I - VIEW NEW ETHNIC PAY TV SERVICE - Tue 18 Jan 2005 09:57:PM
Wanted: $30m for ethnic pay-TV plan<br />Jane Schulze<br />January 18, 2005<br />FORMER Foxtel chief executive Jim Blomfield is trying to raise $30 million to launch a new ethnic satellite pay-TV service called i-view early this year.<br /><br />According to documents seen by The Australian, i-view plans to offer 32 non-English channels across eight ethnic language groups and a small number of English language channels. <br /><br />Mr Blomfield, who was sacked from Foxtel in 2001, has teamed with Hong Kong pay-TV group exTV and plans to uplink the channels from exTV's broadcast centre in Hong Kong to PanAmSat's PAS 8 satellite for distribution in Australia and New Zealand. <br /><br />Before returning to Australia recently, Mr Blomfield spent 18 months helping to build exTV for TVB, one of Hong Kong's major free-to-air broadcasters. <br /><br />The two companies have now formed a strategic relationship to manage the delivery of i-view's channels out of Hong Kong. <br /><br />The service is seeking to fill the gap left by Mike Boulos's Television & Radio Broadcast Services (TARBS), which was placed in administration by PanAmSat, its satellite distributor, in July last year. <br /><br />Since then, Mr Boulos has started another pay-TV group, United Broadcasting International, from TARBS' Pyrmont offices in Sydney. <br /><br />Mr Boulos has managed to keep the building because it was not owned by TARBS but was his personal investment. <br /><br />Another group of ethnic TV channels, previously part of Sydney community TV station Channel 31, last month launched a free-to-air satellite service called the Australian Multicultural TV network. <br /><br />The $30 million being sought by i-view is expected to cover the cost of set-top boxes, transponder space on PAS 8 and initial marketing material. I-view wants to acquire the rights to Croatian channel HRT and market it as part of a three-channel Croatian package. The English language channels, which have yet to be revealed, are expected to target the 55-plus and youth audiences. <br /><br /><br />SOURCE http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,11970007%255E7582,00.html