A la carte

By contrast, the PCCW service, which launched with 23 channels including some U.S.-based programming (a few more have been added), is entirely a la carte. Customers don't buy a package of channels for a monthly price. They buy whichever channels they want, and pay a monthly price for each.

Channels range in price from about $1.30 to $5 a month, and higher in a couple of cases. PCCW and its content providers share the revenues in a formula that isn't disclosed.

....But for all the possibilities, PCCW's service is burdened by some of the most stringent control-freakery I've seen in the TV world. If you want to tape one of the TV programs to watch later, forget it. You can't. Period.

The set-top boxes, based on DVD technology (many contain DVD players), have digital and analog outputs. But because the providers of the programming have been so paranoid about copying, PCCW has turned off customers' ability to make even personal copies, whether digital or analog, of anything on any of the channels.

"It was a significant factor with a number of the content providers in giving them increased security of intellectual property, particularly in this part of the world," Butcher says.

High-profile programmers, including an MGM movie channel, said they wouldn't do a deal if any copying was allowed. Maybe, with some future channel, the conditions won't be so strict, Butcher says.

PCCW's lockdown prompted a letter of complaint to the editor of the South China Morning Post. The correspondent wrote: "Recording is essential to many viewers as it is generally difficult for busy Hong Kong citizens to watch TV according to broadcast schedules." How do you respond if the only way to get the goodies is on the terms of the content providers?