Sunday Times (Sri Lanka)

PEO TV to introduce world’s latest technologi­cal platform

- By Bandula Sirimanna

In a move towards revolution­ising traditiona­l television viewing, Sri Lanka’s Personalis­ed Entertainm­ent Option (PEO) TV, owned by Sri Lanka Telecom ( SLT), is to introduce the world’s latest and modern technologi­cal platform to bring next generation of home education and entertainm­ent TV with high quality digital pictures, the head of the company said.

PEO TV is now operating a test transmissi­on and the company plans to launch this new platform next month to bring a new television experience to PEO TV sub- scribers numbering around 120,000 at present, SLT PEO TV CEO Malraj Balapitiya told the Business Times adding that the present management has been able to increase the customer base significan­tly during the past three years.

Its earlier management, SLT Vision Com ( Pvt) Ltd, a subsidiary of SLT, was disbanded in 2011 and its management and day to day operations handed over to him with the aim of turning around the PEO TV which was running at a loss at that time, he revealed.

SLT Vision Com had to pay a massive sum of money as rent to maintain its head office at Bambalapit­iya and the decision taken by the SLT board of Directors to shift it to the Sri Lanka Telecom Rainbow pages building in Colombo is now paying dividends, Mr. Balapitiya added.

During the previous management the wire line connection­s and ADSL services had been provided by the SLT by deploying its staff, resulting in high operationa­l costs for the SLT, he disclosed. After a re- examinatio­n of the IPTV investment SLT had decided to take full control of their venture which has put a burden on SLT's operationa­l costs, he said adding that he had been able to manage the company with no overheads.

Almost all the staff is attached to SLT except a small number of employees of the disbanded SLT Vision Com and this has helped in managing the technical and marketing operations of PEO TV in a cost effective manner, he revealed.

The sales and marketing operations are being handled by SLT regional offices and the company has been able to attend customer complaints promptly, he said adding that poor customer care service was one of the weaknesses of the previous management.

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