Interview with Mr. Shirantha Herath MD of LBN

Recently we interviewed Mr. Shirantha Herath who is the MD of LBN by email. We have given below the questions that we asked him and his responses to them.

Admin : There are rumours saying that LBN is financially wrecked. We know that a seven month shutdown can have a very bad negative impact on a company financially. How would you explain the present situation at LBN?
Shirantha : Whilst LBN has had to contend with a massive loss due to this issue we are in no way wrecked. Financially we are in a position to continue operations and expand the network as well as continue to improve on the services we provide.

Admin : When is the expected commercial relaunch of LBN?
Shirantha : We hope to commence commercial operations shortly.

Admin : Has the transmission network of LBN being damaged badly due to the shutdown. If not why has there been an extended period of testing?
Shirantha : There was extensive damage to the network. We have rectified most of the damage and have reconnected a majority of the customers who had changed to local antennas.

Admin : Should we expect an increase in the monthly rental of LBN packages and also the initial installation cost?
Shirantha : There will be no increase in the monthly charges for existing customers for at least the next six months. We are in the process of reevaluating the pricing in view of the new content we are introducing. If there is a revision this will apply to new customers only.

Admin : Will LBN be broadcasting the ICC World Cup tournament live? Dialog TV is said to have obtained exclusive rights for this on the pay television platform.
Shirantha : Dialog has got exclusive satellite rights and we are in discussions with the broadcaster. If Dialog has paid a premium to stop other platforms and deny non dialog customers from watching the world cup we will not be able to broadcast the world cup on LBN. This is yet to be finalized.

Admin : What else can we expect from LBN in the future?
Shirantha : We have already launched two sports channels. Namely Neo Sports and Neo Sports PLUS. We are in the final stages of discussions with HBO to launch HBO Family and HBO Hits. In addition we will also be adding Discovery, Animal Planet and Discovery Travel and Living. Very shortly. However the most exciting thing in the future is the introduction of High Speed internet. The license for this has already been given by the TRC and we hope to launch this in the 2^nd half of 2007. Whilst the digital signal is available at present we will formally launch the digital services shortly. There appears to be a common misconception that digital is only available on satellite.

So it looks like LBN subscribers are in for a treat with the upcoming launch of HBO Hits, HBO Family and Discovery Communication Channels. Not to mention high speed internet which seems to be the best thing that can happen to LBN subscribers. Even if LBN does not show the ICC World Cup the planned channel lineup as well as the internet plans will make up for it.

We like to thank Mr. Shirantha for taking time to answer the above questions.

Message from LBN

20th February, 2007

Dear Valued Customer,

After seven and half long months of closure by the authorities, we have now been permitted commence operation and are now conducting test transmissions. Our network has suffered immense damage during the period of closure. We are in the process of restoring the network.

If you are not receiving our transmission, please call our Customer Service Hotline 5 300 300

We greatly value your patronage and wish to thank you very sincerely for your patience during this difficult period and having kept faith in LBN

LBN MANAGEMENT

*** Even though the message is dated as 20th February 2007 it should be said that it appeared on our computer screens only a few hours ago and after we made the previous post - Admin (TV Radio Sri Lanka)

Financial problems?

We are getting unconfirmed reports that LBN is facing a financial crisis as a result of their closure which lasted over 6 months. The LBN website still carries the test transmission message and we request LBN customers to confirm whether they have received their monthly bills or not.

It is not surprising that LBN may be having some financial problems due to the closure but this is said to be a more serious issue. We again stress that this is an unconfirmed story.

Only LBN management will be able to tell us the truthfulness of the story and also why the test transmission message is still on the website. Another unconfirmed story is that in certain areas commercial transmissions have resumed but in certain others they are still on test transmission mode.

In other news, even though "Dialog TV" have been awarded exclusive rights to broadcast the ICC Cricket World Cup it seems that other operators such as LBN 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.

Commercial Transmissions resumption message

According to a report received by us it seems that a message had appeared on Neo Sports informing customers of the resumption of commercial operations of LBN and requesting them to pay all their arears due up to 15th June 2006.

The website still carries the test transmission announcement but it may due to the fact that the website has not been updated still.

We hope that LBN will make an official announcement regarding the resumption of commercial transmissions and hopefully anyone else who saw the message can clarify further.

Commercial or Test Transmissions

We are receiving conflicting reports regarding the status of LBN broadcasts. Some say that the LBN representatives are telling that commercial operations commenced on Feb 1st however others are pointing out the fact that the channels are having the test transmission scroll still displayed on the channel as well as on the web site.

With this we can only come to the conclusion that commercial operations have not started. Only LBN can answer that question since not much of information is coming out from there. Well at least they are now fully operational and they did a good job of bringing their entire network back into full strength after 6 months of being shutdown.

In addition several subscribers are requesting LBN to add Discovery Channel, Animal Planet and Discovery Travel & Living to their lineup including SET Max which is scheduled to carry the ICC World Cup Live.

It is quite baffling to note why LBN have not added the Discovery Channels to their lineup since they are standard pay television channels.

LBN restores all channels

LBN which is still in test transmission mode according to their website has restored all the channels that were functioning prior to shutdown including all local channels except TV Lanka (the reasons for which are understandable). Even new channels such as Neo Sports and Neo Sports Plus are on air.

Their transmission network has now been fully restored. We expect LBN to commence full scale commercial operations anytime soon.

We have not got any information on whether LBN has commenced billing it's existing customers. If not it is likely that billing will commence soon.

We would like to request our fellow LBN bloggers not to post Anonymous Comments and to include a consistent nickname when making comments. If Anonymous comments are continued then we will be forced to allow commenting only by bloggers who posses Google Accounts.