TWO weeks before Wharf's Cable TV system goes on air, managing director Stephen Ng Tin-hoi said his station is still expecting to run four STAR TV subscription channels soon despite remarks by the satellite TV station's boss they would not be available until mid-1994. Rupert Murdoch, whose News Corp company bought a controlling interest in STAR TV in July, said in Australia last week that he had not decided when to add a subscription service to the station's five free-to-air channels, but none could be started before mid-1994 at the earliest. On instructions from the Government, STAR TV had been set to provide four subscription channels to Wharf's Cable TV system, due to begin operations on October 31. Mr Ng admitted that there would be a delay, but not as long as the ''several weeks and possibly months'' suggested by Mr Murdoch last week. He told Sunday Money: ''The indications were that they could be ready as early as October or November, although that appears to be unlikely now. He said that following talks with News Corp, there were indications that Wharf could get the STAR subscription service in Hong Kong before it went on the satellite, and the company did not expect to wait until next June or July before that happened. ''I would think that would happen closer to this point in time than one next summer,'' he said, adding he had not spoken to Mr Murdoch directly on the issue. The four channels are a business, movie and children's channel in English, and a Chinese-movie channel, although no details of their content have been made public. There were ''understandings'' between STAR TV and a number of suppliers before a controlling interest in the service was sold to Mr Murdoch in July by Hutchison Whampoa and a private company run by its chairman, Li Ka-shing. But News Corp's ownership of Fox TV put those agreements in suspension because the suppliers were unwilling to supply product to a competitor. This created the delay. A STAR TV spokesman said: ''We are starting on time; we will be on schedule.'' However, he would not explain what he meant by ''on schedule'', now that it is clear STAR TV will not meet the October 31 deadline. The Government engineered the present situation in the summer of 1992, when it ordered that the party winning the tender to run cable TV in Hong Kong had to carry STAR TV's subscription channels. The idea was to avoid the satellite TV company from signing on subscribers and possibly reducing the market for the cable TV franchise, granted to Wharf, the only bidder, earlier this year. Mr Ng said Wharf could ask for the Government to lift or delay the requirement to carry the STAR TV subscription channels because of its failure to deliver them by October 31, although he would not say whether the company would take this course of action. When Wharf Cable begins broadcasting, it will be running eight of its own channels, plus three of the existing STAR TV channels, BBC World Service Television, Prime Sports and MTV Asia.
