Hong Kong-based PCCW Ltd<8>, the city's dominant telecom operator, is enhancing its pay-television unit Now TV by adding more local content, in an effort to maintain growth momentum in the second half of the year, according to Alex Arena, managing director of PCCW.

Its Now TV unit, which holds exclusive broadcasting rights for the English Premier League football matches, was one of the growth engines for PCCW. In the first six months of the year, Now TV users rose 13% to 927, of which 668,000 were premium content subscribers, compared with 560,000 a year earlier.

Now TV, which was launched in 2003, has targeted the middle and upper-income groups. 

In May, PCCW had announced it was planning to fold its fixed-phone, wireless telecom, media and information technology business into a new holding company, and offering as much as 45% stake of the new firm to investors. The new entity was expected to help finance PCCW's mergers and acquisitions overseas, media reported.

The Hong Kong's largest communication service supplier posted a net profit of HK$656 million in the first half year, a year-on-year decrease of 20.19% from last year's HK$822 million, dragged down by a lower contribution from its property arm Pacific Century Premium Development (PCPD), according to its interim financial report.

Source:China Knowledge