Ordinary Gweilo

Yes TV have decided to abandon their Pay TV venture in Hong Kong. Hardly surprising given the obstacles they faced. They were obliged to pay HK$198 to PCCW for each customer who used their service, decoder boxes cost them US$100, and they had the usual difficulties getting access to buildings. End result – not many subscribers.

The strange thing about this is that Yes TV had to pay an annual licence fee of $1.37 million to the government, as well as HK$198 per subscriber to PCCW for access. Step forward Now Broadband TV, who do not have to pay an annual licence fee to the government and do not have to pay an access fee to PCCW (because they happen to be owned by PCCW). They can afford to offer their service ‘free’ to their broadband customers and charge individually for the channels, making it an attractive alternative to Cable TV – and freezing out Yes TV in the process. Hardly seems fair, but that’s business for you!

I finally got round to getting Now Broadband TV installed, but I haven’t fully investigated the channels on offer. The decoder box is smaller than I had been led to believe by someone’s comments, though it is bigger than the Cable TV box. Quality is better than I expected, but the most irritating feature is that you can’t* record programmes – you either watch them live or not at all.

* This may not be true! See comments