The business news channel's parent company MediaCorp and Malaysian pay-television operator MiTV signed a carriage agreement in Kuala Lumpar yesterday that paves the way for the eventual launch of the channel in the South East Asian country. MiTV’s pay service kicks off at the end of 2004 and Channel NewsAsia will form part of the news bouquet as per the terms of the deal.

The agreement was signed by MediaCorp News CEO Woon Tai Ho and MiTV executive director Jonathan Chan.

“This partnership with MiTV is a very significant one for Channel NewsAsia. It opens up a key market that we have been pursuing since the launch of our international feed four years ago. Malaysian viewers are widely exposed to global trends and news, and getting the right reading on these issues would be of paramount importance. Channel NewsAsia hopes to provide another choice of information and programmes that are relevant for today’s very sophisticated viewers,” said Woon.

“We are pleased to announce the signing of Channel NewsAsia to our basic bouquet of channels. MiTV Corporation has devised and implemented a combination of home-grown technologies entirely unique to Malaysia, utilising ultra high frequencies (UHF) to transmit content to our subscribers. By combining and effectively utilising Internet and transmission technologies and infrastructures, namely Internet protocol over ultra high frequencies (IP-o-UHF), MiTV Corporation’s business plan has evolved to address the ever-increasing demands and a wider cross-section of the Malaysian market,” said Chan.

MiTV’s entry in Malaysia will end Astro All Asia Networks’s monopoly of Malaysia's pay TV market. MiTV plans launch with at least 50 pay TV channels, a majority of these being new to the Malaysian market.

MiTV is co-owned by Malaysia tycoon Tan Sri Vincent Tan, who has a stake of over 40 per cent in the company. Tan Sri Vincent also controls the Berjaya Group of companies.