Dialog TV

Dialog TV is a provider of Standard Definition TV (SDTV), High Definition TV (HDTV) and Personal Video Recording (PVR) services in Sri Lanka. Dialog Television currently offers 140 TV channels, including 11 HD channels(1 test HD channel).

Dialog TV offers 2 payment options for customers to receive their service. "Prepaid monthly Packages" allows the customer to pay a monthly rental fee ranging from Rs.325 to Rs.525 for a limited number of channels. Alternatively, the Postpaid payment method has 5 package options with a monthly rental fee of between Rs.699 to Rs.1949 for a higher number of channels.

Criticism and controversy

CBNsat and NTT

On June 6, 2006, the Sri Lanka Police's Criminal Investigation Department raided the CBNsat broadcast premises and ordered to shut down the service. CBNsat was accused of not possessing the correct DTH broadcasting license and broadcasting the NTT channel (of the LTTE) on their service. CBNsat was also blamed for broadcasting possibly illegal adult content on Fashion TV.

The Media Ministry took over the case when the CID dropped their charges in late 2006. It was not possible to show evidence of CBNsat broadcasting the NTT channel as it blocked Free To Air channels from the customer decoders and NTT was a Free To Air channel.

The Media Ministry could not prove any of the allegations and was finally forced to provide the necessary license to CBNsat. Meanwhile, CBNsat was financially crippled and was acquired by Dialog Telekom in December 2006 for a value of Rs. 523.8 million. The service was finally relaunched in February 2007.

As a result of the closure, a few subscribers gathered together to form CBNsat Subscribers Unite. The subscribers worked hard to bring CBNsat out of trouble during the closure and ultimately caused the government to give up their vested interests.

Presidential Election 2015

On November 22, 2014, A domestic Sri Lanka TV channel Sirasa TV, a part of Capital Maharaja Conglomerate, hosted what experts called a critical political discussion show called "Satana" (weeks before the 2015 Presidential Election). It was reported by a vast number of viewers using Dialog TV and PEO TV to watch Sirasa TV channel and their affiliated sister channels (Shakthi TV and MTV Sports) that their feed got interrupted for the channel during the political show. Many outraged Journalists gave out their opinion on the disruption of information to the public during an important political timeline and that the government is trying to suppress the media. Even though many pointed the finger towards the Sri Lankan President at the time Mahinda Rajapakshe, stating that he is the invisible hand that caused the disruption of the feed, he has categorical refused any direct involvement in the matter.

Neither Dialog TV nor Peo TV has failed to provide a rational explanation for the disruption of feed only for a few channels owned by one media company. The only explanation Dialog TV has expressed was that the disruption was caused by a "technical glitch".