialog will fail.

Anyway the introduction of MPEG4 has been confirmed by the CEO which means that the roll out should take place sometime this year. Dialog is also planning to get into HDTV.

Still issues like HBO channels pixelation continues, bandwidth to the religious channels has been reduced. Dialog is trying to increase quality by removing quality from other channels and have failed miserably in their attempt. Hopefully the CEO addresses these problems soon.

Dialog to foray into DVB-T

Dialog has announced that it will foray into DVB-T and is presently awaiting licenses to commence the venture.

It is highly likely that the launch or the license issue of Dialog DVB-T transmissions may coincide with the Broadcasting Exhibition & Conference to be held in June.

The launch of DVB-T will certainly revolutionize the broadcasting industry in Sri Lanka and this will become a platform which television stations can use to go digital.

Dialog TV aims high

Dialog TV, the subsidiary of the Dialog Telkom Group announced yesterday that even though the company had incurred a loss of Rs.140million in the first quarter of this year, the company will continue investing in providing quality entertainment television programs to the Sri Lankan public.Chief Executive Officer Dialog Satellite TV, Nushad Perera said that the company had invested over US$150million since it took control of CBNSat in 2006.

“When we took over there were only 113 people working in the company with only 7,300 subscribers. In terms of channels there were only 30. On the other hand, we were faced with a lot of challenges, especially re-commencing a channel that had been shut down abruptly. Therefore our biggest challenge was to re-energize the existing staff and we turned it around with their help. On the other hand, we had a lot of pressure especially from people asking us when we were going to start. I must tell you today that not only we have re-commenced the service we also have updated our technical side, doubled the number of channels and have managed to increase our subscribers to 97,700.” he said.

Perera however said that in order to break-even there should be a minimum of 400,000 subscribers in the network. “Therefore we are aiming to build a 500,000 subscriber base and hope to achieve it within 3 to 4 years,” he said.

Speaking on the company’s measures to improve the Chief Executive Officer said that the company managed to bring a lot of channels covering different facets of the entertainment sector.“First we introduced the star bucket series together with star sports, religion channels and local channels. In keeping with our objective of offering quality entertainment programs to people at affordable price we offered them a Rs.100 package. It was a tremendous success and we received strong demand from all over the country especially from the rural areas where one could have never imagined to watch satellite TV in their homes. We also offered tailor-made packages to our customers. It’s like when you go to a restaurant to order the dishes that you like. At Dialog TV, we also offer the same way where the customer could choose and decide which channels they would like to have and subscribe to,” he said The company said that these measure have attracted many people to the network.

He also said that the Dialog TV has now become a household name where every household is looking forward to have one.

According to Dialog TV, Sri Lanka consists of over 4 million households of which 3 million have television sets.

Dialog TV had acquired 112,000 subscribers and earned revenues of 787 million rupees for the first six months (451 million rupees for the June quarter) up 176 percent over the first half of last year.

The unit had lost 196.4 million for the six months, down from 349 million rupees for the same period last year.

From : according to interim accounts filed with Colombo Stock Exchange.


Subscribers had grown 276 percent over the past year and 32 percent against the previous quarter.

Dialog says an under-penetrated pay TV market gives room for further expansion.