Sri Ranga’s TV channel wants a buyer!

Thursday, 18 September 2014 

Jeyaratnam Sri Ranga, who contested the 2010 general election on the UNP ticket, got elected to Nuwara Eliya district and then joined the government to strengthen the president’s hands, is looking for a buyer to illegally sell the television frequency he had received as a bribe for his crossover.

Since it is illegal for an MP to obtain a TV and radio license, Sri Ranga has obtained it to the name of his sister. It is issued to a company named Sri Global Television Company (Pvt.) Ltd. Although it was issued in 2011, no television channel has started as yet. Despite such a licence gets automatically cancelled if no transmissions begin within 12 months of issuance, it remains valid for the past three years due to orders from the higher up to the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission not to apply it for this particular license.

The TRC has allotted the UHF frequencies 54 from Colombo, 46 from Neboda, 39 from Karagahatenna, 62 from Gonagala, 54 from Kandy and 47 from Jaffna for Sri Ranga.

Since the license cannot be sold to another party, what the buyer will have to do is to buy a 100 per cent stake of Sri Global Television Company (Pvt.) Ltd. For that, Sri Ranga expects Rs. 400 million, but he will agree for Rs. 300 million as the last price. Further, he prefers to do the deal outside Sri Lanka. Delay brings repentance. Call Sri Ranga