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CONTENT STRATEGIES: Uncovering programming opportunities worldwide

New Celestial Tiger net leaps into life

Hong Kong-based pay-TV company Celestial Tiger Entertainment (CTE) will launch another high-definition channel in Malaysia next month.

Celestial Movies HD (CM HD) will begin broadcasting on Malaysia’s Astro B.Yond HD platform from March 1 and will get a first-window on Chinese and Asian blockbuster films.

Kix HD, which launched in Singapore in November 2011, will also join Astro B.Yond HD on the same date. The channel specialises in five programming areas: fight events, action series, action reality, action movies and a late-night block of thriller movies.

Shows already scheduled by Kix HD include the Malaysian debut of ABC’s Expedition Impossible, from Survivor producer and The Apprentice creator Mark Burnett, which will begin its run in April.

CM HD joins Kix, Thrill, Celestial Movies, Celestial Classic Movies and Celestial Movies On Demand in CTE’s channel bouquet. The company was established late last year as a joint-venture between Lionsgate Entertainment, Celestial Pictures and US-based investment firm Saban Capital Group.

Earlier this month, CTE licensed Lionsgate’s movies, which include Hotel Rwanda, the Saw horror franchise, The Blair Witch Project and older titles such as Dirty Dancing, to Chinese pay-per-view service You on Demand.

Wendy Reeds, CTE’s executive VP of content sales and distribution, said the Chinese VoD market is worth around US$300m a year, and that deal “represent just the first step for CTE’s content distribution in China.”

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