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Non-Tech : Amati investors -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: pat mudge who wrote (30731)	4/1/1998 12:11:00 AM
From: Chemsync	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 31386

Hong Kong VOD likened to Titanic disaster Hi Pat, Well, I plead guilty to being overly optimistic on this one. But, when VOD does arrive, a certain Mr. Lo may be remembered as a trail blazer. And another far sighted venture....wires made of DNA ...at techserver.com I'm actually betting on a more contemporary theme--NASDAQ Stock Car games made by Radica (RADAF). Wall St. likes to focus on the here and now. Best of Luck sg TuesdayÿÿMarch 31ÿÿ1998 iTV VOD launch gets the 'Oscar' treatment Titanic event: celebrities and hi-tech graced the glittering official launch of the iTV video-on-demand service for the SAR at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre. The gala launch of Hongkong Telecom's Interactive TV video-on-demand service was held last Monday night, the same evening as the Academy Awards in Los Angeles. Like the Oscars, the iTV ceremony in the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre was a star-studded event. It included Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa and Andy Lau, star of sci-fi thriller Armageddon. In the film, Lau played a computer wizard, "Dr Ken", allegedly modelled on William Lo, managing director of Hongkong Telecom IMS and the man behind iTV. Even Mr Lo's speech had the ring of an Oscar acceptance speech. "You can imagine how I feel after all these years of effort," he said, before going on to thank a long list of iTV's partner companies. Mr Lo may be premature in his relief. If iTV, first conceived in 1993, has any parallels in the movie business, it would be Titanic. Both are expensive - $2 billion has been invested by Telecom so far, which expects to spend $10 billion within the next decade - and risky projects headed by ambitious men. Like Titanic director James Cameron, Mr Lo has presided over costly delays, internal squabbles, and changes in direction and technology. Along the way, Mr Lo and iTV have received the sort of fine-tooth examination that only projects running counter to the conventional wisdom receive. The conventional wisdom is that VOD, while cutting-edge technology, is also on the bleeding edge, financially. Practically every other VOD project in the world - and there were plenty of trial projects in the early 1990s - has been shut down in the face of big losses. Hong Kong is different, of course, from suburban Orlando, Florida, where the last big VOD trial, run by Time Warner, sputtered to a close late last year after spending about US$100 million. The SAR is more densely populated - meaning more potential subscribers to help repay the high cost of laying optical fibre - and there arguably are fewer recreational alternatives. However, the problem faced by iTV - and all VOD projects - is that it must convince hundreds of thousands of people to change their shopping, television viewing, karaoke singing and, someday, gambling habits. Besides the number of people who sign up for iTV - Telecom says it has received 40,000 applications in the last month - the early litmus test will be how many digitally transmitted movies subscribers watch. Mr Lo is optimistic. Trial users were watching two movies per week - twice what he had expected. But the movies have been free until now. If iTV is a success, both technologically and financially, it will probably be over the long haul. But if and when iTV is vindicated, Mr Lo will deserve to feel, like Mr Cameron at the Oscars, like king of the world. The problem faced by iTV . . . is that it must convince hundreds of thousands of people to change their . . . habits SCMP Contact Information \| Letters To The Editor Copyright c1998 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All Rights Reserved.