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Technology Stocks : PCW - Pacific Century CyberWorks Limited -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: ms.smartest.person who wrote (1562)	7/8/2001 9:03:49 PM
From: ms.smartest.person	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 2248

TVB eyes single tender for channel rights 2001-07-08 Terms and Conditions Television Broadcasts (TVB) will next week invite pay-television operators to bid for exclusive broadcasting rights to five channels. Galaxy Satellite Broadcasting the pay-television arm of TVB, and Pacific Century CyberWorks are expected to be the most competitive bidders. Apart from the free-to-air Hong Kong channels Pearl and Jade, TVB operates two satellite channels for the overseas market, especially China. It has also been planning to launch three new channels, comprising news, family/children and general entertainment content, for the local pay -television platform. Sources said TVB intended to bundle its two existing satellite channels and three new channels into a single tender. Under the "firewall" imposed by the Broadcasting Authority, TVB cannot directly or indirectly supply any television programme or channel to Galaxy on an exclusive basis. Therefore, TVB has to set up a bidding process to invite all domestic pay -television licensees to bid for the exclusive broadcasting rights to its channels or programmes. These licensees include existing operators i-Cable Communications and CyberWorks' iTV and new operators Galaxy, CLP's Yes Television and Taiwan -based Pacific Digital Media (Hong Kong). TVB has asked licensees to sign a mutual non-disclosure agreement to show their interest in the tender. A formal invitation letter to tender will be sent next week. The sources said TVB hoped that bundling the channels into a single tender might make it too expensive for small operators. This would boost Galaxy's chances of winning and the five channels would be a key asset when it rolled out its pay-television services in the middle of next year. TVB had earlier been talking to CyberWorks about licensing broadcasting rights to programmes on a non-exclusive basis, which would not require a bidding process. However, it now seems it prefers to licence its channels on an exclusive basis. TVB's two satellite channels - TVB8 and TVB Xing He - have been unable to reach break-even after two years, but the new pay-television platform offers a ray of hope. Terms and Conditions Copyright© 2000 LEXIS-NEXIS, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights Reserved.