Galaxy to launch in November as planned
Galaxy Satellite Broadcasting, the pay-television arm of Television Broadcasts (TVB), said it would launch its pay-TV services as scheduled in November despite being granted approval to extend the deadline to February.
'Our launching schedule remains unchanged. We had said we would launch our services in the fourth quarter of this year when we announced the deal with [Intelsat], there is nothing that has changed in our plan,' said Galaxy chief operating officer Stanley Tang.
On Thursday, the Broadcasting Authority approved Galaxy's application to defer the deadlines of three relevant milestones required for its licence by six months to February 23. Mr Tang said: 'An extension of the deadline doesn't mean we will launch the pay-TV services on the deadline.'
The original milestones required Galaxy to invest at least $122 million of capital expenditure, and offer at least 24 channels to 150,000 households by August 23.
Mr Tang said the application for an extension was natural after a six-month delay in TVB's divestment of the Galaxy stake.
Galaxy had sought the authority's approval to delay the launch deadlines because of troubles in securing an investor to take up a 51 per cent stake in the operator.
