Comet unveils digital plans?

According to unconfirmed sources it has come to our notice that Comet Cable has revealed their digital plans along with their August schedule. We are however unable to confirm this and we request any Comet Subscriber to scan the information and email it to tvradiosrilanka@yahoo.com as soon as possible.

If this is true then it is great news for Comet subscribers and also for subscribers of other operators since increased competition would mean a better deal for the subscriber.

Discovery Channel, Animal Planet return

Discovery Channel and Animal Planet have returned to Comet Cable according to unconfirmed sources. We believe that this was a payment problem and it seems that they have sorted it out. We hope that this does not happen again and all the renegotiation and payment are made before the contract expires. We are unable to confirm who the new owners of Comet Cable are. As soon as we have the information we will update this blog with it.

Comet is facing some severe competition from the likes of LBN and Dialog TV and soon competition will come from SLT IPTV. Comet should upgrade their broadcasting technology and provide their subscribers with a better choice.

Discovery Channel, Animal Planet now off air

It seems that Discovery Channel and Animal Planet are now off air on Comet Cable. According to reports received it seems that Customer Service is saying that they are in process of negotiating with Discovery Communications and the problem will be solved in about two days.

We hope that Comet stream lines their renegotiating process so that the channels are not taken off air during the negotiations. It looks like Comet has not paid their dues to Discovery either which is why the channels have been taken off air otherwise there is no need to take the channels off air to negotiate. We hope this is solved soon.

Please update us on this latest development on Comet Cable.

Star Package Back? Reason for disconnection - non payment

Unconfirmed reports say that the Star Package has returned to Comet Cable from last night. We hope that some of our bloggers will be able to confirm this to us.

Anyway the reason Comet Cable lost the Star Package is confirmed as non-payment of dues. According to information obtained from a source who wanted to remain anonymous, we are able to confirm this. The emails forwarded to us by this source out of which we have copied one below without revealing the names and email addresses, gives us the whole story. According to the email received last afternoon the discussions are continuing but it seems that things have worked out by last night. This is indeed great relief to the subscribers of Comet Cable.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: XXXXXXX (STAR India) < XXXXXXX@in.startv.com>

Date: 05-Jul-2007 14:54
Subject: RE: FW: STAR distribution
To: XXXX <XXXX@gmail.com>

Dear Mr. XXXX,

We are close to finalizing the deal with Dialog TV and STAR services would be on shortly.

With regard to Comet Cable, we have deactivated our services to them on account of large outstanding and non-payment of our dues. We are in discussion with them and hopefully the same would be resolved shortly.

Regards,
XXXXXXX

Comet Cable please clarify

It is being several weeks since Star Plus, Star World and Star Movies was taken off air from Comet Cable. Assurances were made that the channels will return on June 2nd but as of now nothing has happened.

Several subscribers may not pay their subscription this month and many are contemplating a move to either LBN or Dialog TV. The Star Package and Ten Sports is what kept many existing subscribers from making the move, but Dialog TV have already acquired Ten Sports and will be introducing the Star Package during the course of this month or next. LBN too have the Star Package but no Ten Sports and it is not that Comet Subscribers have no choice. So if Comet does not reintroduce the channels then we may see the end of this company.

OR has the end already begun with the disappearance of Star Movies, Star Plus and Star World. We hope that Comet Cable Management will take immediate steps to rectify the situation.

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.

Mixed information flowing in

With the deadline of June 1st for releasing some of its frequencies for Wimax services fast approaching, we are getting mixed information about the future of Comet Cable. Comet Cable has not taken any steps to reply our emails regarding their future plans or what the future holds for their subscribers.

Some reports indicated that a message was flashed across the Star Package on channels such as Star World, Star Movies, Star Plus on Comet Cable saying "THIS CABLE NETWORK HAS LARGE PAYMENT DUE AND LIABLE FOR DISCONNECTION" on May 7th/8th. We are unable to verify the accuracy of the said message.

Subscribers have informed us that they have received the programme guides for the month of May. What we understand is that Comet Cable will have to release a certain segment of its frequencies for the Wimax services and have therefore been asked to convert to digital to continue serving customers. What Comet may do is release those frequencies and drop some channels and continue on the remaining frequencies until they convert to digital. We are not sure whether this possible and a knowledgeable person in this field is welcome to give his/her thoughts.

Anyone with a better knowledge on this subject of the Wimax frequencies and the Comet frequencies is welcome to email us or make a comment regarding this matter.

Comet Cable's silence is suspicious

Comet Cable has not answered any of our questions on the questionnaire (see post on March 9th 2007) that we emailed them. We were able to get replies from LBN and Dialog TV for some questions that we emailed them and they were posted in their respective blogs several weeks ago but Comet has been keeping quiet and the excuse given by Mr. Harold is that relevant management personnel have been forwarded the questions and that the reply has not been received as yet from them.

One of the contentious issues that we raised is regarding the June 1st deadline by the TRC and the future of Comet Cable.

According to the present situation we are forced to come to the conclusion that June 1st may indeed be the end for Comet Cable. If that were not so then we do not see a need for Comet Cable to delay answering our questions.

Comet Cable telecasted SET Max illegally?

We are getting unconfirmed reports that Comet Cable actually started telecasting the match between Sri Lanka and Bermuda only to abruptly stop it later on. The live telecast is supposed to have been broadcast using a SET Max feed obtained from Indian DTH service Tata SKY. According to reports a crawler on the screen inserted by Tata SKY appeared warning against unauthorized rebroadcasting of the feed which was apparently censored by Comet Cable sometime later. Several customers had called Comet Cable regarding the censorship and after about an hour later the live telecast was stopped and VH1 was back on instead of the match.

We hope Comet will not resort to practices such as illegal rebroadcasting but will legally try to obtain rights and telecast the matches live. Illegal broadcasting will only result in Comet Cable falling into a further financial mess with all the legal action that can be brought against them in addition to the unstable financial situation of the company.

It should be noted that not only is the live telecast illegal but Comet is also possessing an illegal Tata SKY connection.

The claimed Press Briefing

Comments have been appearing on this blog claiming that Comet Cable carried out a press briefing to announce the launch of their DTH service in September and also announce the acquisition of the exclusive broadcast rights to the Rugby World Cup.

We have been checking on this claim since the first comment appeared and we state that we have not been able to obtain any confirmation from any source leading us to believe that no press briefing of this nature took place and that the comment was placed to mislead the Comet Subscribers. Even today's newspapers did not carry any reference to any press briefing of this nature.

If any press briefing took place we will definitely report it and if anyone has independant confirmation of the press briefing we would like them to email the press release to us on "tvradiosrilanka@yahoo.com" so that we can make a post based on it.

Certain bloggers have raised concern why Comet did not telecast the match yesterday. The reason is that Comet will only telecast the matches broadcast by DD and a schedule of the matches to be broadcast by DD can be obtained on the post below this one.

The telecast and no telecast of the World Cup

It has been reported that Comet Cable carried broadcasts of the ICC World Cup match between West Indies and Pakistan on the 13th and we believe that this broadcast was done via DD Sports. We have also got reports that yesterdays matches were not telecast over Comet Cable which maybe because DD Sports did not telecast the match.

For a list of all matches being telecast by DD Sports please click here.

All Comet subscribers would be able to watch the matches that are listed in the above link but most of the matches are mainly involving India and a few involving non Indian matches.

Special request to Comet Bloggers

We would like to request all Comet Bloggers to keep their discussions focused on Comet Cable and on how it can improve itself. This is not a blog for commenting about other pay television providers and insulting them.

We also request bloggers from the other forums not to post unnecessary comments here.

Please note that if this continues further we may be forced to remove the commenting option which will eventually mean that bloggers will not be able to share any information on this blog.

We would also like to urge the management of Comet Cable to reply to the email that we have sent them.

Thank You
Admin

Awaiting Comet Feedback.......

On the same basis of the interviews that we carried out with LBN and Dialog TV we sent an email to Comet Cable requesting to reply to a couple of questions that we raised with them. The email was sent on Wednesday 28th February and on a subsequent reminder on 5th March we received a reply from Mr. Harold on 7th March saying that the questions have been passed on to the relevant authorities for clarifications and as soon as the reply is received we will get the answers for our questions. We hope that we receive the reply soon since it is now over one week since we submitted these questions.

Given below are the questions that we forwarded to Comet Cable.

1) On Dec 15th 2006 the SDA published a notice citing non payment of dues by Comet Cable. They also said that they will not allow the transfer of Comet Cable shares and also withdraw the license if the outstanding is not settled. Has this matter been settled.

2) On June 1st 2007 the TRC wants some of the frequencies allocated to Comet to be released. What is the status of this.

We believe that the TRC wants the frequencies released to implement Wimax services in colombo and the suburbs. Has Comet been allocated alternative frequencies?

3) Sir, were there plans to start a satellite DTH service in partnership with Srilakvahini whose holding company is Futuresat or any other company?

Comet has been promising to go digital for the last few years and every year in the beginning they say that it will take place at the middle of the year and then change that to the end of the year when the middle of the year comes.

In the new look website the digitisation plans have not even been mentioned (this was available for some time in the old website).

4) Does this mean that the plans have been dropped?
If not then when is Comet definitely going digital. An exact time period is
appreciated?

Customers are in doubt whether services will continue or not after June due to the TRC deadline and we hear that many have moved over to competitors. We have noticed that overselves since many houses that we have seen which were having Comet antenna's have now got other connections.

5) Some customers are complaining of a drop in signal quality even without obstructions coming up. Has Comet reduced it's broadcasting power? We wish to state that we are unable to verify this claim that has been made.

6) What assurance can you give to your customers regarding the future of Comet or do they have to start looking for an alternative?

7) Will Comet be broadcasting the ICC World Cup Live? Dialog TV is said to have obtained exclusive rights for this event on the pay television platform.

Give customers the true picture please

Things don't seem to be going Comet's way these days. The June 1st deadline is now fast approaching and there seems to be no response from Comet management regarding the status of their future. Comet will have to switch over by June 1st in order for Dialog Broadband and SLT to launch Wimax services in Colombo and the suburbs.

We are not getting any response from Comet management and we hope that the subscribers are not left in the lurch with an antenna and decoder that does not have any transmissions to receive and only gathers dust.

We hope that Comet will put its subscribers out of their misery by informing them of whether Comet will pursue digital technology or ask subscribers to look for an alternative pay television provider and arrange for some sort of compensation to subscribers. The redesign of the website done earlier is welcome but is not enough to improve subscriber confidence.

At the moment many Comet Subscribers are moving from Comet Cable to Dialog TV or LBN due to the superior picture quality, programming and pricing.

The only good news is that even though "Dialog TV" have been awarded exclusive rights to broadcast the ICC Cricket World Cup it seems that other operators such as Comet Cable are also in with a chance to carry to out the broadcast. Please read "Will the Dialog TV broadcast of the ICC World Cup really be exclusive" for more on this subject.

The Switching Game continues......

Comet Cable is now playing the switching game at a much faster pace. This time Al Jazeera has been replaced by NDTV again.

Lets take a look at one of the switching saga's history.

1. Fashion Tv switches to NDTV
2. NDTV switches to Al Jazeera
3. Al Jazeera switches to NDTV once again

It also seems that some Comet Cable customers have put up their connections for sale on the internet. Comet has to act fast or else it could be the beginning of the end for the pioneer pay television company in Sri Lanka.

Disclaimer : The above was the information that we received last and due to the nature of the switching game, at the point of posting there is a high probability that NDTV may have been switched with another channel.

Highly unlikely to meet TRC deadline

According to the way things are progressing now it is highly unlikely that Comet Cable will be able to convert their broadcasting systems to Digital before the deadline lapses on June 2007. If they are unable to carry out the conversion it is highly likely that they will be unable to continue broadcasting after June.

Comet has been planning their digital crossover for a period of several years and due to their inability to carry out plans it will be very sad if it is the subscriber who will be affected by it.

It is still not too late for Comet but they are not taking any positive steps to convert into digital. For Comet to survive in the market and take themselves higher than the existing operators LBN and Dialog TV will take nothing short of a miracle. Dialog TV introducing corporate packages will only make things more difficult.

Their woes are even made worse due to the problems that they have with the Southern Development Authority which is preventing Comet Cable shares being sold to another party.

At present Comet Cable subscribers are in a dilemma regarding the status of their connections since they may not continue to get the service from the company that they have subscribed to. Many subscribers are contemplating a move to either LBN or Dialog TV.

It is high time for the pioneer pay television provider to wake up and take some positive steps to make sure that subscribers continue to get the service. It is not only enough to continue to provide the service but they should also improve their service and attract more subscribers otherwise the inevitable will happen sooner or later. At the moment it looks like it will happen sooner.