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Winnie Chung

After more than two years of negotiations and setbacks, music channel MTV has found an outlet to Hong Kong homes.

  MTV Asia has signed a one-year deal with ATV World to carry four hours of MTV programming in the early hours of Saturday and Sunday, starting September 7.

  The broadcasting time - from 1.30am to 2.30am and 9am to 11am on Saturdays, and 1.30am to 2.30am on Sundays - will encompass four of the music channel's most popular shows hosted by video jockeys Nadya Hutagalung and Mike Kasem.

    The arrangement will mark the second collaboration between MTV and ATV World which broadcast the 1996 MTV Movie Awards in June.

  While the music channel may have fallen short of its mark of 24-hour programming, MTV Hong Kong general manager Marc Conneely said these initial broadcasting hours would help act as a teaser to attract audiences to its programming style.

   He said the slot between 9am and 11am would help the channel lure 'a good audience'.

  'MTV is aiming at the 16 to 34-year-old crowd, so we still see a strong audience without too many going to bed early . . . none of [the programmes] are going into a work day,' he said.

  'What this [deal] allows us to do is actually bring some of our programmes through to a much wider audience and we intend to build up from there. This kind of strategy has worked successfully in other countries.

   'The best way to watch MTV is still 24 hours and we will not give up on that pursuit. Until that happens, we are happy to work with ATV for four hours.'   MTV Asia, which initially went on air in Hong Kong when STAR TV launched in 1991, began an unofficial hiatus after it split from STAR in May 1994.

   Since then it has been involved in lengthy negotiations with Wharf Cable and in search of other channels to provide for 24-hour programming.

  In the interim, more than 15,000 households in buildings which have their own SMATV dishes (communal antennas), such as those on Discovery Bay, have been able to tune into the channel.

  'We are continuing to talk to Wharf about 24-hour carriage and the [non-exclusive] deal with ATV will not hinder us in doing a deal with [Wharf]. There's no reason why they can't co-exist like they do in other parts of the world,' Mr Conneely said.

  'The four programmes ATV will be getting are still international programmes. We still have MTV Mandarin and there's still a wide window for negotiation.'   The programmes to be broadcast on ATV World will be MTV's First Look, MTV's Alternative Nation, MTV Morning Mania and MTV Most Wanted.



MTV Asia signs early bird deal