HKTV crashes with popularity on launch day

More than 640,000 viewers tuned in to HKTV programmes on its inaugural day on Wednesday, crashing the internet television channel's server and sending 300,000 viewers to other websites carrying its feed illegally.

Data from Hong Kong Internet eXchange showed that internet traffic reached a new peak for the year from 8pm to 10pm on Wednesday - surpassing the level from the soccer World Cup and the height of the Occupy protests.

HKTV said that its server could host a maximum of 400,000 concurrent viewers, and its server was overloaded on Wednesday night.

But the figures did not beat dominant free-to-air broadcaster TVB, which claimed its online streams had 1.57 million total views on Wednesday.

TVB said that 1.6 million television viewers and 129,401 online viewers tuned in to its anniversary gala, which was also held on Wednesday night.

HKTV said that more than a million people had downloaded its app - some 723,000 via mobile devices, and 340,000 via smart televisions and set-top boxes.

Episodes of crime thriller Borderline and political drama The Election were available on demand from 6am on Wednesday, and the streaming went live on Wednesday night at 8pm.