Interactive web from HK cabler
Asia launches first 'infotainment' channel
The Interactive Channel (TIC) will allow viewers to participate during live broadcasts of locally produced shows via mobile-phone text messages, Web cams or chatting on the TIC Web site.
TIC has been called "infotainment" that spans various media including broadcast TV, radio, the Internet and mobile phone technology.
"TIC is media's next evolutionary leap," said Robert Chua, chairman and founder of The Interactive Channel Company.
The channel -- with a content policy of no sex and no violence -- will feature talk and gameshows, documentaries and programming for children.
The TV broadcasts and the Web site will be presented in Cantonese, but there are plans for an English-language Web site, said Michael Dervin, senior consultant for TIC.
Programs include "Election Live," which will allow viewers to debate political issues in the runup to Hong Kong's Legislative Council elections. The show will run Monday to Friday through September. On "iTalk Live" auds can ask the host or guests questions, chat or vote using SMS messages on cell phones seven days a week from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.
For the first two weeks, any premium charge on online TV games and SMS chat on the shows will be waived, Dervin said.
During its trial run, TIC will air between 8 p.m. and 6 a.m. on Cable TV, the territory's leading pay TV service provider. The channel will switch to 24-hour programming when it launches Dec. 1.
