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SCMP Reporter

HOW is this for a vision of the future.

  British negotiator Anthony Galsworthy leaves a top-level meeting in Beijing, clearly looking agitated.

  The pictures are broadcast live to brokers and displayed on video windows on their Reuters screens.

  Before Mr Galsworthy has even uttered a word, the brokers are selling the Hongkong market.

  As a part of its drive to become a multi-media agency, Reuters is considering providing video, as well as text, to its financial service subscribers.

  The technology is already available, but chief executive Peter Job said that the company planned to use it only where it added value to the product and did not distract users.

  Last year the company made a major move into the television market when it bought news supplier Visnews.

  ''We want to build ourselves into the first multi-media production organisation in the news agency field,'' said Mr Job.

  ''Our staff will be people who are capable of handling any kind of communication, whether it is voice, camera or print.''   He added: ''We are a supplier. We prefer to go for a very tightly focused market. We don't have the ambitions for the global distribution reach of CNN.''   However, Reuters is looking at niche opportunities for broadcasting. It recently joined forces with the BBC and Telemundo to set up a Spanish-language station based in Florida.

  Mr Job said Reuters had looked at opportunities in Asia but no deals had been struck.

  Hongkong is the centre for Reuters Television's Asian operations.

  Media products account for just seven per cent of Reuters' revenue; financial information is responsible for the bulk of income.

  Last month, the firm made a presentation at the Shenzhen Stock Exchange of its Chinese language services.

  Mr Job said that the firm had been able to develop the system rapidly, due to earlier ground-breaking work put in on a kanji -character system for the Japanese market.

  ''We had this under our belts, so when the China market opened up, we were able to adapt and didn't have to start from scratch,'' he said.

  Mr Job was based in Hongkong as Reuters managing director Asia, until becoming group chief executive in 1991.

  ''One of the most interesting challenges Reuter has got now is to establish itself in the CIS [Commonwealth of Independent States], eastern Europe and China,'' he said.



Reuters may offer video service