NOW TV to increase fees by 16pc to offset soccer outlay
PCCW's NOW Broadband will increase fees for its pay-TV services by at least 16 per cent next month, prompting lawmaker Fred Li Wah-ming to call on soccer fans to boycott the service and look elsewhere for their sporting fix.
NOW TV will increase the cost of the full subscription package from HK$388 to a record for the city of HK$450 to recoup some of its US$200 million investment last year in the rights for three years of English Premier League football.
Only new subscribers taking out the full package will be affected.
News of the new price came yesterday as competitor i-Cable Communications, which operates Cable TV, revealed plans to launch a 'free' Chinese entertainment channel in the second quarter of the year.
Cable TV has already flagged plans to cut its basic monthly tariff by 40 per cent. Its full subscription price is currently HK$308 a month.
But unlike traditional Cable TV subscribers, who need to install a digital set-top box to receive the signal, the new channel will be transmitted through residential building coaxial networks. Users plug in the antenna and connect to the television set to watch the channel.
'Because we are transmitting the channel through the in-building network, subscribers do not need to install a set-top box. But we need to charge users a small amount of money to make it a pay-TV service,' a Cable source said, adding that advertising was expected to pay for the new channel.
Mr Li, of the Democratic Party, said the NOW price rise was outrageous and should have been met by an increase in advertising.
'It's really bad news for soccer fans,' he said. 'I heard CCTV broadcasts on the internet. I would urge consumers to take every possible legal step to find another way to watch the games and boycott NOW TV.'
A Cable TV spokesman said the company was still working on the details of the new channel, but it was likely to screen a variety of programmes.
NOW declined to comment on its new charge yesterday.
Some popular pubs said they were unaware of the price rise, but they all agreed they would probably be better off with all major sports now on the one service.
'The football moving to NOW TV makes Cable TV obsolete because before they had the power to charge whatever they wanted,' said Noel Smyth, general manager of Bulldog's Bar and Grill in Lan Kwai Fong. 'All major sports that we broadcast will now be on the one network.'
Bulldog's pays about HK$16,000 a month to i-Cable for its subscription; Cable TV charges a commercial rate of HK$2,500 a month for each television with access.
