Cable TV Firm Offers a Chinese Channel

Hoping to turn on a new audience of cable television viewers, a local company has started offering a Chinese-language station as part of its standard subscription package.

“Sixty percent of our non-subscribers are Chinese,” Alan Kraslow, area marketing director for American Cablevision, said Monday at a news conference in the company’s South Pasadena studio. “This group has never had an interest in cable programs. We tried to find a unique channel for our non-subscribers, unique to their lifestyle.”

On Oct. 1, American Cablevision began offering Chinese-language programs produced by North America Television Corp., a South El Monte-based station that airs news, music and variety shows from Taiwan, Hong Kong, China and other Asian countries, as well as local news of interest to the Chinese community.

Previously, the shows were available via satellite only to people willing to spend $499 on a satellite dish and special receiver, and up to $200 for installation costs.

Now, all residents in South Pasadena and San Marino who subscribe to American Cablevision--which costs $20.95 a month--can watch the program, which broadcasts four hours daily and is billed as the primary source of news for North America’s Chinese-speaking population.

“This is the market of the future,” said Randy Campbell, cable relations director for North America Television.

American Cablevision and North America Television officials said they hope to attract as many as 1,000 new viewers by adding the Chinese-language program. Currently, few of American Cablevision’s 6,300 subscribers are Chinese, although Chinese constitute an estimated 20% of San Marino and South Pasadena, Kraslow said.

To solicit customers, the company plans to send mailers in Chinese and English to non-subscribers with Chinese surnames, and Chinese subscribers will receive bilingual programs each month, Kraslow said.

By December, the cable company expects to have the technology to allow viewers to receive the channel in either Mandarin or Cantonese, but only if viewers’ sets are equipped to receive the dual signals.

Other cable companies from San Francisco to New York are considering adding the station, or others like it, to their programming, North America Television officials said.

Locally, Cencom Cable Television, a St. Louis-based company that provides cable to 16 Southern California communities concentrated in the West San Gabriel Valley, is considering adding North America Television to its list of programs, Cencom general manager Craig Watson said.

“There are 4 million potential Chinese viewers in North America,” said Pi Hsou Chu, vice president of North America Television. “In the near future we hope to reach (cable subscribers) in Washington D.C., New York, Boston, Houston, San Francisco and Chicago.”

Cencom already carries Chinese programs provided by the Jade Channel, a Hong Kong station that broadcasts news, entertainment and soap operas.

But Cencom subscribers must pay $17.95 a month extra for the channel, unlike the American Cablevision channel, for which there is no additional charge to cable subscribers. In addition, Jade Channel shows are sent via videotape, rather than by satellite.

Watson said Cencom is considering adding the North America Television channel in hopes of attracting Chinese-speaking viewers who do not watch the Jade Channel.