hhhhhmmmm.... name change already I-view is now known as Selectv <img border="0" title="" alt="[Roll Eyes]" src="images/icons/default/rolleyes.gif" /> <br /><br />Source http://finance.news.com.au/story/0,10166,12657003-462,00.html <br /><br />Pay-TV service to list<br />By Jane Schulze<br />March 26, 2005 <br /><br />AUSTRALIAN investors will get another chance to gain direct exposure to the fickle world of pay-TV when former Foxtel chief executive Jim Blomfield lists his new pay-TV service, Selectv, later this year.<br /><br />Styled as a multi-language pay-TV service, the business has changed its name from i-view and registered Selectv as a business name and as an internet domain name. <br />The Australian understands Mr Blomfield, who was ousted from Foxtel in 2001, will release a prospectus in early June to raise up to $30 million, having already sourced some seed funding. <br /><br />The Selectv service, which will offer between 35 and 40 non-English speaking channels, will launch in May, just before the prospectus is revealed. <br /><br />It will be one of the few new avenues for direct investment in the pay-TV sector since the collapse of Australis Media, owner of the now-defunct Galaxy service, in 1997. <br /><br />The only other direct exposure to the pay TV sector is regional operator Austar. <br /><br />Foxtel is jointly owned by Telstra, Publishing & Broadcasting Ltd and News Corporation, owner of The Australian. Optus's pay-TV service is owned by Singapore Telecommunications. <br /><br />The Selectv service will also offer some English-speaking channels on separate pricing tiers, but the channels and the exact prices have yet to be revealed. <br /><br />However, Selectv is expected to set monthly charges at the lower end of the pricing spectrum. <br /><br />"If there were three or four Greek channels in a package you would not be paying more than $49 a month for it," one of the advisers close to the business said. <br /><br />Unlike the larger Foxtel, Optus and Austar pay-TV operations, Selectv does not require a large investment in infrastructure as the signals will be uplinked to satellites from Hong Kong. <br /><br />One of Selectv's major partners is exTV, the pay-TV arm of Hong Kong free-to-air broadcaster TVB. ExTV will send the signals to PanAmSat's PAS 8 satellite. <br /><br />Selectv's main expenses will be its investment in standard set-top boxes and some marketing costs. <br /><br />It expects to break even in four years after gaining about 40,000 subscribers. <br /><br />It will also offer a unique do-it-yourself installation service for subscribers in isolated areas, but has also contracted installation companies for metropolitan subscribers. <br /><br />Selectv will pitch itself directly at the market left by the demise of Mike Boulos's Television & Radio Broadcast Services. <br /><br />Mr Boulos has since started another pay-TV group called United Broadcasting International, which has some of the same channels as his previous service. <br /><br /><br />my 2 cents worth <br />there still looking for investors <img border="0" title="" alt="[Confused]" src="images/icons/default/confused.gif" /> <br />so why do they keep telling people there going to have this and that without anything being solid yet?? e.g. Spanish Channels <img border="0" title="" alt="[Roll Eyes]" src="images/icons/default/rolleyes.gif" /> <br /><br />also i must say the bit about 4 Greek channels for $50 does sound good to me <img border="0" title="" alt="[Big Grin]" src="images/icons/default/grin.gif" /> <img border="0" title="" alt="[Wink]" src="images/icons/default/wink.gif" /> <br />but as i said there stil looking for investers so will see how it all turns out with all these new companies fighting over the ethnic people's money on whois going to have the bigger slice of the ethnic market <img border="0" title="" alt="[Roll Eyes]" src="images/icons/default/rolleyes.gif" /><br /> <br /> <small>[ 26. March 2005, 09:28 AM: Message edited by: -.Lazer.- ]</small>