14 Sep 2006

Hong Kong goes à la carte

Benedict Kelly

WHILE SOUTH AFRICA waits for IPTV services to roll out, Hong Kong-based telecoms operator PCCW has for the past three years been offering a pay TV service via its broadband network.

Lindsay Servian, vice-president for business development at PCCW - speaking at Telkom's SATNAC conference at Stellenbosch last week - said the key to launching a successful IPTV offering is to manage the introduction of new services before slowly increasing functionality and the number of channels.

Servian said: "Customer research showed that instead of the traditional bouquet of channels offered by pay TV providers, customers wanted an à la carte offering."

The market in Hong Kong was already competitive when the service - NowTV - launched with three pay and two terrestrial stations already operational. Since its launch, the service has attracted more than 500?000 subscribers, effectively doubling the market for pay TV in the territory.

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