Plan is to launch service within nine months of authorization

HONG KONG: City Telecom has applied for a license to operate free television service in the city, a year after its Founder and Chairman Ricky Wong Wai-kay resigned from the position as the Chief Executive Officer of Asia Television.

The Hong Kong-listed company expects to invest HK$210 million before making a profit, and it plans to leverage its existing infrastructure and transmit television signal via the firm's fiber network.

It will launch the service within nine months after the granting of a license, providing various information and entertainment content such as "News & Infotainment, Children, Youth, Elderly, and Arts & Culture". It expects to provide coverage throughout the city by 2016.

It said viewers will not require additional equipment for analog TV reception, while a standard digital set-top box is required for the reception of digital TV signals.

"We believe the current duopoly-based free TV limits innovation, and Hong Kong is falling behind other more liberalized markets around the world," the company said in a statement.

By offering free television, City Telecom said it hopes to enrich Hong Kong with information and entertainment programs that are currently lacking in the market.

The latest news came after Cable TV, a listed company and a member of the Wharf conglomerate, announced earlier this year that it also wants to offer free television to the city, and Cable TV said yesterday it will submit an application in January.

The two current free-to-air television companies gave diplomatic responses. Market leader Television Broadcasts Limited said as long as the environment is fair and all parties are under the same rules, then it welcomes the news. Asia Television said it welcomes the new competition as it will stimulate the development of better programs.

The Broadcasting Authority said it has received City Telecom's application and will consider it under a range of measures that include investment, while generating benefits for the broadcasting market. The government regulator said there is no pre-set upper limit as to the number of licenses for free television.

City Telecom was established in 1992 as a discount long-distance telephone service operator, in a market formerly dominated by Hong Kong Telecom. City Telecom went on to offer other services and is now a major broadband Internet service provider.

However, its pay television service lagged behind competitors Cable TV and NOW TV, both of which attract viewers by offering popular live soccer matches.

(HK Edition 01/01/2010 page4)