MUMBAI: The cable and satellite broadcasting association of Asia (Casbaa) announced now Broadband TV of Hong Kong as the winner of the prestigious Casbaa Chairman's Award 2004.
The inaugural award is conferred for outstanding contribution to the Asia Pacific multi-channel cable, satellite and broadband pay-TV industries in the previous 12 months.
According to a Casbaa release, the inaugural award went to now Broadband for the innovative and proactive marketing of a secure and advanced pay-TV platform and for growing its interactive capability resulting in a stellar subscriber take up.
The Casbaa Chairman's award 2004 was announced as a conclusion to the Casbaa pay-TV advertising awards held on the first day of the Casbaa convention 2004 in Hong Kong.
The Chairman's Award was decided by a ballot of the Casbaa council of governors, who made their selection to recognise an individual or corporation that had contributed most effectively to the Asia Pacific pay-TV sector, says the release.
According to Casbaa chairman Marcel Fenez, "This award represents a new benchmark for our industry. It recognizes companies or individuals who have really made a difference. This year the winner is a relatively new entrant to the market and has made us all sit up and take notice with its innovative service and marketing resulting in large subscriber take up. It's a wonderful start to what will become a long-standing tradition for both our industry and the Association."
PCCW, group chief financial officer Alex Arena, who accepted the award on behalf of his company, said, "We are delighted to receive the award. now Broadband TV is a world first Internet Protocol TV platform -- the first television over IP to be offered commercially anywhere in the world. That means DVD quality picture to the home over our existing broadband network -- which reaches 98 percent of Hong Kong."
"We put a lot of resources into this to ensure a reliable and secure platform, and we're now reaping the rewards in terms of our superb content line up. But we have only just started. In fact November is going to be a busy month for us as we are about to launch a major set of Cantonese programming," he added.
