Naked news show stripped from the air

A naked news reading service on PCCW's NOW Broadband has been pulled off the air.

A spokesman for the internet-television network disclosed yesterday the twice-weekly Cantonese Fire/Ice News had been cancelled on its adult channel, but he insisted it was the content provider's decision.

Launched only late last month, the news show featured a somberly dressed newscaster, Chan Long, 18, reading news summaries over a five-minute period while slowly undressing until she was naked.

The NOW spokesman would not comment if there had been pressure from top PCCW executives such as chairman Richard Li Tzar-kai to take the adult news show off the air. 'You will have to ask the senior executives themselves,' he said. 'If content providers don't want to run a show, it's their decision.'

However, the show's creator and producer, Jesse Au King-wai, was still planning for Saturday's broadcast yesterday morning and only learned about the show's cancellation late in the afternoon. He insisted he was happy about the latest development.

'I am developing my website for the news show, so the show will go on, just on a different platform,' he said.