Now Sports launch shows aggressive drive for content
PCCW Now TV, the world's largest internet-protocol television service provider, highlights its efforts to produce more content with the debut today of one of two channels planned under a new Now Sports brand.
PCCW deputy chairman and managing director Jack So Chak-kwong and chief financial officer Alex Arena will announce the launch of the channel this afternoon, a year after PCCW chairman Richard Li Tzar-kai accompanied Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen to officiate at the launch ceremony of Now Business News Channel.
Now Sports will be the host for the next three seasons of English Premier League football matches, after PCCW spent about US$2 billion late last year to win from its rival i-Cable Communications the exclusive rights to broadcast the games from August. It will also run Italian Serie A Championship football matches.
Lai Yu-ching, a veteran sports journalist and former i-Cable programme host and head of its sports platform, has been appointed to oversee Now Sports' operations and programme direction.
Now Sports staff will mainly be programme hosts and commentators, with only a few coming from i-Cable, a source said. 'We do want to build up a fresh style and not rely on existing i-Cable hosts,' said a source familiar with the situation. 'It should be a much more localised sports channel and this will help to attract local sport fans to join our service.'
To pull in non-football lovers, the Sports Channel will put more resources into programmes on swimming, tennis, table tennis and motor-racing, among others.
next media does politics
Apple Daily publisher Next Media, which has invested about HK$1 billion in Taiwan, has also built up its importance to the island's political system, as evidenced by the visit of Vice-President Annette Lu Hsiu-lien to its headquarters in Taipei on Monday. The visit was made after Hong Kong Apple Daily published a full-page interview with Ms Lu last week.
The newspaper also published a half-page interview with the Speaker of the Legislative Yuan of Taiwan, Wang Jin-pyng, who belongs to the opposition Kuomintang.
Next Media's free Sharp Daily in Taiwan faces increased competition with the publication next Monday of the free UPaper by United Daily News (UDN) Group. The new free sheet has exclusive distribution rights inside the Taipei Metro system. 'We don't think the exclusive rights of our competitor will affect us,' a Next source said, adding that UDN Group paid more than NT$100 million for the three-year deal.
'Although the winner gets access inside the stations, it can only earmark the advertising revenue,' the Next source said. 'The Taipei Metro holds the copyright of the newspaper and control, even if the content is owned or shared with sister publications. This suggests that Metro controls all matters except the advertising revenue.'
Sharp Daily, launched last October, distributes 150,000 copies outside Metro stations. It has an operating loss on a monthly basis, although daily advertising revenue is covering daily operating costs, according to Next Media.
