Cannes – Most of Al Jazeera English’s growth is anticipated in the Asia Pacific region, according to Al Jazeera Network’s director, global distribution Phil Lawrie. With over 80million households upon launch, the Doha-HQ’d news channel now has 110 subscribers worldwide, with that number growing by around 1million per month. Lawrie told Television Asia Plus that Asia currently accounts for around 25% of the total, and he sees most of the channel’s growth occurring in the region. 2008 has seen Al Jazeera English seal deals with Hong Kong’s i-CABLE and Singapore’s SingTel mioTV, as well as adding 2million subscribers via Vietnam’s VTC, and 3million in Bangladesh. Lawrie says the channel has a landing licence for Taiwan, and having met with SARFT and various platforms in China, he is hopeful that Al Jazeera English will be on a SARFT platform by the end of 2008. Although the channel is already in HD, Lawrie says it has not yet been deployed as an HD channel. “One major advantage is that our channel produces so much of its own inventory, which ensures a consistent HD channel product. News channels that use news from other sources can run the risk of a channel that mixes HD and SD items.” He adds that Al Jazeera Mobile is doing very well in the Middle East, with SMS and MMS offerings currently, and the channel is producing VOD and made-for-mobile products of around 2-3 minutes in length.