SINGAPORE: Firm to offer 40 TV channels over broadband from June

Internet content firm M2B World offers diverse programming online

Straits Times
Thursday, January 26, 2006

By Alfred Siew

Broadband Internet users will soon be able to watch Korean drama serials and Hollywood blockbusters as and when they like with a new video-on-demand service to be launched in June.

Riding on a recent wave of similar services overseas, homegrown Internet content firm M2B World is offering 40 TV channels, delivered live over the Internet, to homes that have a high-speed Internet connection here.

Anyone subscribing to a local Internet service provider can tune in to the service -- if they pay for it.

Subscribers will be given a set-top box that connects to their broadband modems instead of the cable TV point at home.

They will be able to watch the programmes on their TV screens.

The company said in a statement yesterday that it would also provide the service to the United States, and would eventually cater to broadband users worldwide later this year.

M2B World's vice-president for corporate communications, Mr Liew Kim Siong, told The Straits Times that viewers could expect to watch blockbusters from 'one or two major US movie studios'.

"We also want to broadcast content from local production companies and maybe bring this to an overseas audience," he said.

The service is open to all broadband users here.

For a monthly subscription fee, users can tune in to a TV programme any time they like.

This is similar to watching a live video clip on an Internet-connected computer, except the images are projected on a TV screen.

Prices and a detailed programming list, according to M2B World, will be out next month.

The company, which started offering Internet content during the dot.com era, currently has offices in the US and Asia.

It expects to sell an initial 3,000 set-top boxes here in Singapore, with another 7,000 headed for the US.

Increasingly, companies are turning to the Net to deliver TV and music content, bypassing traditional media such as TV broadcasters.

In Hong Kong, for example, telecom operator PCCW offers TV channels, such as National Geographic, which are delivered over its broadband network.

An analyst from research firm Frost and Sullivan, Mr Nitin Bhat, said users would welcome more TV channels.

At the moment, StarHub is the only pay-TV operator here. It currently has 83 live TV channels and 20 programmes available to users on demand.

StarHub's head of commercial, Mr Mike Reynolds, said the company welcomed competition, but added that "there is no value added to the TV viewers here if competitors end up chasing for the same content."

Date Posted: 1/26/2006