Still no sign of Now Broadband TV where I live, but what I read today makes me less keen on having this service. Apparently it is not possible to record any of the programs, which means that you have to watch them live or not at all (this is from Dan Gillmor‘s column in the SCMP, which I can’t find online). This is weird when you consider that in the UK the satellite operator BSkyB is moving in the opposite direction by offering customers a service whereby all programs can be recorded on a special box and watched at any time. PCCW say that they imposed this restriction at the insistence of the channel providers, and it may change in the future. I hope so!
Meanwhile, Cable TV say that they will complete their switchover to digital by May of this year. As we still have analogue here that means we will be one of the last places in Hong Kong to be switched over, which I find somewhat amazing. This is a large, modern, estate, not a tiny place in the back of beyond! I believe there a number of channels that are only available on digital, so I hope they get on with it. It should also improve the picture quality, which is quite poor for BBC World and some other channels.
The problem in Hong Kong for both these companies is getting access to buildings, which seems to depend upon the attitude of the management company. So Galaxy will launch their satellite TV service next month but it will not be very widely available. Unlike many other countries, where home-owners can simply attach a dish to the wall of their house, virtually everyone in Hong Kong has to rely on getting these services through a central dish. This has one small advantage, which is that Star World and its sister channels are available in most buildings at no additional charge, but overall it can be very inconvenient.
Ordinary Gweilo 
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