SLBC
According to the official website of the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation (SLBC), Colombo Radio was the first radio station in Asia, after launching on 16 December 1925. It then expanded to nation-wide broadcasting, and by 1949, under the call sign ‘Radio Ceylon’, it was organised as a separate government department. Subsequently, in 1967, the broadcasting department was converted to a state corporation via the Ceylon Broadcasting Corporation Act No. 37 of 1966. In 1972, the name Ceylon transformed and became the ‘Republic of Sri Lanka’, which compelled the Ceylon Broadcasting Corporation to change its title to the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation. SLBC has since continued in the same legal status as a state corporation and is currently listed under the scope of the Ministry of Finance and Mass Media of the Government of Sri Lanka. The SLBC is engaged in broadcasting activities through 7 National radio stations, 6 Regional radio stations and 4 Community radio stations.
Business Form
State owned
Legal Form
Public Enterprise/ Commerical Corporation
Business Sectors
Radio broadcasting and issuing broadcasting licenses to private radio stations.
Individual Owner
The SLBC oversees all state-owned radio stations. It falls within the purview of the Ministry of Finance and Mass Media.
Other Radio Outlets
City FM (0.26%)
SLBC National Service (1.31%)
SLBC Commercial Service (0.63%)
Radio Sri Lanka (0.12%)
Vidula (0.01%)
Yal FM (0.00%)
Rajarata (0.09%)
Ruhuna (0.14%)
Uva (0.05%)
Wayamba (0.01%)
Kandurata (0.10%)
Thendral (0.41%)
Pirei (0.03%)
Sports Service
Muslim Service
Education Service
Tamil Commercial Service
Other Online Outlets
General Information
Founding Year
Founded in 1925. Incoproated in 1967.
Affiliated Interests Founder
Edward Harper founded Colombo Radio which later became the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation (SLBC). Also known as the ‘father of broadcasting in Ceylon’, Edward was a British engineer and served as the Chief Engineer of Telegraphs. SLBC was incorporated under the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation Act. No. 37 of 1966.
Employees
Missing Data
Contact
Tax/ ID Number
Missing Data
Financial Information
Revenue (Financial Data/ Optional)
8.99 Mio. $ / 1.371 Mio. LKR
Operating Profit (in Mill. $)
0.49 Mio. $ / 75 Mio. LKR
Advertising (in % of total funding)
Missing Data
Management
Executive Board
Siddi Mohamed Farook – was appointed Chairperson of the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation (SLBC) in December 2017 by the Minister of Finance and Mass Media, Mangala Samaraweera. He is described as an entrepreneur in the field of Telecommunications and served as the CEO of Pan Asia Power PLC, prior to joining the SLBC. He is also a Board Member at the Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation (SLRC).
M.J.R. David – Working Director and Board Member. He is a Senior Lecturer, Mass Communication at the University of Sri Jayewardenepura and a Research Associate at IKM Emergent in the UK. He formerly served as a Producer at the BBC and Project Manager and Director at UNESCO, Sri Lanka.
Navin Shanaka – Director and Board Member.
Maheshani Kolonne – Director and Board Member.
Saman Muthukumarana – Director and Board Member.
Further Information
Meta Data
SLBC has a website with limited information on the management structure. As such, secondary sources were referenced. The Annual Report of 2017 by the Ministry of Finance reveals that SLBC has not submitted its Annual Report since 2014. There are also no individual websites for each radio channel, instead they are all featured on SLBC's official website. The names of the Board Members were confirmed upon contacting the Legal Officer at SLBC . The Central Bank’s average exchange rate for 2017 (152.45) was used to convert the amounts into USD. While the Media Ownership Monitor research team reached out to the SLBC by formally requesting for the company’s information on 20 July 2018, the company did not respond to the aforementioned request. Listenership data was obtained from the Kantar Lanka Market Research Bureau (LMRB) for the year 2017 (January- November).
