Hong Kong based IPTV operator PCCW and Rainbow Networks have signed a carriage agreement to launch the VOOM HD channel in Hong Kong, the first launch of the channel in Asia and one of the first 24/7 Asian HD channels. “Everyday, HDTV transforms the entertainment experiences of more and more viewers worldwide, and this audience is hungry for content,” said Glenn Oakley, Senior Vice President, Global Operations and Business Development for VOOM HD Networks.
PCCW’s IPTV serves an installed customers base of more than 700,000 in Hong Kong, making it the world’s largest IPTV multichannel video operator. The PCCW system is operated as an innovative, completely a la carte, interactive service. VOOM HD’s launch on PCCW, which was facilitated by Gregory Ang, President of Gang TV, is also innovative in its bi-format roll-out strategy, allowing viewers to view the content both in standard definition (SD) beginning April 18, 2007, and in HD shortly thereafter. The channel will be subtitled in Chinese for both SD and HD offerings.
Over the past year and a half the global VOOM HD channel has launched on Scandinavia’s Canal Digital, Sweden’s Com Hem, Estonia’s Elion and Latvia’s IZZI, and the channel is expected to launch in Singapore later this year. VOOM has been deployed in Canada on three branded channels operated by High Fidelity TV, and Skylife’s SkyHD deployed a daily primetime VOOM HD branded programming block on Korea’s first and only HD programming service last September.
