Live at Eight tops LMRB rankings

Shirley Wijesinghe

Swarnavahini is celebrating eight years of its eight o’clock Sinhala news bulletin with the catchy ‘Atata Atak’ slogan. The celebration is timely, as Swarnavahini has just regained the top slot in the Lanka Market Research Bureau (LMRB) viewer rankings for Sinhala news bulletins.

Live at Eight as the show is popularly titled and known, is a compact 30-minute look into the day’s happening around Sri Lanka and the world.

This grading was clearly shown in the bar chart drawn for the results of news comparison survey, the People’s Meter conducted by LMRB recently. The facts behind this achievement was really experienced by us recently for the first time.

“Numerous changes and value added factors which have been introduced from the beginning of this year added more lustre to the news presentation.

Two news presenters Harendra Lal and Ishara Koralage are the personalities involved in “Live at 8” news bulletin, Nalaka Swarnathilaka Chief News Editor stressed.

Swarnathilaka said that the Swarnavahini has changed the complexion of “Live @ 8” news bulletin from news reading to news presenting to activate the people’s curiosity. Other changes made for presenting news were segmenting whole news bulletin into most familiar terms to the viewers such as “Rata Hadana Thena”, “Rata Gana Ata” and “Atata Kiyanna”, Swarnathilake cited. The viewers could act as reporters through the segment “Atata Kiyanna”, he added.

“Our news bulletin could win over the majority of viewers through its balance and equilibrium,” he added.

He said that his channel was not keen on telecasting news at first without concerning its accuracy. Every news item is double checked.

The collective team work of all the departments related to “Live @ 8” was the success behind the quality news bulletin.

“Swarnavahini” TV was launched on March 16, 1997. “It is owned by E.A.P. Networks (Pvt.) Ltd., a subsidiary of EAP Group. The “Live @ 8” will also complete its 8th year this June.