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Josephine Ma

HONG KONG surprised Pacific Pay Video (PPV), which provides 24-hour in-house movies for hotels, when it struck the highest usage rate in the world.

   When PPV started to provide on command video - a service offering 60 different movies a month - to the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Hong Kong about a year ago, it did not believe Hong Kong - being a business hub - would become the most frequent user of the system.

  More than 100 movies were being seen each day in the Mandarin and the figure was much higher than any other large hotel worldwide, said PPV managing director Bob Creager.

  'We are still analysing the reasons. But we can say we are happy about that,' he said.

  The Mandarin's director of public relations Julie Amann said: 'I think the best reason is that people are jetlagged.

  'They are wide awake in the middle of the night and the best thing to do is to watch a movie,' she said.

  The peak hours for the service are from early evening to throughout the night.

  A major advantage of on-command video - no time limit nor schedule for the programmes - has also made it a lot more appealing to the guests.

  'Before, you might have a movie shown at 2pm and another at 4pm. It is not convenient. A guest might want to see a film at 3pm,' Ms Amann said.

  But guests could now choose from among 60 movies, which were being updated every month, at anytime they liked with the new system, she said.

  It was also a good deal for hotels because instead of paying for the equipment and the service, a hotel could receive a percentage of commission from PPV, Mrs Amann said. However, a hotel source said some companies were also providing a video service without charging hotels. But the time element and a much wider choice of movies had made on-command video more attractive. PPV began flexing its muscles in Hong Kong recently, following the unexpected success with the Mandarin Oriental.

   It had signed contracts with the Shangri-La hotel group and the City Garden Hotel.

  PPV also planned to provide Chinese movies in addition to movies in English and Japanese.

  Mr Creager said that despite the successful 'landing' in Hong Kong, on-command video was still something new to the Asian market.

   PPV was granted a licence to develop the Asia-Pacific market by the US-based On-Command Video Corp and set up its first system in Guam in 1992.

  PPV was also greatly interested in the huge potential of the China market. It planned to set up a joint venture in China in the first quarter of next year.

  'I hope we can start to provide services in China by the second half of next year,' Mr Creager said.

  He said PPV had sent a delegation to discuss licensing with the Beijing government earlier this year.

  But getting a foot in the door of China was never easy because of the government's tight grip on the media.

  'The ministries are interested in the idea. But we have to get licensing permission.

  'Programming is another problem as we have to consider the censorship of the government,' he said.

  PPV was also interested in Japan, because the country accounted for about half the number of hotel rooms in Asia.

   A large promotion campaign was being held in Japan this week, Mr Creager said.



Video deal pays off