Hong Kong-listed CMMB Vision is forming a joint venture with China’s state-owned Global Broadcasting Media Group (GMG) to deploy multimedia satellite services across the country.
GMG is a subsidiary of China Radio International (CRI), one of three…
Hong Kong-listed CMMB Vision is forming a joint venture with China’s state-owned Global Broadcasting Media Group (GMG) to deploy multimedia satellite services across the country.
GMG is a subsidiary of China Radio International (CRI), one of three state-level and national media broadcasters, and claims to have the country’s most complete portfolio of media operating licences.
The group will lead efforts to acquire licences for the JV, which would become the only satellite mobile multimedia broadcast delivery platform to operate in China.
GMG’s businesses span across radio, TV, new media, and publishing. It also indirectly controls China News Media, which is listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange.
The JV will also look to leverage on CRI’s network of international media stations to branch out overseas.
“It will seek to optimise and integrate resources from all fronts and bring about service innovation and diversity so as to maximise business value,” said CMMB in a stock exchange filing on Monday.
“It will also eventually promote and extend the services to other overseas markets.”
They plan to complete the JV’s formation within 90 days.
The partnership comes a month after CMMB paid US$2m for 5% of Taiwan-based DTH platform Dish-HD Asia, with the option to gain control by buying a further 46% for an additional US$4m.
Originally a JV between satellite operators AsiaSat and EchoStar that launched services in 2010, the group today provides 76 TV channels and expects to reach profitability on the back of its 4K ultra-high-definition TV launch this year.
CMMB plans to pair the group up with capacity from two satellites it is procuring in partnership with US-based New York Satellite Holdings (NYBB), which recently bought the AsiaStar bird at 105E with a coverage that spreads from India to Japan.
Consultancy Space Partnership International is running the procurement process, including securing the launch and insurance coverage.
Boeing wins company’s first satellite contract
On 20 January NYBB announced that the first satellite will be built by US-based Boeing, based on its 702MP platform with a high-power L-band payload to cover all of China and its surrounding oceans, as well as selected Asian markets through steerable beams.
NYBBSat-1 is being designed so its beams and power can be reconfigured on-orbit, and will be placed in mid-2017 through a launch provider it has yet to secure.
Its entire capacity will be leased to CMMB, and the upcoming NYBBSat-2 bird will also be dedicated to the Chinese group.
“The selection of Boeing for negotiation of a contract to build our new satellite is another major step for our plan to serve China and the rest of Asia with mobile multimedia programming,” said Charles Wong, chairman and CEO of CMMB.
“The high power payload of the NYBBSat-1 satellite will offer satellite capacity that enables CMMB Vision to deliver services to consumer mobile devices throughout China and the rest of Asia.”
SatelliteFinance understands that the US$350m-US$450m satellite is being partly financed by investors including Chi Capital of Hong Kong. CMMB has said it will also look for private equity from strategic partners and export-import bank credits from China and the US.
CMMB is grown out from a Chinese technology standard developed in the early part of the 2000s called China Mobile Multimedia Broadcast, which it believes is more cost-efficient than Europe’s DVB-SH standard for digital video broadcasting to handheld devices. The technical name for the standard is Satellite-Terrestrial Interactive Mobile Infrastructure (sTiMi).
