ETV, Dialog TV strike deal

Tuesday, 5 October 2010 23:47 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

By Deepal V. Perera

Vanguard Management Services Limited (VMSL) the owners of the ETV one of the country’s versatile English medium TV stations announced yesterday that the company had reached an agreement with Dialog TV to telecast ETV as a separate free channel.

VMSL Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Lakshman Bandaranayake told the media yesterday that by making available ETV on the Dialog platform it would facilitate to fulfill its objective of reaching every corner of Sri Lanka.

“Our operation model is that we use an old tradition by way of telecasting our programmes to the public free. In that sense our business model is to sell our air time for advertisements. From today onwards Dialog viewers would be able to watch ETV thorough satellite technology. Over the past years we were contemplating of reaching every corner of Sri Lanka, but the main setback was that it would need the setting up of at least 15 stations to reach that objective, which would be very expensive. So by taking into consideration our target audience we decided that Dialog TV is the best option we have to reach our viewers all over the country,” he said.

Dialog TV Chief Executive Officer Nushad Perera said that reaching an agreement to telecast ETV through the satellite technology of Dialog TV was a direct result of the longstanding relationship that the company had with VMSL.

“At DTV we were constantly involved in innovations. Our philosophy is similar to what Bill Gates has for Microsoft, where he produces only operating systems and never engaged in making PCs. So we are also engaged in facilitating technology for our channel to reach every corner of the country. If you take CNN, they only engaged in producing programmes and they never involve in making TVs. Similarly we will not engage in making programmes, but will facilitate all the channels to be seen and heard,” he added.

VMSL said that ETV’s strategic move will make the channel reach out to the audience from all over the island that enjoys watching high quality English programmes. Accordingly the two business leaders signed the official contract for the telecasting of ETV as a separate free channel on the Dialog TV platform.