PCCW, Hong Kong's incumbent operator, has purchased additional encoding and content processing equipment to expand the channel line-up of its existing Tut Systems digital headend system.
Tut Systems' Astria Content Processor (CP) serves as the core of PCCW's digital headend. As part of the expansion, PCCW purchased Tut Systems' next-generation encoder, as well as additional stream processor cards. An IP set-top box is used to decode the MPEG-2 switched digital video.
The companies said PCCW's growing installed base of TV over DSL subscribers confirms the business case for Telco TV. PCCW's a la carte business model, which empowers consumers to select and pay for only the channels they want, is seen as a major factor in the high penetration rate for the service. PCCW is currently offering more than 50 channels of digital entertainment, including premium sports, news and entertainment channels. http://www.tutsystems.com/
- Last week, PCCW announced that its a la carte pay-TV service for broadband subscribers has achieved "critical mass", with over 316,000 customers (or nearly half of its major competitor's customer base) signing up by the end of June 2004, less than one year after launch. This makes PCCW one of the world's largest and most successful digital TV deployments over fiber and DSL. PCCW has signed up approximately 30,000 subscribers per month since launching its digital TV service in September of 2003 and anticipates maintaining that pace through the end of 2004.
- Overall, PCCW reported a total of 753,000 broadband subscribers in Hong Kong as of the end of Q2, up by 20% over last year.
