ETV (Sri Lanka)

Last updated
ETV
Etvlk.jpg
Country Sri Lanka
Broadcast areaSri Lanka
Programming
Language(s)English
Ownership
OwnerEAP Broadcasting Company
Sister channels Swarnavahini
History
Former namesETV 2
Availability
Terrestrial
UHF (Colombo)Channel 35
UHF (Kalutara)Channel 40

ETV (Extra Terrestrial Vision) is an English language television channel in Sri Lanka owned by EAP Broadcasting Company, a subsidiary of EAP Holdings. Launched in 1995 as ETV 2, it was a sister channel of ETV 1. [1] The channel's owner Extra Terrestrial Vision (Private) Limited, who had been incorporated on 6 July 1992, changed its name to EAP Network (Private) Limited on 30 April 1996 following the acquisition by EAP. [2] At that time ETV 2 was re-broadcasting Star TV. [3] ETV 1 was re-launched as Swarnavahini, a mass market Sinhala language channel, on 16 March 1997. [3] [4] ETV 2 was re-launched as ETV on 1 May 1998. [3] [5] EAP Network (Private) Limited changed its name to EAP Broadcasting Company (Private) Limited on 16 May 2012, EAP Network (Private) Limited on 31 October 2012, EAP Network Limited on 28 August 2013 and EAP Broadcasting Company Limited on 11 September 2013. [2] In 2019, EAP Broadcasting Company parent company EAP Holdings was acquired by local company Ben Holdings (Pvt) Limited and Singapore based company Blue Summit . [6]

Contents

ETV is available on free-to-air on analogue terrestrial transmission via UHF channel 35 in the Colombo area and UHF channel 40 in the Kalutara area. [7] It is also available on Lanka Broadband Networks cable TV and PEO TV IPTV (channel 119). [8] [9]

The original ETV (digital) studio: (L to R) Arlaka Jayasekara (Admin Manager MSC/ETV), Sanjay B. (Entrepreneur from India), Priyanke (CEO/MD MCS & Director/Technology consultant ETV) on the 17th floor of the SET building in Colombo 4, Sri Lanka. Incidentally, the TV shows (BBC NEWS item) an image of Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev which caught the attention of Sanjay B. ETV-Digital-Studio-Arlaka-Sanjay-Priyanke.jpg
The original ETV (digital) studio: (L to R) Arlaka Jayasekara (Admin Manager MSC/ETV), Sanjay B. (Entrepreneur from India), Priyanke (CEO/MD MCS & Director/Technology consultant ETV) on the 17th floor of the SET building in Colombo 4, Sri Lanka. Incidentally, the TV shows (BBC NEWS item) an image of Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev which caught the attention of Sanjay B.

History

ETV started in late 1991 as a branch of Mirco-Wave Communication Systems (Private) Limited (MCS) (Sri Lanka Registrar of Companies # NPVS9093). MCS was a subsidiary of East-West Enterprises [11] and was the primary reason for the E in ETV (East West Television). The original board of MCS and Later ETV consisted of 4 persons - namely, Nahil Wijesuriya, [12] Captain Lester Weinman, [13] [14] Uoosoof Mohideen [15] [16] [17] and Priyanke de Silva. [18] [19] [20] [21] These four names are in the registrar of companies register for both ETV and Micro-Wave communication systems.

Incidentally, Nahil's alma-mater is Trinity College, Kandy while the other three studied at St. Peter's College, Colombo 4.

The logo of ETV depicted in this article (and has the colours of East West Enterprises) was designed by Nahil Wijesuriya in his office at the Robert Senanayake Building in Nawam Mawatha, Colombo 2.

Priyanke (Anthonus) de Silva (Priyanke Research) [19] [22] [ circular reference ] met Uoosoof Mohideen at the Arthur C. Clarke Institute for Modern Technologies [23] in August 1990. Priyanke and Uoosoof became friends and it was Uoosoof who invited Priyanke to join MCS as a Consultant Engineer for ETV, which was headed at that time by Mr. Roshan Rupesinghe. Soon after joining, Roshan Rupesinghe migrated to Australia at which point Nahil invited Priyanke to be the CEO/Managing Director of MCS.

ETV microwave transmitter at 'East-West Properties' at Peliyagoda, Sri Lanka in (under) the 50 ft (15 m) concrete dish. The transmitter was broken into two parts with the head-end on the transmitting tower (antenna) on Priyanke's advice. ETV-mirowave-transmitter-in-peliyagoda-under-50-foot-dish.jpg
ETV microwave transmitter at 'East-West Properties' at Peliyagoda, Sri Lanka in (under) the 50 ft (15 m) concrete dish. The transmitter was broken into two parts with the head-end on the transmitting tower (antenna) on Priyanke's advice.
Draft minutes of a board meeting held with 3 (Nahil, Uoosoof and Priyanke) of the 4 members present at Robert Senanayake Building, Nawam Mw., Colombo 2. Mcs-etv-draft-minutes-for-wikipedia.jpg
Draft minutes of a board meeting held with 3 (Nahil, Uoosoof and Priyanke) of the 4 members present at Robert Senanayake Building, Nawam Mw., Colombo 2.

Programming for ETV was by down linking AsiaSat1 programs by a 50-foot (15 m) diameter concrete dish built by Nahil (for which he owned a patent) at an east–west property in Peliyagoda, Sri Lanka. The AsiaSat1 signal was very weak (approx -19db to -23db) and the 50-foot (15 m) dish enabled ETV to provide 'broadcast quality' programs. Incidentally, MCS sold self-manufactured glass-fibre dishes of 16-foot (4.9 m) diameter for residential use (including hotels).

Service of the two stations extended to Kandy in 1994. [24]

A microwave, line-of-sight, link from Peliyagoda to Station Rd, Colombo 4 (SET building) fed the content to the broadcasting studio/station on the 17th floor of the SET building.

During this period East-West Enterprises split into two entities and Captain Lester Weinman and Mr. Nahil Wijesuriya went separate ways with Lester getting control of the Robert Senanayake Building and Nahil getting the IBM Building (Thaakshana Mandiraya) in Navam Mawatha, Colombo 2 and Nahil got total control of MCS and ETV. Nahil moved his office to the Thaakshana Mandiraya (IBM building).

Uoosoof Mohideen is/was the CNN representative for Sri Lanka and later joined Dynavision Broadcasting Corporation re-branded as ART TV as CEO upon exiting from MCS/ETV. Incidentally, Priyanke did some ground work for CNN during this time on measuring the CNN signal quality, etc.

Priyanke also exited ETV and MCS, before Uoosoof's exit and the primary reason was that he wanted to go back to concentrating on his core business and other ventures, including as a technology consultant for another east–west (Nahil) owned enterprise.

Nahil continued on with ETV and later sold ETV to EAP Holdings.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Transport in Sri Lanka</span>

Transport in Sri Lanka is based on its road network, which is centred on the country's commercial capital Colombo. A rail network handles a portion of Sri Lanka's transport needs. There are navigable waterways, harbours and three international airports: in Katunayake, 35 kilometres (22 mi) north of Colombo, in Hambantota, and in Jaffna.

Mass media of Sri Lanka consist of several different types of communications media: television, radio, newspapers, magazines, and Web sites. State and private media operators provide services in the main languages Sinhala, Tamil and English. The government owns two major TV stations, radio networks operated by the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation (SLBC), and newspaper titles in Sinhala, Tamil, and English.

Television in Sri Lanka dates back to 1979. Television broadcasting, like other forms of media in the country, is generally divided along linguistic lines with state and private media operators providing services in Sinhala, Tamil, and English languages.

Sri FM, commenced its operations as FM99, by a veteran broadcaster named Livi Wijemanne as the first privately owned radio station in Sri Lanka, was later renamed as Shree FM when it was taken over by the E.A.P. Edirisingha (Pvt) Ltd., who owns Swarnavahini and ETV Television Channels. Its English counterpart channel being E FM is broadcast from colombo on FM 100.4 MHz.

Swarnavahini is a Sinhala language general entertainment and news television channel in Sri Lanka owned by EAP Broadcasting Company, a subsidiary of EAP Holdings. Launched in 1994 as ETV, it was one of Sri Lanka's first privately owned television channels. Its sister channel ETV 2 was launched in 1995 when ETV was re-branded ETV 1. The channel's owner Extra Terrestrial Vision (Private) Limited, who had been incorporated on 6 July 1992, changed its name to EAP Network (Private) Limited on 30 April 1996 following the acquisition by EAP. At that time ETV 1 was re-broadcasting BBC. ETV 1 was re-launched as Swarnavahini, a mass market Sinhala language channel, on 16 March 1997. EAP Network (Private) Limited changed its name to EAP Broadcasting Company (Private) Limited on 16 May 2012, EAP Network (Private) Limited on 31 October 2012, EAP Network Limited on 28 August 2013 and EAP Broadcasting Company Limited on 11 September 2013.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sooriyan FM</span> Tamil radio station in Sri Lanka

Sooriyan FM is a privately owned Tamil radio station in Sri Lanka run by ABC Radio Networks started in 1998. It covers the whole island. The network runs sister stations Hiru FM and Shaa FM in Sinhala and Gold FM and Sun FM in English.

Art Television Broadcasting Co. is a 24-hour analogue terrestrial television channel in Sri Lanka. A privately owned channel that broadcasts English content has its headquarters located in Colombo. Its coverage is viewed on Frequencies UHF – CH28 in Colombo and UHF – CH52 in Kandy. ART Television is owned by the Sri Lankan business conglomerate IWS Holdings (Private) Limited founded by Indulakshin Wickramasinghe Senanayake.

President's House is the official residence and workplace of the President of Sri Lanka, located at Janadhipathi Mawatha, Colombo, Sri Lanka. Since 1804 it had been the residence of British Governors and Governors-General and was known as the "King's House" or the "Queen's House" until Sri Lanka became a republic in 1972.

E FM is a Colombo, Sri Lanka–based radio station. Tagged with the catchphrase "Your Lifestyle Station", E FM is one of the three radio channels operated and managed by EAP Broadcasting Company Ltd., a subsidiary of the EAP Edirisinghe Group of Companies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Port of Colombo</span> Port in Sri Lanka

The Port of Colombo Sinhala: කොළඹ වරාය, Tamil: கொழும்பு துறைமுகம் is the largest and busiest port in Sri Lanka and the Indian Ocean. Located in Colombo, on the southwestern shores on the Kelani River, it serves as an important terminal in Asia due to its strategic location in the Indian Ocean. During the 1980s, the port underwent rapid modernization with the installation of cranes, gantries and other modern-day terminal requirements.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Melstacorp</span> Sri Lankan conglomerate

Melstacorp PLC is a Sri Lankan diversified conglomerate. It is listed in the Colombo Stock Exchange. Melstacorp PLC is one of the 10 largest listed companies. It has a market capitalization of approximately USD 450 million. Deshamanya Harry Jayawardena is the Chairman of the company.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Soma Edirisinghe</span> Sri Lankan businesswoman

Soma Edirisinghe was a Sri Lankan corporate executive, film producer, philanthropist and social worker. She was born in Meegoda, Sri Lanka on 5 July 1939 to a family of nine daughters, and died on 5 November 2015 at a private hospital in Colombo. She was married to EAP Edirisinghe and they had four children: three sons, Jeewaka, Nalaka and Asanka, and a daughter, Deepa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Upul Liyanage</span>

Upul Liyanage is one of the veteran media officials in Sri Lanka. He starts his education in Panadura Sumangala College. Having the 5th year scholarship to Thurstan College Colombo. He did his higher education in the Tunku Abdul Rahman University College. He worked much of his life in the media and entertainment fields.

LAUGFS Holdings Limited is a diversified conglomerate from Sri Lanka and has since expanded overseas. Laugfs Holdings is mainly engaged in Energy, retail, Industrial and manufacturing, Hospitality, Real estate, logistics, pharmaceuticals and several other sectors.

Edirisinghe Trust Investments Finance Limited also popularly known as ETI Finance is a Sri Lankan private limited company as well as a non banking financial institution which worked as a licensed finance company accepting deposits from general public. The company's business was primarily based on lending money on gold securities. On 13 July 2020, Central Bank of Sri Lanka decided to cancel the license of the company due to insufficient capital and financial problems regarding repaying depositors' money on demand as well as before maturity.

EAP Films was originally founded as Edirisinghe Cinema Theatres in 1972. It has the largest share of the Sri Lanka theatre market with more than 15+ screens island-wide. It started producing films in 1994 and its first release was Dhawala Pushpaya (1994). The company has been listed on the Colombo Stock Exchange since the 2000s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">People's Leasing & Finance</span> Sri Lankan non-banking financial company

People's Leasing & Finance PLC, sometimes called People's Leasing Company or commonly abbreviated PLC, is a licensed non-banking financial company in Sri Lanka. The company is ranked 30th in LMD 100, an annual list of leading listed companies in Sri Lanka. Brand Finance placed the company 21st amongst the 100 most valuable brands in Sri Lanka. The company was incorporated in 1995 and in 2010 listed on the Colombo Stock Exchange. 75% of the shares of the company is held by the People's Bank, one of the two government-held banks of Sri Lanka.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brown and Company</span> Sri Lankan conglomerate holding company

Brown and Company PLC, sometimes called Browns Group, is a conglomerate holding company in Sri Lanka. The company was founded by James Brown, a 25-year-old engineer and mechanic from London who arrived in Ceylon in 1872. In 1892, the company was incorporated and in 1991 the company became a listed company on the Colombo Stock Exchange. The company was included in S&P Sri Lanka 20 Index in June 2021. Brown and Company is one of the LMD 100 companies, an annual list of Sri Lankan listed companies by revenue, having ranked 42nd in the 2020/21 edition.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">HDFC Bank of Sri Lanka</span> Specialised bank in Sri Lanka

The Housing Development Finance Corporation Bank of Sri Lanka PLC, commonly abbreviated as HDFC Bank of Sri Lanka PLC, is a specialised housing bank in Sri Lanka. The bank commenced operations in 1984 as a building society. Through successive acts in the Parliament of Sri Lanka over the years, the bank transformed into a state-owned enterprise, then a specialised bank and a listed company on the Colombo Stock Exchange in 2005. Since widening its scope of business in 2011, the bank established itself as a supporter of small and medium-sized enterprises. The government of Sri Lanka holds 51% of the bank's stocks, mainly through the National Housing Development Authority. HDFC Bank is one of the LMD 100 companies in Sri Lanka. The bank ranked 78th in the 2020/21 edition. Brand Finance calculated the brand value of HDFC Bank to be LKR763 million in 2022. Due to the effects of the Sri Lankan economic crisis, Fitch Ratings placed the bank along with twelve other Sri Lankan banks on Rating Watch Negative.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Renuka Holdings</span> Conglomerate company in Sri Lanka

Renuka Holdings PLC, also called Renuka Group, is a conglomerate company in Sri Lanka. Ceylonese businessman Alfred Thambiyah laid the foundations of the Renuka Group by acquiring the Crago Boat Dispatch Company in 1936 and establishing Renuka Hotel, named after his youngest daughter Indu Renuka in 1969. Indu Renuka Rajiyah founded Renuka Enterprises in 1975, and Renuka Holdings in 1979 marked the formal beginning of the group. Renuka Holdings went public in 2008 and following the listing on the Colombo Stock Exchange, the company pursued a growth strategy. Renuka Holdings is one of the LMD 100 companies in Sri Lanka and also one of the 20 largest conglomerates in Sri Lanka.

References

  1. ↑ "Sri Lanka". Press Reference.
  2. 1 2 "EAP Broadcasting Company Limited: Debenture Issue 2015" (PDF). Colombo Stock Exchange. p. 4.
  3. 1 2 3 "EAP Broadcasting Company Limited: Debenture Issue 2015" (PDF). Colombo Stock Exchange. p. 39.
  4. ↑ "EAP Broadcasting Company Limited: Debenture Issue 2015" (PDF). Colombo Stock Exchange. p. 38.
  5. ↑ "Penetrative analysis of television in Sri Lanka". Daily News (Sri Lanka) . 9 June 2004.
  6. ↑ "Ben Holdings, Blue Summit Capital sets record clear on investment in ETI | Daily FT". www.ft.lk. Retrieved 2021-07-06.
  7. ↑ Alan G. Davies (21 February 2010). "Television Stations in Sri Lanka".
  8. ↑ "List of Channels". Lanka Broadband Networks. Archived from the original on 20 March 2014.
  9. ↑ "Channel Lineup". PEO TV.
  10. ↑ "AJ". 30 March 2017.
  11. ↑ "Home". eastwest.lk.
  12. ↑ "In the home of Nahil Wijesuriya – Echelon".
  13. ↑ "Sri Lanka Shipping Chief briefs shareholders on plight of Avant Garde | Daily FT".
  14. ↑ "Company Profile of Sri Lanka Shipping". Archived from the original on 2017-01-04. Retrieved 2017-01-03.
  15. ↑ "American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics - Recipients". 27 September 2007. Archived from the original on 27 September 2007.
  16. ↑ "Uoosoof MOHIDEEN - Wellington - NEW ZEALAND".
  17. ↑ https://www.companiesoffice.govt.nz/companies/app/service/services/documents/419FE18AEDCD0A819D0E3900911EBBF9%5B%5D
  18. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2017-01-04. Retrieved 2017-01-03.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  19. 1 2 "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2017-01-06. Retrieved 2017-01-05.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  20. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2017-01-06. Retrieved 2017-01-05.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  21. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2016-11-25. Retrieved 2017-01-03.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  22. ↑ Ice Wireless#History
  23. ↑ "Home". accimt.ac.lk.
  24. ↑ "Television" (PDF). May 1994. p. 507. Retrieved 5 February 2024.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.