Ordinary Gweilo

Just over a year ago I mentioned that the BBC would be launching several new channels in Hong Kong and elsewhere.  Those channels (BBC Knowledge, BBC Lifestyle & CBeebies) are now available in Hong Kong, but apparently that’s only the start of it (according to The Guardian):

The BBC’s commercial arm, BBC Worldwide, is to launch a further 30 channels internationally, as well as a high-definition outlet and an on-demand service in the United States, as part of the next stage of its aggressive expansion plan.

The launches, which will be based on four thematic brands – BBC Entertainment, with shows such as Doctor Who; BBC Knowledge, featuring programmes such as Top Gear; BBC Lifestyle, with What Not To Wear; and children’s outlet CBeebies, featuring the Teletubbies – come on top of 21 channels it already plans to launch before the end of this financial year.

I hadn’t heard about the 21 new channels, let alone the 30 more.  That would be the Doctor Who channel, the Top Gear channel, the Michael Palin channel, and so on, I presume.

A high-definition channel would certainly fit in well with Now’s strategy, as would an on-demand service.

Meanwhile, my attempts to subscribe to these 3 new channels, have not been terribly successful.  PCCW appear to have designed their phone system so it is impossible to speak to someone, and instead they encourage you to subscribe online.  Which is all very well, but this system cannot (as far as I can tell) let you know how much extra you will have to pay for the additional channels.

The problem is that they have all manner of strange offers, based upon combinations of channels and the total monthly payment, and they don’t provide customers with a breakdown of how much they are paying for each channel.  Also, I would be upgrading from BBC Entertainment as a a single channel to "the BBC 5" (it includes BBC World, which I don’t need, as it also on Cable TV).  No price is quoted for that on their website.

I’d be quite happy if I could choose channels online and see the actual price I would pay, but they don’t seem to offer that service.  I have always suspected that they do this deliberately, so that if you really want a channel you pay full price rather than waste time talking to them on the phone.  I’m not going to fall for that one.