The largest commercial Chinese programme producer globally and Hong Kong’s terrestrial operator, TVB produces 520 episodes of original drama yearly, reaching over 300 million households worldwide and covering more than 40 countries and 100 cities. With its hands full, the operator wants to explore further by offering its audience a platform of choices. In collaboration with Hutchison Global Communications Limited (HGC) and some sales and distribution partners, TVB’s OTT platform is scheduled to be launched in early 2016. TVB claims it will be a significant milestone in new television experience not only to TVB but to a nationwide audience of Hong Kong.
“It’s the best time for us to strengthen our OTT broadcast service,” said Cheong Shin Keong, Executive Director and General Manager at TVB. Cheong further responded that to ensure a provision of diverse, convenient and high quality personalised TV encounter, entertainment programmes worldwide will be incorporated into the OTT broadcast service platform. Value-added services, such as personal profile with viewing history, video-on-demand and catch up services, will also be included, contributing to a TV encounter without any time constraints. He expressed that TVB is also exploring with other internet and telecommunications service providers.
As a continuation of achievement of the myTV platform, the OTT broadcast business will further enrich both the genre and quantity of the present programme pool in folds. Apart from the existing channels in broadcast (including Jade, Pearl, J2, hdJ and iNEWS ), popular classic dramas and 13 TVB pay channels will also be included, namely, TVB Japanese Drama, TVB Korean Drama, TVB Chinese Drama, TVB Drama Select, TVB Classic, TVB Encore, TVB Window, TVB Food, TVB Classic Movies (will be launched on 4 April), TVB Entertainment News, TVB Sports, TVB News and TVB News 2.
Hence, subscribers will enjoy more than 25,500 hours of programming, comprising 17,700 hours of TVB programmes and 8,500 hours of acquired programmes. Among all, the drama channels will ensure a timely broadcast of more than 1,700 hours of the latest dramas from Japan, Korea, Taiwan and the Mainland. Another 1,700 episodes of traditional dramas from TVB Classic Movies will be presented to the audience again under the empowerment of the new OTT technology.
