Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation

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Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation

Company type	Government-owned corporation
Industry	Mass media Entertainment
Founded	14 February 1982; 42 years ago (1982-02-14)
Area served	Sri Lanka
Key people	Titus Thotawatte Rosmand Senaratne Mayura Samarasinghe
Revenue	Rs 1.951 billion (2015)[1]
Operating income	Rs−338.9 million (2015)[1]
Net income	Rs−371.7 million (2015)[1]
Total assets	Rs1.985 billion (2015)[1]
Total equity	Rs1.219 billion (2015)[1]
Number of employees	1,030 (2015)[1]
Parent	Ministry of Information and Mass Media
Subsidiaries	Channel Eye Nethra TV NTV
Website	www.rupavahini.lk

The Sri Lanka Rūpavāhinī Corporation (Sinhala: ශ්‍රී ලංකා රූපවාහිනී සංස්ථාව; Tamil: இலங்கை ரூபவாகினி கூட்டுத்தாபனம்), also known as Jathika Rupavahini (lit. National Television) or simply as Rupavahini, is the national television network of Sri Lanka. The term Rupavahini literally means "purveyor of images" in the Sinhala language.^[2]

Established by Parliament under Act No. 6 of 1982 for the provision of national television service, it produces and broadcasts programmes in three languages. Distinguished civil servant M.J Perera was the founder and 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 2011 Kokavil began to broadcast in DVB-T2 for the North area in Sri Lanka. There were plans to transmit DVB-T2 digital television all over the country in 2015. By 2021, however, the government had switched to a plan to use ISDB-T after receiving aid from the Japanese foreign ministry.^[3]

Sri Lanka had no television services available until 1979. The creation of a national television service was planned several times as far back as 1965 (Ceylon at the time), when then-Minister of State J. R. Jayawardene suggested its creation, but was rejected by Dudley Senanayake's government, whose media advisors led by Neville Jayaweera called television "a gift of a rhinoceros". In 1977, the idea of launching a television service resurfaced. President J. R. Jayewardene, in early 1978, held talks with technicians of the Japanese Nippon Electric Company, while also accepting proposals from German and French electronics companies to be their suppliers. According to Japanese law, the national television service was to be a public service television station and not a commercial service.^[4]

President J.R. Jayewardene approved the creation of the national television service on 4 March 1980.^[5]

Rūpavāhinī was created under a government act on 23 January 1982, and established on February 14 the same year. Rupavahini began broadcasting on 15 February 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.^[2] Broadcasts initially started at 6pm with a daily segment for children and ended at 11pm. There were three daily news bulletins, with a Tamil edition at 7pm, a Sinhala edition at 8:15pm and an English edition at 9:30pm. Sinhala-language feature films were broadcast once a month.^[6] By 1985, broadcasts started earlier at 5:30pm, with the slots for news remaining unchanged.^[7] One of the initial aims of the corporation was to broadcast educational programmes for 500 schools by offering free sets to classrooms, under the principle that television was to be used as an aid for the teacher.^[2]

Early in its existence, Rupavahini could be received well, depending on weather conditions, in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Viewers preferred Rupavahini over Doordarshan's local station, especially its agricultural and children's programming. The relays were often jammed by a Doordarshan relayer in Trivandrum in Kerala.^[8] Rupavahini's popularity led to the purchase of colour television sets in southern India, before the rest of the country started regular services. Newspapers started publishing schedules for the station.^[9] Per a 1984 government order, Rupavahini reduced the power of its transmitters as the channel didn't compensate its audience in India via overspill by attracting Indian advertisers. Viewer preference in India continued even after Doordarshan implemented its colour service - its foreign programmes were also attractive.^[10]

In 1986, Rupavahini expanded its 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.

In the 80s and 90s, Rupavahini aired a number of dubbed cartoons led by Titus Thotawatte, the most remarkable titles being Bugs Bunny (Ha Ha Hari Hawa, Doctor Dolittle (Dosthara Honda Hitha) and Top Cat (Pissu Pusa). These continued to air on Rupavahini for years.^[11]

Rupavahini reopened two relays in Kokavil and Palavi in 1994.^[12]

'Rupavahini 2' launched in April 1999 before it changed its name to the current 'Channel Eye' in August 2000.

The corporation signed a historic agreement with Canal France International on 28 July 2004.^[13]

On 1 January 2008, Channel Eye became a time-shared 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".^[14] Rupavahini is the first Sri Lankan channel to telecast foreign teledramas. The most popular of them was Oshin, which was a Japanese teledrama dubbed in Sinhala. Also, the channel telecast the first Korean drama to air in the country called Sujatha Diyani also known as Dae Jang Geum, in November 2012. Which is another popular drama where it led to the foundation of other Korean historical dramas to air and be dubbed in Sinhala as well.

In December 2014, the main channel was made available via satellite to Europe (via Eutelsat 70B), prompting the channel to temporarily go 24/7 (still doing the formal start and end of transmission routines) to alleviate time zone differences. Due to unknown reasons, the channel was removed. The channel now starts up shortly before 04:00 IST and closes down shortly after midnight.

On 22 February 2022, Rupavahini changed its logo by changing its shape and removing the Tamil and English names of the network, leaving only the name in the predominant Sinhala language, therefore making it monolingual. The change was later reverted in October as the new logo was described by activists as "divisive".^[15] As anti-government protests intensify and after protesters stormed the headquarters of the network, Rupavahini temporarily ceased operations shortly after playing the national anthem on 13 July 2022.^[16][17]

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 (nethra is Tamil for "eye") 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 had its 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 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.^[18]

All transmitters are in analog.

From its launch in 1982 to the conversion to HD in November 2022, Rupavahini has used a slightly modified version of the German Telefunken FuBK colour test card during non-broadcast hours. The pink and purple bars are solid and the text (RUPAVAHINI-SRI LANKA) is set to half-width.^[19]

Rupavahini is an autonomous corporation run by a chairman, director-general, and a board of directors appointed by the president.

Until 1998, Rupavahini was funded by a licence fee system: every television owner with at least VHF reception had to pay the government a yearly fee. After a parliament act, the licence fee was scrapped and the funding of Rupavahini was changed to a system of government grants supplemented with TV advertising.

Rupavahini's logo is a hill mynah carrying a message in gold on a red TV screen. The logo was designed by artist and painter Bandula Peiris, and was drawn in the Sinhala art style of Tirigitalaya. The bird's wings represent VHF and UHF television aerials and the semi-circle holding the wings represents a satellite dish. The bottom of the message contains an easter egg, which, if rotated, reveals Bandula's initial, "බ", in square format.^[20] Apart for a period of a few months in 2022, the channel's name in Sinhala (රූපවාහිනී), Tamil (ரூபவாகினி), and a transliteration of Sinhala, with macrons (RŪPAVĀHINĪ) appeared below. The leaf in the right wing 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. The logo of Rupavahini's children's club, Muthuhara, was also Peiris' creation.^[20]

A news item on the logo was seen on the Sinhala, Tamil and English news bulletins on launch day. The logo was a source of contention from another designer, who threatened to sue the corporation and the advertising agency who created the logo, for a period of five years. During this period, only Peiris could provide evidence.^[20]

In the early years, the station's starting animation consisted of the line drawing of the bird and an aerial shot of the facilities.^[21]

At start-up, a slide (static until the conversion to widescreen) with the Rupavahini logo appears, accompanied by an instrumental rendition of Kawurudo ara Kawuluwen by singer-songwriter Sanath Nandasiri.^[22] The bird appears towards the end of the channel's nightly end of transmission sequence, flying past the transmitter at Rupavahini's headquarters. The sequence is followed by the national anthem.^[23]

On 24 February 2022, coinciding with changes to Rupavahini News, the channel changed its logo for the first time, the bird was kept intact but the screen was replaced by a rounded rectangle. The Tamil and English forms of the name were removed. There was some criticism on social media over the decision.^[24] In October, Rupavahini reverted its logo due to internal and external pressure.^[25]

In 2007, then government minister Mervyn Silva and his bodyguards stormed the Rupavahini and attacked the news director. Employees then attacked the minister back.^[26]

On 13 July 2022 a few protesters that claimed to be leaders of 2022 Sri Lankan protests, entered the premises and demanded for all scheduled programmes to be stopped and only content related to the then ongoing protest to be broadcast. The channel was off air for a short period during the time of the incident. Later on the same day two of the protesters were allowed to express their opinions on a live breaking news-themed programme.^[27] At 1:31pm the channel was temporarily taken off the air and did an improvised closedown, by playing the usual routine: the Rupavahini ID, the nightly end of transmission video and the national anthem.^[28]

• List of television networks in Sri Lanka
• List of radio networks in Sri Lanka
• Media in Sri Lanka
• Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation

• Rupavahini (corporate website)
• Rupavahini (channel website)
• RUNews
• Channel Eye
• Nethra TV
• Sri Lanka Life and Rupavahini