HKBN to offer niche pay-TV at half the price of rival i-Cable

Hong Kong Broadband Network (HKBN), a subsidiary of City Telecom (CTI), plans to offer pay-television services that include niche content at half the price of similar packages from its main rival.

At $98 a month, customers are provided with 11 channels, including a self-produced 24-hour news channel, the BBC, a movie channel and religious channels. Except the news channel, each channel has a daily average of four to six hours of programming.

Dominant market player i-Cable Communications charges customers $298 a month and emphasises news, entertainment and sports content. HKBN said it had no plan to provide a mainstream sports channel.

'We'll only choose content which is not provided on terrestrial TV,' HKBN and CTI chairman Ricky Wong Wai-kay said. 'What is unavailable on their platforms should be found on ours.'

The company plans to invest about $15 million in the first year of its pay-TV operation, which employs about 50 staff. 'We can break even if we can sign up 10,000 to 20,000 subscribers,' Mr Wong said.

HKBN hopes its pay-TV network will cover 300,000 to 500,000 households in Kwai Chung, Tsuen Wan, Tsing Yi and most of the New Territories by year-end. The firm declined to set a subscriber target.

The company will also provide bundled service plans. For $148, customers can enjoy pay-TV and either broadband or fixed-line services. For $198, they get all three.