Now TV

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now TV (now 寬頻電視) 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) (電訊盈科) throught 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 (香港有線電視), which operate by i-CABLE Communications Limited (有線寬頻通訊有限公司).

Contents 1 History and Establishment 1.1 Chronology 2 Services provided 2.1 Charging schemes 2.2 Channels 2.2.1 Channels Highlight 2.2.2 Channels Digest 2.2.2.1 Movie/Drama (Channel 1XX) 2.2.2.2 Travel/Documentary (Channel 2XX) 2.2.2.3 News/Info (Channel 3XX) 2.2.2.4 Kids (Channel 4XX) 2.2.2.5 Music/Entertainment (Channel 5XX) 2.2.2.6 Sports (Channel 6XX) 2.2.2.7 Foreign Language (Channel 7XX) 2.2.2.8 TVB Pay Vision Special Pack (Channel 8XX) 2.2.2.9 Adult (Channel 9XX) 2.2.3 Languages of channels provided 3 Business Performance and Development 3.1 Competition 3.2 Awards 3.3 Future plans 3.4 Now TV as a Full Length Channel 4 Related Services 5 See also 6 External links

[edit] History and Establishment

Launched in March 1998, PCCW's Interactive TV (iTV 互動電視) 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, which is one of Asia's leading integrated communications companies. It provides a wide range of communications services including local telephony and broadband services.

In December 2005, now TV has improved its services by introducing 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.

With the additional channel line-up, now TV subscribers currently have access to 136 channels.

[edit] 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

[edit] Services provided

Unlike other pay TV stations in Hong Kong, which require subscribers to pay for a monthly fee for different channel packages, now TV uses the pricing model of pay-per-channel basis. Potential customers generally think this charging scheme offers flexibility to them, because they can choose their favorite channels to watch and can pay less than other pay TV stations.

To protect the privacy of customers, a personal identification number (PIN) is given to each subscriber when setting up the decoder and they can change it at anytime.

In addition, since now TV offers adult channels, a service called "Parental Control" is also launched to give control to parents over the choice of channels of their children.

• Business Package

now TV offers a business package (in which there is less channel for subscription than household customers) for businesspeople at a higher price than household subscribers.

[edit] Charging schemes

now TV adopts a pay-per-channel charging scheme. Under such scheme, it allows flexibility among the subscribers to choose the channels which they are interested in and enjoy their own combinations of channels. No extra monthly fees (e.g. decoder rental fee) will be charegd. Alternatively, customers may choose channel packages at discounted prices (e.g. $138 for all Chinese Channels and $388 Super Value Pack).

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.

[edit] Channels

At the beginning of the business, now TV only operated 23 channels, most of which are in English. In June 2005, the number of channels has exceeded 70, with an increased number of cantonese channels. At present, now TV offers 19 free channels and 103 pay channels, including 15 audio channels, the total number of channels has exceeded 130.

Channels are categorized into nine groups (see Channels Highlight section). For the adult channels, programs are only delivered on demand.

now TV provides some free channels to non-subscribers. On the other hand, there are some exclusive channels for its subscribers, such as ESPN, Mei Ah Asian Drama Channel etc.

In terms of the number of channels, now TV is currently the largest pav TV station in Hong Kong.

[edit] Channels Highlight

now TV has been developing gradually. At the beginning, it only operated several channels. However, as witnessing more competition in the same industry, it has added several brand new channels, such as Disney Channel and also ESPN, to provide more diversity in their service.

now TV catogorizes the 16 free channels and the 103 pay channels into 9 groups:

• 1. Movie/Drama Series
• 2. Travel/Documentary
• 3. News/Info
• 4. Kids
• 5. Music/Entertainment
• 6. Sports
• 7. Foreign Lanuange
• 8. TVB Pay Vision Special Pack
• 9. Adult

On 10 May 2006, now TV has re-arranged the channel numbers into a category format, like what you see in the library.

[edit] Channels Digest

The free channels are marked by " * ".

• Promotion Channel* (Channel 100)

[edit] Movie/Drama (Channel 1XX)

There are in total 15 movie channels, 4 chinese movie channels, 1 drama channel and 1 movie trailer channel:

• HBO HiTS (Channel 111)

• HBO Family (Channel 112)

• HBO Signature PLUS 1 (Channel 113)

• HBO Signature (Channel 114)

• HBO (Channel 115)

• Cinemax (Channel 116)

• STAR Movies (Channel 117)

• Movie Trailer Channel* (Channel 118)

• Turner Classic Movies (Channel 119)

• MGM (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer) (Channel 122)

• Hallmark Channel (Channel 123)

• China Movie Channel (Channel 134)

• Mei Ah Movie Channel (Channel 137)

• Mei Ah Asian Drama Channel (Channel 138)

• STAR Chinese Movies (Channel 139)

[edit] Travel/Documentary (Channel 2XX)

10 infotainment channels provide a spectrum of animal, geographic and scientific documentaries:

• Discovery Channel (Channel 209)

• Animal Planet (Channel 210)

• Discovery Science (Channel 211)

• Discovery Real Time (Channel 212)

• Discovery Travel and Living (Channel 213)

• Discovery Home and Health (Channel 214)

• National Geographic Channel (Channel 215)

• National Geographic Wild (Channel 216)

• A1 (Channel 217)

• Voyages TV* (Channel 262)

[edit] News/Info (Channel 3XX)

A total of 19 news channels comprise of:

• CNN International (Channel 316)

• CNN Headline News (Channel 317)

• Fox News Channel (Channel 318)

• CNBC (Channel 319)

• BBC World (Channel 320)

• Bloomberg Television* (Channel 321)

• Channel NewsAsia (Channel 322)

• Sky News (Channel 323)

• 24-Hour ATV News Channel (Channel 324)

• EuroNews (Channel 326)

• now Business News Channel (Channel 333)

• Deutsche Welle* (Channel 365)

• Phoenix InfoNews Channel* (Channel 366)

• CCTV-9* (Channel 370)

• ETTV Asia News* (Channel 371)

• Traffic Channel* (Channel 375)

• Weather Channel* (Channel 376)

[edit] Kids (Channel 4XX)

Children channels include 3 Disney channels, 2 Cartoon Network channels, and 1 Nickelodeon channel:

• Disney Channel (Channel 441)

• Playhouse Disney Channel (Channel 442)

• Cartoon Network (Channel 443)

• Nickelodeon (Channel 444)

• Boomerang (Channel 446)

• Hong Kong Disneyland Channel* (Channel 450)

[edit] Music/Entertainment (Channel 5XX)

There are in total 2 Shopping and Gaming Channel, 23 Australian and English Lifestyle and Entertainment Channel, 20 Chinese Signature Entertainment, Lifestyle and Music, and 4 English Music Channels:

• now Shop* (Channel 501)

• now Game* (Channel 505) - a game platform provided by TWO WAY TV

• Animax (Channel 511)

• AXN (Channel 512)

• Asian Food Channel (Channel 527)

• STAR World (Channel 528)

• BBC Entertainment (Channel 529)

• Zone Reality (Channel 530)

• E! Entertainment Television (Channel 531)

• Fashion TV (Channel 532)

• ETTV Asia (Channel 535)

• East TV (Channel 536)

• Jia Yu Channel* (Channel 538)

• Xing Kong (Channel 540)

• Australia Network* (Channel 541)

• CCTV-4* (Channel 542)

• Southern Television* (Channel 543)

• Beautiful Life Television* (Channel 547) - Buddhist program

• Phoenix Chinese Channel* (Channel 548)

• Soundtrack Channel (Channel 553)

• MTV Southeast Asia (Channel 554)

• Channel [V] International (Channel 555)

• Channel [V] Mainland China (Channel 556)

• DMX Music (Channel 581 to 595)

[edit] Sports (Channel 6XX)

A total of 8 sports channels comprise of:

• The Golf Channel (Channel 682)

• Golf Tour Channel (Channel 683)

• ESPN (Channel 684)

• STAR Sports (Channel 685)

• ESPN Plus (Channel 686)

• STAR Sports Plus (Channel 687)

• Lucky 88* (Channel 688)

• ESPN STAR Sports Cricket Live (Channel 693)

[edit] Foreign Language (Channel 7XX)

• TV5MONDE Asie (Channel 714)

• STAR Plus (Channel 794)

• STAR News (Channel 795) - Hindi news channel from ABP & News Corporation

• Channel [V] India (Channel 796)

[edit] TVB Pay Vision Special Pack (Channel 8XX)

• TVB Pay Vision Portal (Channel 800)*

• TVBN (Channel 805)

• TVBN2 (Channel 806)

• TVB Drama (Channel 807)

• TVB E-News (Channel 808)

• TVB Classic (Channel 809)

• TVB Lifestyle (Channel 810)

• TVB Kids (Channel 811)

• TVBM (Channel 812)

• TVBS Asia (Channel 813)

• TVBS News (Channel 814)

• TVB8 (Channel 815)

• EEG Channel (Channel 818--effective on 11 December 2006)

• Goal TV 1 (Channel 825)

• Goal TV 2 (Channel 826)

• Mainland News (Channel 836)

• Shen Zhen TV (Channel 852)

• South East Television (Channel 853)

• MAS TV (Channel 854)

• NewsLive (Channel 861)

• NHK World TV (Channel 865)

• TVB Pay Vision Info (Channel 898)

[edit] Adult (Channel 9XX)

There are 5 adult channels in addition to AV-on-Demand:

• Ice Fire (Channel 901)

• Blue Dream (Channel 902)

• Channel Adult (Channel 903)

• Playboy TV (Channel 904)

• 5X Channel (Channel 905)

[edit] Languages of channels provided

Its programs are mainly broadcast in

• English
• Cantonese
• Putonghua / Mandarin

and a few of them are in

• Hindi
• Korean
• Japanese
• German
• French
• Italian
• Portuguese
• Russian
• Spanish

There are Chinese sub-titles and/or bilingual tracks for some of the non-Chinese channels.

[edit] 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.

Recently, 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.

[edit] Competition

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.

In fact, i-Cable has recently adopted an alternative pricing model for its subscribers. It allows subscribers to choose and pay for their own channels, which is equivalent to the pay-by-channel pricing scheme adopted by now Broadband TV. 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.

[edit] 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.

[edit] 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 2006 or early 2007. In addition, now TV is concentrating on obtaining exclusive broadcasting rights for a number of channels. For example, Playboy TV will come off other pay TV platforms in Hong Kong and become exclusive to now TV from December 1, 2006 onwards.

On November 15, 2006, Now TV obtains exclusive broadcasting rights in Hong Kong for Barclays English Premier League for three seasons commencing from the 2007/2008 season.

[edit] 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.

[edit] 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.

Start from 2006, ESPN STAR SPORTS at now tv will broadcast the English Carling Cup matches, which were broadcasted by Cable TV in last few years.

[edit] See also

• IPTV
• PCCW
• Cable TV Hong Kong

[edit] External links

• The official site of now TV
• The official site of now TV - in English
• PCCW homepage
• now.com.hk
• The report from 'The Standard' on now TV
• PCCW's 2005 Interim Result Presentation
• 'TV's Possible Future -- What's Smart, What's Not', an article by Prof. Gerry Faulhaber, professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania
• 'WHY BROADBAND IS REDEFINING TV', an article published by BroadcastNow on August 15, 2005
• Hong Kong Annual Reports 2003 - Telecommunications
• TAMWISE issue #02/2005