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SCMP Reporter

IN A major move to bolster its Chinese-language programming, STAR TV has committed about $1.7 billion to its present free Chinese channel and two up-coming Chinese subscription channels.

  Hongkong film industry sources believe the move includes a long-expected deal to purchase about 350 films from Raymond Chow's Golden Harvest and Golden Princess for up to $850 million.

  Golden Harvest said yesterday that no agreement had been made for the sale of the Golden Harvest library although ''in the daily course of business'' it discussed opportunities with companies all over the world.

  The films are mostly action adventure comedies, some featuring international stars such as Jackie Chan and the late Bruce Lee.

   Most of the movies have not been shown on television in the region.

  The Golden Harvest film library will be the backbone of STAR TV's first Chinese-language pay-TV channel, due for launch in October, while most of the remaining programming will be taken up by the present free Putonghua channel.

  A second Putonghua ''infotainment'' subscription channel is slated for launch in two years. It will account for a small percentage of the funds.

  A large slice of the budget will be spent on the creation of a daily soap opera tagged ''Chinese Neighbours'', and a series of television game shows to be shot in Shanghai for the free channel, said a STAR TV source.

  Individual, one-hour dramas will account for part of the $1.7 billion budget.

  STAR TV has 30 films in pre-production at various sites around China including Beijing and Guangzhou, said the source.

  STAR TV is negotiating with the mainland to open a number of offices there.

  The satellite broadcaster is also planning major investments in Taiwan, and is considering whether to ally itself with a mainland terrestrial broadcaster; create its own production unit on the mainland; or to work with independent Chinese producers.

 All the options include plans to utilise producers, directors and stars from China's burgeoning film industry.

  ''We still have to decide soon on which option to take,'' said a STAR TV executive. ''But I don't think the idea is to take Cantonese shows and dub them into Mandarin. It is almost always best to have original-language production.''   STAR TV's Hongkong production plans are not believed to be great, because the satellite broadcaster reckons most of Hongkong's light entertainment broadcasting is too parochial to be successful outside of the territory.

  Sources said STAR TV wants to disassociate itself from TVB's recent decision to begin regional transmissions with a Putonghua service, via the Indonesian Palapa B2P satellite in the last quarter of the year.

  TVB will dub selections from its vast library of programming into Putonghua, and work with four English-language programmers, initially to access the Taiwanese market.

  TVB is the largest individual distributor and producer of Chinese programming in the world. It produces 5,000 hours of programming a year, producing mainly popular telefilms, serials and musicals.

  Those shows not only draw huge audiences in Hongkong, but also in the 30 countries they are distributed, which include Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, China, Vietnam, and Indonesia.

  Until now, STAR TV's plans have not been directed towards the mainland.

  According to those who have seen STAR TV's China plans, the mainland is seen as an enormous centre for future profit, but the broadcaster believes that profit is some way down the track.

  ''When the station is carrying out negotiations with overseas companies they keep getting over-excited by the potential of huge profits from China in the near term. It's just not going to happen that way, and we try to make that plain by playing down theChina card,'' said the STAR TV executive.

  Analysts predict the agreement with the Taiwanese UCG distribution group will bring in US$90 million in advertising revenue over the next three years.

  The potentially lucrative Taiwanese cable television market was divided into 50 multi-operator franchises through legislation last week.

  In the face of what members of the Taiwanese Government referred to as ''intense pressure'' from the United States over copyright, the legislature approved subscription television - but also severely restricted foreign investment.

  Meanwhile, it is understood that STAR TV has signed agreements with the American CNBC business and information channel, the Pearson group of Britain (owners of the Financial Times newspaper), and Mitsui and Co of Japan (owners of the Nikkei business channel) to co-operate on a regional pay-TV business news channel.

  The business channel will do battle with Asia Business News channel in Singapore, which will be launched soon.

  STAR TV is also believed to have signed agreements with a group of American film studios to provide movies for its English-language movie subscription channel that will begin in October.

  The deals give STAR TV the exclusive rights to pay-TV distribution for each of the studios across its 38-country footprint, sources said.

  The group includes the Walt Disney Pictures and Television, MCA International, Columbia Pictures and Columbia/Tristar Pictures, MGM International Studios.



STAR investing $1.7b to boost Chinese-language TV