Singapore, 14 April 2003 - Celestial Movies, the world's first global 24-hour Chinese-movie channel, will launch in Singapore on 15 April 2003, 7 pm, offering a vast variety of Chinese and Asian movies to subscribers of StarHub CableTV which has an existing base of more than 350,000 households. 

 

William Pfeiffer, CEO of Celestial Pictures said, "A milestone has been set in establishing Chinese cinema entertainment and we are truly honoured to share this monumental day with StarHub as our exclusive partner in Singapore."

 

Celestial Movies on StarHub CableTV Ch 61 is a world-class Chinese-movie channel with the world's largest Chinese film library. This library includes the best of Chinese movies from all genres and eras including Shaw Brothers masterpieces from the 1950s to 1990s, blockbusters from Golden Harvest and the latest exciting first-runs from major film studios in Hong Kong, Mainland China, Taiwan, Korea, Japan, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. 

 

With a number of strategic alliances in place and aims to reach beyond the predominantly Chinese TV Households that make up our primary audience to serve an increasing demand for all things Chinese, Celestial Movies is scheduled to launch throughout Asia, Australia, North America and Europe and reach a potential of one billion viewers.

 

The programming of Celestial Movies is designed not only to provide a wealth of quality movies that include everything from the latest Jackie Chan, Jet Li and Chow Yun Fat releases to unforgettable Shaw Brothers classics, but is also programmed with the viewer in mind by scheduling movies to create appointment viewing. Popular primetime genre blocks include Drama Monday, Action Tuesday, Comedy Wednesday, Romance Thursday and Fantasy Friday.  

 

Moreover, weekends are designated nights for the newly-restored Shaw Brothers movies under the Saturday block Shaw Showcase, screening of exclusive TV premieres on Celestial Sundays, and monthly dedicated tributes on Sunday Spectacular

 

In addition, serious movie-buffs will enjoy exclusive insights through specially commissioned productions and documentaries.  Celestial Express and Mise-en-Scene put the spotlight on the hottest trends in Asian movie news and will also go behind the scenes. Celestial Cool Talk, Shaw Showcase and Director on Director will get up close and personal with distinguished Asian directors and actors.   With a unique and compelling mix of programming and scheduling, Celestial Movies is well-positioned to become the standard-bearer of Chinese cinema entertainment.

 

"Celestial Movies has a very exciting proposition for TV viewers because it will be the first all-movies Chinese channel to be launched in Singapore," said Ms Sandie Lee, Vice-President, Programming, StarHub CableTV.

 

"Singaporeans have always been avid movie-goers and our movie channels have always done well. We are confident that with the vast library of Shaw masterpieces and 15 new movie titles promised every month, Celestial Movies will be well received by everyone in the family."

 

"Targeted at viewers of all ages, Celestial Movies has an exciting line-up in April and May. Viewers can look forward to recent movies such as Demi Haunted starring Eason Chan and Joey Yung and Summer I Love You by Richie Ren and Candy Lo.  For those with fond memories of the Shaw classics, Golden Horse Award winning movies such as Blue And The Black starring Lin Dai and Blood Brothers starring David Chiang and Ti Lung are some titles that they can enjoy on Celestial Movies."

 

Celestial Movies will be available at $8 ($8.32 with GST) per month on the Asia tier.

 

To celebrate the launch and to allow all StarHub customers to sample the programmes on this new channel all StarHub CableTV customers will enjoy a free one-month preview from 15 April to 14 May 2003.