OTT battle heats up: Hong Kong broadcasting giant TVB joins forces with internet provider for new subscription service
Critics say move to take on other players in lucrative market highlights failures of government broadcasting policy
The battle for a share of the city’s over-the-top broadcasting market has entered a new phase, with Hong Kong giant TVB teaming up with an internet service provider in a bid to lure back audiences lost to traditional television.
Critics said TVB’s latest move to go head to head with other players such as ViuTV, Netflix, LeEco and US channels including Fox and sports network ASN not only meant television had entered a new era – it also demonstrated the failure of the government’s inconsistent broadcasting policy.
“The government has failed to open the TV market as promised, which leaves the free-TV industry in dire straits,” said Grace Leung, journalism lecturer at Chinese University.
“But audiences want more, and the current law gives room to the growth of OTT [internet-based] content, which does not require any licence. The government is indirectly pushing audiences to OTT services.”
TVB on Thursday announced a partnership with Hong Kong Broadband Network to offer a bundling service for its new OTT platform myTV SUPER with fibre broadband at speeds as high as 1,000 Mbps (megabits per second) for a monthly subscription of between HK$149 and HK$198.
The bandwidth can accommodate delivery of picture quality at 4K ultra high-definition.
HKBN’s chief executive officer and co-owner William Yeung said with the launch of the new service, available on set-top box and mobile app, he expected the number of subscribers to grow from the current 790,000 to over one million in the next two years.