First Star Movies, Star Plus and now Star World off air

Comet Cable the pioneer pay television company in Sri Lanka which is now in the hands of new owners who have not being identified as yet, has lost Star World on their lineup.

Initially a few days ago, Star Plus, Star Movies and Star World were taken off air and reports suggest that they were disconnected due to non payment. However on the same day Star World returned and rumors were that this channel was being telecast illegally via a Tata SKY connection that is owned by Comet Cable. However on Wednesday June 27th 2007 Star World was also taken off air and has not returned as yet. Many subscribers who had called the company had been told that Star World will return by last evening and according to reports reaching us, as of this moment the article is being posted Star World and the other two Star channels are not available.

We urge the new management of Comet Cable to carry out a press release regarding this situation and take immediate steps to bring relief to the subscribers of Comet Cable.

What is happening no Star Movies, Star Plus yet?

We are receiving reports that Star Movies and Star Plus are still not yet available after they went off air on June 21st. According to initial reports Star World is being telecast via Tata SKY which is not legal but we wonder why they do not do the same with Star Movies and Star Plus. One reason could be because the Star Movies that Comet Cable shows is the East Asia feed but Star Movies on Tata SKY is the Indian feed. Maybe the same reason applies for Star Plus. Hopefully a Comet Subscriber could enlighten us whether they were receiving the Indian feed of Star Plus or some other feed. Star World would not have been a problem for Comet Cable since the feed they telecasted is the same Indian feed that is being carried by Tata SKY.

Comet Cable had promised its subscribers that the problem will be sorted out within the day but so far nothing has happened. At the moment they seem to be telecasting some DD Hindi channels as a replacement.

Comet Cable has to get its act together soon since rival pay television provider Dialog TV have signed up with Star and will be providing their channels by the end of this month. For Comet to survive Comet Digital is a must or else they will be fighting a loosing battle since more competition is in the horizon from SLT IPTV and a probable expansion of LBN Digital services.

Star Movies, Star Plus off air?

From yesterday we are receiving news reports that the Star TV channels are not operational on Comet Cable anymore. It seems that initially Star Movies, Star World and Star Plus were taken off air but then Star World returned but Star Movies and Star Plus did not return.

According to unconfirmed information seems that due to non payment of dues the channels have been disconnected and it seems that Star World is being telecast via a Tata SKY connection that is owned by Comet Cable. Customer Service says that due to a technical problem the channels Star Movies and Star Plus have been taken off air.

We are unable to ascertain the true cause and the above is from unconfirmed sources. We hope that our fellow bloggers will be able to update us via comments on the true cause of the channels being taken off air.

Comet Cable shares sold

According to a report in the Sydney Morning Herald of June 12th 2007 it is said that Ultrapay Limited has sold its share in Multivision that is owned indirectly by its subsidiary Chalmway.

The proceeds of the sale, a profit of nearly Aus $ 1.2 Million have been received by Ultrapay/Chalmway. There is no indication on who the buyer is. It is surprising that no Sri Lankan business report carried this information.

Please read the links given below.

Please update us the latest regarding Comet Cable such as who the buyer is and other related information as the days progress.

About Ultrapay - http://finance.google.com/finance?q=ASX:ULT
Announcement - Ultrapay sells share

PDF Document Detailing the Sale - Download Page

For those who cannot download, the PDF document reads as follows

UltraPay today announces that it has sold its share in the Sri Lankan Pay TV business indirectly held by its subsidiary Chalmway Pty Ltd. The sale will result in a A$1.2m profit on the transaction in the current half year. The sale terms were unconditional and sale proceeds have been received. The profit received on the sale of the Chalmway business was at the top end of our expectations. It is a pleasing outcome given the considerable uncertainty surrounding the sale and the difficult environment of Sri Lanka, Michael Boyd, Chairman of UltraPay Limited stated. The funds from this sale will provide the capital required for the London taxi mobile payments rollout and allow us to focus on the growth of this business The technical and commercial pilots have progressed extremely well, and we expect to be able to rollout in volume from October he added. The Company is also making progress toward the sale of the remaining holding in its other non-core business Telcogames. The anticipated cash return from this sale
should be in excess of $1.5m. Strong interest in the Companys mobile payments system from a number of European, Asian and South American countries provides further good growth opportunities for the Company.

Comet still continues........

Comet is still live and kicking, and is great news for those who thought that Comet may loose some of its frequencies on June 1st but as of now everything seems good and hopefully it will stay that way. Even we were under the impression that on June 1st something may happen since Comet was not replying to our emails either.

Now since the day has passed without any incident it is best for Comet Cable to get their digital transmissions off the ground and start competing with the rest of the pay television operators in Sri Lanka.

We hope Comet Cable management will confirm to us the date of their digital launch.

We hope that Comet Subscribers will make use of this forum to exchange ideas instead of concentrating on accusing and fooling other pay television operators and hopefully subscribers of other pay television operators will stay away from this forum.