Chunghwa Telecom denies PCCW deal

Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信), the nation's largest fixed-line operator, denied a report saying it had signed an agreement with PCCW Ltd (電訊盈科) to use the Hong Kong company's Internet protocol television platform.

"We have paid a visit to PCCW to see their Internet protocol television system, but we haven't signed any agreement with the company," Chunghwa Telecom's chief financial officer Hank Wang (王漢朝) said in a phone interview in Taipei yesterday. He declined to elaborate.

Chunghwa Telecom signed an agreement with PCCW to deploy PCCW's Network of the World (NOW) broadband television infrastructure in Taiwan, the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post said on Saturday.

Chunghwa Telecom may seek help from PCCW on channel sourcing, the report said, quoting an unidentified person.

Chunghwa Telecom started pay-television service last year and offers 33 mostly local channels to 192,000 subscribers, the newspaper said.

PCCW's NOW broadband service has more than 500,000 users and has signed exclusive rights to show HBO, ESPN and other international channels in Hong Kong, the report said.

Chunghwa Telecom's earnings in the first half of the year fell 8.8 percent to NT$22.2 billion (US$674 million), it said last month.

Sales during the same period rose 1 percent to NT$90.6 billion, it said.