The founders of the satellite broadcaster Star TV, which was sold to Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation in 1993, have launched a new Asia-wide initiative in partnership with Intel Corp. Pacific Century Group (PCG), which is also the company behind the Cyberport project in Hong Kong, has formed Pacific Convergence Corporation (PCC) as a 60:40 joint venture with Intel. PCG is investing $238m in the venture which will be headquartered at the Cyberport.
The new company will roll out the first pan-Asian Web TV network before the end of the year, PCC chairman Richard Li said, providing high-speed internet access to some 110 million households in Asia which subscribe to Star TV, which Li founded in 1991. Briefing fund managers at a road-show in Singapore, he said that PCC will launch a global brand for its internet service through which subscribers will be able to access the internet via cable or satellite TV at low cost.
He said the project, which has been in incubation for two-and-a-half years, is setting out to be the largest internet distribution system in the world. Our focus is to be the pre-eminent provider of internet service, content and e-commerce in Asia through a broadband ISP platform, he said. According to Li, the ultimate target market is the millions of households in Asia which do not have a telephone, let alone a PC. He pointed out that while only 5% of Asian households have a telephone, over 70% of them have a TV. PCC also hopes to win over existing internet users who are frustrated with the slow access through phone wires.
Star TV co-founder Michael Johnson, who is acting as special adviser to PCC, said the service will be sold through the same cable operators who deliver Star TV to homes. Our strength is a unique business relationship with Asia’s cable operators. We know them because we put them into business in the first place through Star TV, he said.
