Ordinary Gweilo

Doug Crets passes on the rumour that PCCW are going to enhance the Now Broadband TV service…

…with the installation of personal video recorders, or the software for personal video recording, as an added value offer to its now TV subscribers.

I think that "added value" means that we’ll have to pay for it, but that’s fine as far as I am concerned.  I think Sky charge for their Sky+ service, and PCCW are currently charging HK$30 per month for their very limited ‘Now Select’ service, so I’d happily pay a bit more than that to be able to easily record anything from any channel. 

It may also allow PCCW to offer a vide-on-demand service (they send the program to your set top box, for you to watch whenever you want), though there’s always the bandwidth issue.

Meanwhile, the SCMP has a rather muddled report about Now increasing the price of their HK$388 package to HK$450:

PCCW’s NOW Broadband will increase fees for its pay-TV services by at least 16 per cent next month, prompting lawmaker Fred Li Wah-ming to call on soccer fans to boycott the service and look elsewhere for their sporting fix.

Mr Li, of the Democratic Party, said the NOW price rise was outrageous and should have been met by an increase in advertising.

"It’s really bad news for soccer fans," he said. "I heard CCTV broadcasts on the internet. I would urge consumers to take every possible legal step to find another way to watch the games and boycott NOW TV."

That sound you can hear is a politician opening his mouth before thinking.  I suppose he believes that subcribers will have to pay HK$450 per month to get the EPL coverage, but actually that’s what they charge for a very large selection of channels (not all, but most).  It should still be possible to subscribe to the sports channels but nothing else – an option that Cable TV didn’t offer.