Growth Enterprise Market-listed Phoenix Satellite Television Holdings is expected to see its earnings growth slow this year because of substantial start-up costs at two channels, according to company executives.
Liu Changle, chairman and chief executive of the Chinese television operator, said the company was planning to invest US$20 million to US$25 million in the next two years to develop two new channels.
One would be a free-to-air 24-hour financial news channel called Phoenix InfoNews and the other a subscriber-based Phoenix North American channel featuring entertainment. Both would be officially launched on January 1 next year.
Targeting mainland professionals among TV viewers, Mr Liu expects the InfoNews channel to be a major earner for the company in the future.
He expects the advertising revenue from InfoNews to be higher than its core Phoenix Chinese Channel in the long term as the new channel will target high-end corporate advertising clients.
Mr Liu said advertising fees for the InfoNews channel would be double those of Phoenix Chinese as international corporations would be willing to pay higher prices to market their corporate image to the mainland audience.