8 February 2006

FB Business, Technology

Television Broadcasts' pay-television operation, Supersun, is banking on yet another name change to turn the struggling business around, and on a partnership with rival PCCW Now Broadband TV to lift its battered fortunes.

Analysts, however, doubt whether the initiatives will do much to pull Supersun from under the shadow of the two big operators, i-Cable Communications and Now Broadband TV, which have 700,000 and 500,000 subscribers, respectively.

Supersun has 63,000 subscribers, Media Partners Asia says.

The company - 51 per cent owned by dealmaker Charles Chan Kwok-keung and his listed firm See Corp, with the balance held by TVB - expects the business to break even within three years and targets 300,000 subscribers.

"We are considering dropping the name of Supersun and have proposed a new name, TVB Pay TV, to compete with rivals i-Cable and Now," a source close to the operator said. "The TVB brand is much stronger than any other media brand in Hong Kong. We don't know what Supersun stands for."

The management is betting that TVB's exclusive drama, music and news content on eight channels will attract paying customers.

The pay-television operator was originally called Galaxy Satellite Broadcasts, but changed its name to exTV, headed by chief executive Jim Blomfield, after United States-based satellite operator Intelsat bought 51 per cent of the Galaxy stake in 2002.

In June last year, when Intelsat quit the investment, TVB management renamed it Supersun.

Despite the brand shifts, Supersun - hampered by not having full coverage of its delivery network - has been seeking to boost its coverage by hooking up with PCCW, Hong Kong's largest fixed-line telephone operator.

Supersun has also secured a network arrangement with Hutchison Global Communications Holdings (HGC), the fixed-line business of Hutchison Whampoa, to access more than one million households.

"We do want to partner other fixed-line operators to extend our coverage, and there is no exclusive deal with HGC," the source said.

As far as the PCCW tie-up is concerned, Supersun is looking at two partnership models - either renting the broadband line from PCCW or allowing PCCW access to its exclusive channels provided by TVB.

"We can leverage on PCCW to boost our subscriber base," the source said.

However, market watchers say it is difficult for both sides to reach a network access arrangement since PCCW may lose a potential Now user if it rents the line to Supersun.

"Nothing is impossible, but it depends on terms and conditions," a source close to PCCW said.

Figures from analysts at Media Partners show that only 7,000 Supersun subscribers were using the HGC network.

HGC and Supersun declined to give official figures.

"It is difficult for Supersun to compete with other facility-based pay-television operators such as PCCW and i-Cable," said Media Partners analyst Vivek Couto.

Supersun and PCCW declined to comment yesterday.