Sri Lanka has agreed to sell airtime on a former Deutsche Welle relay station in Trincomalee in the North East of the island to UK based Encompass Digital Media Services, London.
Germany’s DW built the relay station in Sri Lanka in 1980 for mainly for international shortwave (HF) broadcasting. It also has a medium wave transmitter for South Asia.
The station was given to state-run Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation in 2012.
The rise of television and the internet had made international broadcasts more accessible, though SW retains audiences in many countries.
London based Encompass Media has proposed to transmit shortwave and mediumwave programs from the station. It has offered to pay 49,000 dollars and 16,000 dollars a month for the airtime.
The Cabinet of Ministers had approved the proposal in November 2020. (Colombo/Dec29/2020 - economynext.com)
