The On & Off Game

The last month or so have been turbulent for the Comet Cable subscribers. The sports channels that went off air have not returned but HBO and Cinemax have returned on almost the same day that they went off air. In addition Hallmark also went off air and was returned.

Customer Care and Management are ever so silent. Subscribers are being robbed of their entertainment by these frequent interruptions.

Those who are contemplating buying a Comet Cable connection should think long and hard before doing so.

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

Comet Cable in a mess! Subscribers beware

After months of speculation about the future of Comet Cable it seems that the company is finally breaking up under immense mismanagement and heavy competition.

According to reports being received by us Chalmway and James Scobie have sold the company to an Indian company without disclosing the court dispute with the Hettiarachchi family. Therefore now since the Indian company has found out about the disputes in Comet Cable they released the rumor regarding the Digital conversion several months ago to keep subscribers paying on time and recover as much as possible their losses from purchasing Comet Cable. We got these reports sometime ago but could not verify the authenticity but now the way the things are progressing it is now more clear to us and we are releasing this information for the benefit of Comet subscribers and anyone planning to purchase Comet Cable.

What will happen to the company once the Indians realize that they cannot recover anymore is left to be seen? This would explain why the channels keep going off air and are not returned. It is now time for Comet subscribers to protect their investment otherwise they will be kept in the dark until the day Comet Cable closes and the new management pulls out of Sri Lanka.

We hope that some major newspaper in Sri Lanka will do some investigation into this story and expose these Indians and the James Scobie-Chalmway involvement. Comet Cable under any management is answerable to their subscribers and it is now the subscribers who must take steps and take this company to task.

Please keep us updated on the status of Comet Cable as the days progress as it seems that this year is a crucial year for this company and its subscribers.

HBO & Cinemax removed from Comet Cable

From January 3rd the HBO and Cinemax channel were taken off from Comet Cable. This follows the removal of the Sports Channels in December. According to Comet the sports were to be reintroduced in early January but so far this has not been the case.

It seems that Comet Cable is now facing a severe crisis and we hope that they can do something to rejuvenate the company other the subscribers will be left in a lurch.

We request our bloggers to update us as soon as the channels return or more channels are taken off air.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

We like to take this opportunity to wish our Bloggers, the Management and Staff of Comet Cable "A Very Merry Christmas" and "A Happy New Year 2008".

We hope that Comet Digital becomes a reality at least in 2008. Please keep us updated on the latest on Comet Cable as the days progress and into the new year.

Comet Cable crashing?

Comet subscribers are being greatly inconvenienced by the sudden removal of further channels from their lineup. The subscribers are being robbed of their hard earned money by the removal of many top notch channels and replacing them with some lower quality channels but are still paying the same rental for lower quality channels.

• Ten Sports is off air on Comet Cable and it seems that Comet Cable is saying that there is a problem with Ten Sports transmission but there are no problems with the reception on either Dialog TV/LBN.
• Cartoon Network went off air and has been replaced with Nick.
• Star Sports has been replaced with some low quality channel.
• Ten Sports replaced with DD Sports.
• ESPN has been taken off air.
• Animal Planet is also off air.

We hope that the management of Comet Cable will take steps to rectify the problems. We urge Comet subscribers to group together and approach the company without letting them rip off subscribers on such a huge scale. One or two channels going down can be excused but not an entire group of top notch channels.

Please keep us updated on the latest on Dialog TV as the days progress.

Comet in trouble?

According to information being received by us Comet Cable has removed all Sports Channels from its lineup. It all started with the replacement of Ten Sports with Star Cricket and now all Sports Channels are gone. According to information when Customer Care is contacted they say that none of the sports channels will return during the course of this month. Information also suggests that the sale of Comet Cable to the Indian management failed due to the present legal battles that the company is involved in.

The digital plan that was announced via the website has now become stale news and many are now questioning the real motive behind this announcement. The opinion is that Comet Cable has made this announcement in order to prevent the loss of subscribers to Dialog TV/LBN Digital.

Confusion reigns among the subscribers with channels going off air and the announcement of Comet Digital. We hope Comet Cable management will take immediate steps to rectify the problems.

Comet Digital/Dreams

It is now two months since the latest round of "Comet Digital" rumors started and well nothing has happened so far. We are having doubts whether this was all started by Comet Cable to prevent the loss of subscribers to either Dialog TV/LBN/Dish TV or some small cable operator in your area which has more channels than Comet Cable for a lesser cost.

There has been no official communication from Comet Cable regarding this. Nothing regarding the new owners. Everyones in the dark, even their employees probably don't know what is going on. Several years ago a rumor like this started and the website was updated with digital plans but nothing materialized. Will it be the same this time, well only time will tell? To be fair we should also take into account that deploying a digital network and getting it up and running is no simple task however with no visible progress things don't seem to be that good.

We hope that Comet Management will reveal who they are first and then officially unveil their digital plans with a time frame so that subscribers who are frustrated and want to make a switch would be retained.

Please keep us updated on the latest on Comet Cable as the days progress.

Officially proposed channel lineup

Comet Cable has officially released their proposed channel lineup for their digital service on their website (Link: Proposed Channel Line Up). They have also said that they will include value added services along with high speed internet services. Given below are the proposed channels on Comet Cable as per their website.

Movie
HBO
HBO Signature
HBO Hits
HBO Family
Cinemax
Star Movies
Hallmark
Z Studio

Sports
ESPN
Star Sports
Star Cricket
Neo Sports
Neo Sports Plus
Ten Sports

English Language Entertainment
Star World
AXN
Discovery Travel & Living
Australia Network
Z Cafe

Children
Cartoon Network
Nickelodeon
Disney
Toon Disney
Chutti TV

Education
Discovery Channel
Animal Planet
National Geographic Channel
History Channel

Music & Fashion
Channel V
Music TV
VH1
Z Trendz

News
CNN
BBC World
Channel News Asia
Bloomberg
Al Jazeera
NDTV 24X7
NDTV Profit

Religious
God TV
EWTN
Islam

Tamil
Ktv
Sun TV
Star Vijay
Jaya TV
Podhigai
Win TV
Sun Music
SS Music
Raj Digital Plus
Raj TV

Hindi
Star Gold
Star Plus
Z Cinema
Zee TV
Zoom

Other
ETV
Star Chinese
TVM
Pakistan TV
NHK
Surya TV
TV5 Monde
Arirang TV
DW-TV

+ Local Channels

The above list has a few additional channels to the list that was posted by us a few weeks back under the post titled "Probable channel lineup on Comet Digital".

Digital testing to commence today?

According to unconfirmed reports it seems that Comet Cable is commencing Digital testing from today September 19th 2007. The announcement is said to have been scrolled during the Australia vs Pakistan Twenty20 match last night.

We hope that anyone who is able to confirm this information would comment here. At the time of posting this article there is no information on the Comet Cable website regarding this digital testing.

Initial reports did indicate that Comet Digital will be launching by September/October however no official announcement has been made yet.

Will it be this month?

Comet subscribers are eagerly expecting the launch of Comet Digital which was initially rumored for this month. Comet Management has not made any official announcement regarding the launch dates as yet however we are lead to believe that they may be carrying out testing which is probably resulting in some channels being taken off air from Comet Cable.

There may be chances that the launch may be postponed to October but in any case the launch will not be a commercial one initially, since they will first concentrate on converting their existing subscribers to digital.

We hope that Comet management will make an official announcement regarding their digital plans and would officially release the names of the channels that will be on the new platform.

We take this opportunity to request our fellow bloggers to strictly adhere to the rules set out for comments that are listed at the bottom of the right hand column under the title "Commenting Rules". In addition we have also disabled Anonymous commenting which means that anyone who wants to post a comment will require to get a Blogger Account.

Please keep us updated on the latest on Comet Cable as the days progress.

Probable channel lineup on Comet Digital

We have received information on the probable channel lineup of Comet Digital. The soft launch is expected to be held in September/October.

1. HBO
2. HBO Signature
3. HBO Hits
4. HBO Family
5. Cinemax
6. Star movies
7. Hallmark
8. Z Studio
9. ESPN
10. Star Sports
11. Star Cricket
12. Neo Sports
13. Neo Sports Plus
14. Ten Sports
15. Star World
16. AXN
17. Discovery Travel and Living
18. Australia Network
19. Z Cafe
20. National Geographic Channel
21. The History Channel
22. Discovery Channel
23. Animal Planet
24. Cartoon Network
25. Nickelodeon
26. Disney Channel
27. Toon Disney
28. Channel V
29. VH1
30. Chutti TV
31. MTV
32. Z Trendz
33. CNN
34. BBC
35. Channel News Asia
36. Bloomberg TV
37. Al Jazeera
38. NDTV 24x7
39. NDTV Profit
40. GOD TV
41. EWTN
42. An Islamic Religious Channel
43. KTV
44. Sun TV
45. Vijay TV
46. Jaya TV
47. Poodigai
48. WIN TV
49. Sun Music
50. SS Music
51. Raj Digital Plus
52. Raj TV
53. Tamil Box Office
54. Star Gold
55. Star Plus
56. Z Cinema
57. Zee TV
58. Zoom
59. TVM
60. NHK
61. Suriya TV
62. TV5 MONDE
63. Arirang
64. DW-TV
+ Local Channels

There are a few more channels that have to be added onto the list and we will add them as we receive more information. The lineup is a mix of English, Tamil and Hindi Channels. We are not sure of the feeds (Asian/Indian) that will be available but it is likely that it is the same feeds given by the other pay television companies in Sri Lanka which is a mixture of Indian and Asian feeds.

Please keep us updated on the latest on Comet Cable as the days progress.

Comet Digital Officially announced on website

Comet Cable have officially announced the launch of Comet Digital on their website http://www.cometcable.com/ plus some of the things we can expect from "Comet Digital". Rumors indicate that the soft launch of Comet Digital will take place in September. Initially the existing subscribers are expected to be converted onto the digital platform before promoting it to attract new subscribers. According to sources Comet will actively promote Comet Digital to attract new subscribers from December onwards but if all goes well they may do this earlier.

Comet Digital is expected to contain the following features

• 60 Channels.
• Free Digital Decoder
• Same Antenna
• No Change in Subscription
• Razor Sharp Pictures
• Lifelike Surround Sounds

Comet is also planning to include an Electronic Programme Guide as well as increase the number of channels to above 60 as they roll out their digital system. What is interesting is that the present antenna will be retained but the decoder will be changed free of charge for existing subscribers. The subscription will also not be increased at the moment. Certain Comet Subscribers would certainly like to reduce the height of their existing antenna since it is very high, we hope that Comet will take steps to reduce the height of the existing antenna once the digital system is in place. However if line of sight is a must then this may not be possible. Comet should also take steps to increase the coverage of Comet to cover more regions in Sri Lanka.

The launch of Comet Digital will certainly add value and increase competition in the pay television industry which is at present limited to Dialog TV and LBN.

Please keep us updated on the latest on Comet Cable as the days progress.

September is close at hand

So with only a few days to go for the month of September it seems that many subscribers are looking forward to the launch of Comet Digital. At the moment there is no publicity is being carried out regarding the launch of Comet Digital. There is some information that suggests that the digital launch has been delayed but we are unable to confirm this and this time it looks like Comet is on track for the digital launch. However anything is possible since this has not been publicized as yet.

According to information received last it seems that Discovery Channel has gone off air on Comet Cable for the second time this year, but we are not sure whether it has returned and we hope that our readers will be able to shed some light on this.

We hope that Comet will publicize its plans for the digital launch and announce the official launch date soon. Hopefully Discovery Channel went off air due to some upgrading being done in relation to the digital launch and not some petty payment issue.

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

What can we expect when digital comes

And if it does come and when it comes, then Comet subscribers will get a much better service than they are getting now, which is stating the obvious.

By going through the comments on the blog it seems that subscribers are raising questions about the new digital service.

Will a Dish replace the tall antenna?
Highly unlikely since Comet we believe would opt for DVB-T (Digital Video Broadcasting - Terrestrial) instead of DVB-S (Digital Video Broadcasting - Satellite presently used by Dialog TV). We are not sure whether the antenna will need to be at the present height though but since DVB-T also needs line of sight the height may remain the same. You may not have to use the same antenna and they might change it to a new one but if the antenna is kept the change over to digital from analog will be cheaper.

Will their be a limitation in capacity?
Yes, since they are operating on a wireless frequency they will be having limited capacity and will be able to carry only a certain number of channels per frequency but this can be overcome by adding other frequencies to expand. This is not only for Comet the same limitation exists with Dialog TV too since they can only add a limited number of channels per transponder and they also expand by adding new transponders and adding channels to the other frequencies. The operator who has the highest bandwidth at the moment and can expand without adding anything is LBN since they are operating on DVB-C (Digital Video Broadcasting - Cable). We are not sure how the limitations works for digital services over copper cables and we hope that someone can enlighten us on this.

What are the new features?
Electronic programme guides, Internet Access, Movie on Demand, Pay per view and a whole host of others. These are the general features but it depends on what Comet decides to implement and what not to not to implement but according to a website they had earlier for Comet Digital some of these services were listed.

Will there be rain fade?
Not sure but it is highly unlikely

The above is from the information that we gathered from external sources and it was not supplied by Comet Cable. We are not technicians and not experts in DVB-S, DVB-C, DVB-T and if there are any factual errors please highlight them to us.

Comet Digital according to the rumors is expected to launch in September 2007 and we would like our fellow bloggers to keep us updated on the latest on Comet as the days progress.

Star Cricket introduced

Comet Cable became the second pay television operator behind LBN to introduce Star Cricket on their platform according to unconfirmed sources. The introduction was carried out during the weekend at the expense of removing VH1/MTV. We believe that the channel that was replaced will return to Comet once they launch digital operations.

Star Cricket which is part of the ESPN Star Sports package is a dedicated 24 hour cricket channel which has the rights for some of the major ICC cricket tournaments over the next 11 years. The addition of Star Cricket is welcomed by many Comet Cable subscribers.

We are receiving conflicting reports regarding Comet Digital and we hope that the management of Comet Cable will make an official statement regarding the launch of Comet Digital. We hope that the Comet Digital campaign is not being carried out in order to retain subscribers from switching over to LBN or Dialog TV since they have an impressive lineup of channels and Dialog TV have launched the Star Package and are expected to launch Star Cricket within the next few days.

Please keep us updated on the latest developments regarding Comet Cable as the days progress.

More on Comet Digital Plans

Rumors indicate that Comet will be launching Digital Services by September 2007. Comet is not giving any information regarding the new channels or subscription rates and connection rates but it seems that after several years of being delayed Comet Digital will be a reality soon. We also received a scanned copy of the Comet Newsletter and we are publishing it below for your reference. We hope that will also not get stretched like any of the previous announcements. If this becomes a reality, there will be three companies (Dialog TV, LBN and Comet Digital) vying for the spot of leading cable television operator in Sri Lanka and soon they will be joined by SLT IPTV. All this will mean that the subscriber will reap the benefits from the competitive offers.

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