Obama Has Fans In Hong Kong, Too
Star TV’s Ong Hopeful Election Could Open Stateside Doors For More Ethnic Services
By R. Thomas Umstead -- Multichannel News, 11/9/2008 4:32:00 AM
Laureen Ong, chief operating officer of Hong Kong-based Star TV, was in New York last week and told The Wire that Barack Obama's election win is playing extremely well in Asia. “From an overseas perspective, there is avid interest in the elections here,” the former National Geographic Channel chief said. “There was a high interest because many believe there would be big paradigm change in where the United States had been.”
Could the election of the nation's first African-American president better position Star TV's India- and China-based networks for distribution in the States? The services are currently on DirecTV, Dish Network, some CoxCommunications systems and, most recently, overbuilder RCN.
Maybe.
“From a cable-television point of view, [the election] points out that America is not one flavor,” Ong said. “Now that multiflavor voice is a lot louder, and people understand that this is a pretty diverse place … I'm hoping what this points out is that this country is really made up of very large populations of various ethnicities, and the Indian and Chinese populations are two enormously growing populations that we serve.”
Laureen Ong Riding an 'Immense’ Star
02/22/2008Star In Ong’s Eyes
11/16/2008SuperCroc to Bite National Geographic
10/26/2001Through the Wire
11/09/2008
