"Now Broadband TV | AboutHK.Com - more information about HK"

Now Broadband TV is a 24-hour pay-TV service provider in Hong Kong SAR. It is transmitted through its Broadband (Netvigator) Modem: IPTV. Launched in September 2003, it is operated by the leading Hong Kong fixed-line telecom operator Pacific Century Cyberworks Limited (PCCW) through its subsidiary, PCCW VOD Limited. The word "now" is abbreviated from "Network Of the World". now TV is at present the second largest pay-TV operators in Hong Kong, after Cable TV Hong Kong, which operate by i-CABLE. History and Establishment Launched in March 1998, PCCW"s Interactive TV (iTV 互動電視 Pinyin: Hùdòng Diànshì) pay- TV services included a wide range of information and entertainment, such as news, video-on-demand (VOD) , music videos, home-shopping, home-banking and educational content. iTV was serving 67,000 subscribers at the end of 2000. Due to the liberalization of the pay-TV market by the HKSAR government in early July 2000, the then existing duopolists iTV and i-Cable were confronted with ferocious competitions. With fewer subscribers and hence the decline in the revenue generated from iTV, the interactive television operation was terminated in the last quarter of 2002. now Broadband pay-TV service was officially launched in September 2003 with 23 channels under the same umbrella company PCCW; iTV is thus commonly viewed as the predecessor of now TV. In relation to the ownership, now TV is owned by PCCW, In December 2005, now TV introduced a technology with connection speed up to 18 megabits per second (Mbit/s). Concerning the transmission speed, at least 75% of the area will be offered up to 8 Mbit/s for the speed. In addition, Video-On-Demand services has been launched in January 2006. Now TV subscribers currently has access to 136 channels. Chronology * March 1998 PCCW commercially launched iTV * July 2000 Liberalisation of the pay-TV market * Last quarter of 2002 Termination of iTV * August 2003 now TV was unveiled * September 2003 now TV was officially launched Charging schemes Since each household has to install a special decoder to view the channels, there is an extra deposit and installation for the decoder. However, these charges are waived for Netvigator broadband subscribers. With the decoder, households are able to watch approximately 20 free channels. For the subscription channels, now uses the pricing model of pay-per-channel basis. There are bundle offers in existence, for given bouquet of channels, but these are less comprehensive than those offered by rivals. now TV offers a business package (in which there are fewer channels for subscription than household customers) for businesses at a higher price than household subscribers. Channels Highlight now TV is currently the largest pav TV station in Hong Kong. At present, now TV offers 21 free channels and 103 pay channels, including 15 audio channels, the total number of channels has exceeded 130. now TV only operated 23 channels at the beginning, most of which were in English. However, it has expanded its repertoire of new channels, adding programming such as Disney Channel and ESPN in response to the competition. In June 2005, the number of channels has exceeded 70, with an increased number of Cantonese channels. now TV catogorizes the 21 free channels (denoted by asterix*), and the 103 pay channels into 9 groups: 1. Movie/Drama Series - e.g. HBO HiTS (#111), HBO Family (#112), HBO Signature (#114), HBO (#115), Cinemax (#116), STAR Movies (#117), Turner Classic Movies (#119), MGM (#122), Hallmark Channel (#123), China Movie #(#134), Mei Ah Movie Channel (#137), STAR Chinese Movies (#139) 2. Travel/Documentary - 10 infotainment channels including 5 Discovery Channels and 2 National Geographic Channels, which provide a spectrum of animal, geographic and scientific documentaries 3. News/Info - including CNN International (#316), CNN Headline News (#317), Fox News Channel (#318), CNBC (#319), BBC World (#320), Bloomberg Television* (#321), Sky News (#323) 4. Kids - Children channels include 3 Disney channels, 2 Cartoon Network channels, and 2 STAR TV and Nickelodeon channel: 5. Music/Entertainment/Shopping - There are in total 2 Shopping and Gaming Channel, 25 Australian and English Lifestyle, Crime, Fantasy, and Entertainment Channel, 27 Chinese Signature Entertainment, Lifestyle and Music, and 5 Chinese and English Flight Music Channels, including AXN (#512), Fox Crime (#523), STAR World (#528), BBC Entertainment (#529), Zone Reality (#530), E! Entertainment Television (#531), MTV Southeast Asia (#554), Channel [V] International (#555) 6. Sports - A total of 15 sports channels including The Golf Channel (#682), ESPN (#684), STAR Sports (#685), ESPN Plus (#690), Eurosport (#695) 7. Foreign Languange - including TV5MONDE Asie (#714), STAR News Hindi news channel (#795) 8. TVB Pay Vision Special Pack 9. Adult - There are 5 adult channels in addition to AV-on-Demand, including Playboy TV (#904) On 10 May 2006, now TV has re-arranged the channel numbers into a category format, where the first digit of the 3-digit channel numbers indicate the programme category. Languages of channels provided The majority of its programming is in English, Cantonese or Putonghua, though some programming in Hindi (STAR One), Korean, Japanese (NHK World TV), German (Deutsche Welle), French (TV5MONDE), Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish is available. There are Chinese sub-titles and/or bilingual tracks for some of the non-Chinese channels. Business Performance and Development now TV service was launched with 23 channels in September 2003 but was soon expanded to exceed 30 with the addition of sports-related channels and BBC World and the Animax channel, as well as the Cantonese Star Chinese Movies and Xing Kong channels. With less than four months of launch, now TV had attracted more than 200,000 customers at the year end of 2003. Although now TV mainly targets at the high-income group, its number of subscribers has been under substantial growth. According to the Annual Reports issued by PCCW, at the end of December 2005, the number of paying subscribers to now TV reached 549,000 (in which approximately 61% is paid subscribers and 31% is free subscribers); compared with the figures at the end of December 2004 and June 2004, which are 361,000 and 269,000 respectively. It has been experiencing constant growth in business and hence profits. Not only is it available at home, but also in hotel rooms, offices, sports bars, etc. The number of subscribers has exceeded 450,000 as reported by Ming Pao Finance on 5 October 2005. Despite the growth, now TV is still operating at a loss in 2005. In January 2006, the station subscribers passed the half a million mark[1]. In August 2006, now TV had in excess of 654,000 subscribers Strategy In early July 2000, the HKSAR government awarded five new pay-TV licences. The new entrants were all relatively seasoned broadcasting companies including Galaxy Satellite Broadcasting, Hong Kong DTV Company, a British broadcaster Elmsdsale, Hong Kong Network TV and Pacific Digital Media HK. The considerable opening of the market sparked intense competition for programming and viewer share, which can be seen by the extensive use of advertising. To avoid direct competition with the two local digital terrrestrial televisions - Television Broadcasts Limited (TVB) and Asia Television Limited (ATV), now TV builds up and secures its local pay-TV position by signing long-term contracts with a variety of existing channels around the world. Exclusivity * On November 15, 2006, nowTV made a knock-out bid, of an estimated HK$1.56 billion, to secure the license to exclusively broadcast football matches of the Barclays English Premier League matches in Hong Kong for three seasons commencing from the 2007/2008 season[2]. Two years previously, i-Cable had paid an estimated HK$700 million for a three-year contract[1]. * nowTV announced in January 2006 that a three-year deal was signed with ESPN STAR for the rights to live matches of the UEFA Champions League during the 2006-2009 seasons[1]. * In December 2006 secured the exclusive rights to broadcast the Euro 2008 football championship by agreeing to pay HK$400 million[3]. * Playboy TV will became exclusive to now TV from December 1, 2006. Pricing i-Cable has been forced to adopt an alternative pricing model for its subscribers. It allows subscribers to pick and choose their own channels, similar to to the pay-by-channel of now. Moreover, from Asia Media in October 2005, now TV claimed that they will not follow i-Cable to minimize monthly charges since they have added new channels and improved the delivery standard, in order to maintain competitiveness. In December 2006, it announced it was instead planning on raising subscription rates after having secured exclusive rights in the ESPN, English league, and Euro 2008. Awards At the 2004 Convention of CASBAA (Cable and Satellite Broadcasting Association of Asia), now TV was awarded "The Chairman"s Award". CASBAA, representing 120 corporations serving more than 3 billion viewers, acknowledged now TV for its "innovative and proactive marketing of a secure and advanced pay-TV platform and for growing its interactive capability, resulting in a stellar subscriber take-up" on 31 October 2004. Future plans The resolution will be four times higher than standard-definition televisions with the technology of high-definition television (HDTV), which may be launched in late 2007. Now TV as a Full Length Channel Now TV (Network of the World) Channel is also seen via satellite in AsiaSat 3s through Pacific Century Matrix. The Channel features sports, adventure, internet and video gaming courtesy of Gamer TV. Related Services * now.com.hk now.com.hk internet content services was launched by PCCW in June 2000 for trial purposes. The website, "now.com.hk" is Hong Kong"s premier broadband service, offering a spectrum of locally relevant content, including news, movies, music, online games, and more. Members can enjoy a large variety of media when accessing the service. In general, PCCW aims at providing experience of broadband home entertainment, with now.com.hk for personal computer users and now TV for television viewers, in which the latter tailor-makes content for young people. Comments Please login to post comments or replies.