The Sri Lanka Rūpavāhinī Corporation , also known as Jathika Rupavahini, is the national television network of Sri Lanka. Established by Parliament under Act No. 6 of 1982 for the provision of a national television service, it produces and broadcasts programmes in three languages. Distinguished civil servant M.J Perera was the founder chairman of Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation. SLRC is the largest television broadcaster in Sri Lanka and has an island-wide reception of its channels. SLRC broadcasts its channels in both VHF and UHF frequencies in Sri Lanka. Currently, all of the network's services are only available by analog transmission. But there are plans to upgrade to digital broadcasting. From 2011Kokavil transmitting starts DVB-T2 for the North area in Sri Lanka. There were plans to transmit the DVB-T2 Digital Transmission all over the country in 2015. The existing analog transmission will be completely cut off.
History
Rūpavāhinī was created under a government act on January 23, 1982 and established on February 14 the same year. Rupavahini began broadcasting on February 15, 1982, one day after it was established, with an opening speech from J. R. Jayewardene, Sri Lanka's president at the time. Funding was donated by the Japanese government. Both transmitters were built and installed by Japanese technicians. In 1986, Rupavahini expanded their facilities and, in 1998, rehabilitated most of the original equipment using digital technology under three grant aid projects from the Government of Japan. Its studio complex is in Colombo, the commercial capital of Sri Lanka. The complex comprises a master control room, four studios, two dubbing studios, a digital post-production unit, two analogue post-production units, several editing suites including non-linear editing, and four outside broadcast vehicles. 'Rupavahini 2' launched in April 1999 before it changed its name to the current 'Channel Eye' in August 2000. On January 1, 2008, Channel Eye became a timeshared channel, altering with the newly created Nethra TV. In 2009, series of Rupavahini productions available in DVD and VCD formats under the title "RU Entertainments". Rupavahini is the first Sri Lankan channel to telecast foreign teledramas. The most popular of them was Oshin, which was a Japanese teledrama dubbed with Sinhala. In December 2014, the main channel was made available via satellite to Europe, prompting the channel to temporarily go 24/7 to alleviate time zone differences. Due to unknown reasons, the channel was removed. The channel now starts shortly before 04:00 and ends shortly after midnight.
Sister channels
Currently the SLRC operates three channels.
Rupavahini is the main channel, in Sinhala. It transmits on a 20-hour schedule and features news, teledramas, educational programming, discussion shows, and imported programming.
Channel Eye is the English language and sports channel. The channel's name is derived from its three focal points: Education, Youth, and Entertainment. The channel airs a wide range of original productions and sporting events. In the first years of Channel Eye, it telecast documentaries of Discovery Channel and international and local sport programs, mainly cricket, volleyball, and motorcar racing. Channel Eye became the official TV broadcaster for five Cricket World Cup tournaments: 1996, 2003, 2007, 2011, and 2015.
Nethra TV is the Tamil language channel started in 2008. Initially, it was broadcast on Channel Eye's frequencies between 07:30 and 21:00. Since February 20, 2018 it has its own frequencies separate from Channel Eye. The channel focuses on Tamil culture and customs with original and acquired programming, including Tamil serials. It also airs an amount of religious programming, especially aimed at the religious minorities.
Between 2009 and 2015, a fourth channel, NTV, was operated by the corporation. It aired contents entirely in English and was known to be a "worthless" channel upon its launch by critics. Eventually, NTV was shut down owing to low ratings.
Management and funding
Rupavahini is an autonomous corporation run by a chairman, director general, and a board of directors appointed by the president. Until 1998 there was a subscription system to earn funds: Every television owner with VHF reception had to pay the government a yearly fee. After a parliament act, programming and broadcasts funding was made by television advertising and government grants.
Logo
Rupavahini's logo is a hill mynah carrying a message in gold on a red TV screen. It is generally accompanied by the channel's name in Sinhala, Tamil, and a transliteration of Sinhala, with macrons. The leaf was incorporated into NTV's previous symbol and is incorporated into trophies held at award shows organized by the corporation, the Ape Gamana logo, and the SLRC's news operation.
