The broadband scene in Singapore has reached new heights. It's official - Singapore ONE now reaches over 450,000 users as at September 2001, an 80% jump from the 250,000-figure announced by the IDA at the same time last year...
Singapore, 8 November 2001 | For Immediate Release
Online Weekend Carnivals, Cool New Content and Exciting New Partnerships Will Add More Colour to the Broadband Experience of 450,000 Users
The broadband scene in Singapore has reached new heights. It's official - Singapore ONE now reaches over 450,000 users as at September 2001, an 80% jump from the 250,000-figure announced by the IDA at the same time last year.
With this latest figure, Singapore ONE has exceeded the target of 400,000 broadband users three months ahead of time. With the reach, availability of services and variety of content, Singapore ONE has achieved all the goals set in 1998.
Giving more reason for celebration, broadband users can also expect the debut of a wide range of exciting Singapore ONE content from around the world with new international partnerships being formed. An attractive series of thematic online activities have been planned from November into early December.
Exciting online activities in November
The month of November will see a series of Broadband Online Carnivals highlighting the vast array of enthralling and exclusive local and foreign content currently available on Singapore ONE.
Kicking off on November 9th, the IDA will embark on a promotional campaign for its Broadband Channel Guide (http://s-one.net.sg/bbcg) in local dailies and consumer publications. Seeking to demonstrate how broadband can revolutionalise the Internet experience, the campaign comprises four weekends of online activities i.e.
a) Online Music Carnival (November 9th to 11th)
b) Online E-Learning Carnival (November 16th to 18th)
c) Online Games Carnival (November 23rd to 25th)
d) Online Movies Carnival (November 30th to December 2nd)
More information on the highlights of each online carnival is available in Annex A.
Exciting New Partnerships and Content
With more leading international and regional players coming on board Singapore ONE and new partnerships being forged, the local broadband scene is more vibrant than ever.
A series of exciting new content is also being launched, adding yet more colour to the online experience of broadband users in Singapore.
| Companies | What's new |
|---|---|
| Ednovation & Pearson Broadband | Collaboration to launch School DNA-Knowledge Box in Singapore and the region |
| webs-tv.net | Bringing movies, drama serials and satellite TV programs from Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan and Korea to Singapore |
| SingTel & Intertainer(Asia) | Video-On-Demand (VOD) trials in Singapore with content from local and global studios e.g. MTVs, Hollywood movies |
| GIME | New massive online strategy game C3K for the region to be launched on Singapore ONE. |
| M&E(China),Pandora & Innovatv | A Singapore-China-US partnership has resulted in ME360i.com, a multimedia Chinese language interactive magazine format, featuring travel sights & sounds from Australia & New Zealand. |
| SpeedCast & SingTel/SingNet | Jointly bringing a web-based news service from Bloomberg Television, Channel News Asia, Fashion TV as well as other ethnic content in many languages. |
| Walker Asia & Cinema Now |
Movies & entertainment content from Japan and US on Singapore ONE for the region. |
| CBN & ELTA | Bringing Taiwanese content, including drama serials to Singapore. |
Speaking on the significance of these developments on the local broadband scene, IDA's Assistant Chief Executive for Infocomm Development, Mr Khoong Hock Yun commented, "More local players are taking the lead and forging strategic partnerships with established content providers overseas. Companies like SingTel, Cyber Business Network and Ednovation have drawn leading global players from the online entertainment and education space to the local broadband value chain. The recent launch of new content on Singapore ONE demonstrates this and affirms Singapore's attractiveness as an ideal launchpad to gain access to the broadband markets in Asia."
Added Mr Khoong, " The launch of an interactive travel magazine by Pandora, M&E and Innovatv is a good example of a successful Singapore-China-US partnership. In line with IDA's continuous efforts to grow the IBBMM industry, we have also formed alliances with new partners like webs-tv.net and GIME. This will bring a host of high quality, on-demand movies and online games to Singapore ONE. Such partnerships not only add to the diversity of content for broadband users, but also spur the adoption and usage of broadband in Singapore."
More information on the exciting new partnerships and content launches can be found in Annex B.
ISSUED BY CORPORATE COMMUNICATION DIVISION
INFOCOMM DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY OF SINGAPORE
About Singapore ONE
Singapore ONE (http://s-one.net.sg) was commercially launched in 1998. It comprises a broadband infrastructure that provides high-speed, interactive, and multimedia applications and services for users. Developed by both MNCs and innovative Singapore companies, Singapore ONE services are designed to appeal to users of all ages and occupations, as well as businesses. Singapore ONE has the full support of the Singapore government, and is driven by the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore, the National Science & Technology Board, the Economic Development Board and the Singapore Broadcasting Authority.
About Ednovation Pte Ltd
Established in 1991, Ednovation is the pioneer in multimedia e-learning solutions in Singapore. Today, Ednovation has more than 100 staff focusing on research and development in e-learning solutions. Headquartered in Singapore, Ednovation has offices in Malaysia, Taiwan and Hong Kong.
Ednovation has three main product lines: EdnoLand for the pre-school market, CAlive for the primary school and home market, and SchoolDNA-KnowledgeBox for the formal education market from primary to pre-university levels.
About Pearson Broadband
Pearson Broadband is the multimedia broadband education arm of Pearson plc. From its offices in New York, Arizona, London and Hong Kong, Pearson Broadband creates interactive educational, media-rich broadband applications and television for the home and classroom. Pearson plc is an international media company with market leading businesses in education, business information and consumer publishing, Established brands such as Financial Times, Penguin, Longman and Dorling Kindersley are part of the Pearson Group.
Press Contact for Ednovation & Pearson Broadband
Ms Stella Lau
Tel: 8710358
About webs-tv.net
webs-tv.net plans to offer its services in Singapore through a free-distribution, revenue-sharing model with local Internet service providers, in the form of value-added services to broadband users.
Press Contact for webs-tv.net
Ms Kira Chang
Tel: +88 (6) 2 2751 6067
About Intertainer (Asia)
Intertainer (Asia) delivers today the future of entertainment, giving users what they want whenever they want it. With a unique combination of quality content and proven technology, Intertainer (Asia) offers a revolutionary way to provide movies, music videos, television shows, concerts, games and shopping on-demand, with a host of other digital content, streamed to PCs and televisions across high-speed digital broadband networks. The Intertainer (Asia) service features global, regional as well as local content from major international content providers in the USA, Europe and Asia.
Press Contact for Intertainer
Mr Adrain Heng
Tel: +65 398 8806 / 398 8888
About GIME International Pte Ltd
GIME International was incorporated in March 2000. It is headquartered in Singapore with a wholly owned subsidiary in Shenzhen, China. The company focuses on massive multi-user online application development and operation. With its cutting edge technologies, GIME aims to become the regional leader in online game industry.
Press Contact for GIME
Mr Oliver Wu
Tel: +65 5340656
About M&E (China)
M&E (China) Inc. is an integrated digital media company that provides interactive, multimedia Chinese language content and digital media services for distribution over broadband and traditional media platforms throughout the Asia Pacific region.
Press Contact for M&E(China)
Ms Pearl Wong
Tel: +86 (21) 6217 0177 / 4877
About SpeedCast
Founded in September 1999, the shareholders of SpeedCast Limited include Tech System Limited, Asia Satellite Telecommunications Company Limited (AsiaSat), Telecom Venture Group and Yahoo! Inc. Based in Hong Kong, SpeedCast is focused on becoming the leading broadband Internet and multimedia service provider with three satellite-enabled broadband services:
- SpeedCast Broadband - broadband Internet access at speeds up to 1.5 Mbps
- SpeedCast Multimedia -up to 30 channels of streaming multimedia video
programming - SpeedCast Broadcast - broadcasting Intranet and Internet corporate communications
Press Contact for Speedcast
Ms Rhea McGraw
Tel: +852 2805 6555/ +662 684 1074
About Walker Asia Entertainment
Walker Asia Entertainment is an entertainment portal with four channels boasting programmes ranging from Japanese anime to music from around the world. Each episode is tailor-made for Asian audience and covers all areas of interest including fashion trends and highlights of the local art scene. Walker Asia's movie channel boasts a variety of content that includes popular Japanese films and television series supplied by Kadokawa Publishing Co Ltd (the leading publisher of books and magazines in Japan) and hundreds of Hollywood movies supplied by Cinema Now Inc (the leading distributor of feature films on-demand over the Internet in USA). All movies supplied will become available to Singapore viewers in the next few months.
Walker Asia Entertainment, a joint venture between Compudia Pte Ltd, Kadokawa Shoten Publishing Co Ltd and Sumitomo Corporation, will be launched officially in December 2001.
Press Contact for Walker Asia
Mr Jun Iwata
Sumitomo Corporation
Tel: (03)3217 5081
Mr A Seki
Compudia Pte Ltd
Tel: (65)732 5639
Mr Yosuke Toyoda
Kadokawa Shoten Publishing Co Ltd
Tel: (03)3238 8401
About CBN
Cyber Business Network (Sinagpore) Pte Ltd is a leading Internet Solutions Provider in the Asia-Pacific region. Its core business is to construct Internet portals and e-commerce infrastructures for Government Ministries, Institutes and enterprises to enhance their business performance via the Internet. This includes Web design, Web engineering, Web applications, system design, system integration, Web maintenance and Web hosting.
CBN is also an Interactive Broadband Multimedia Content Developer under the Interactive Broadband Multimedia Content Enrichment Scheme of IDA (Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore). As a developer, CBN provides services in Multimedia development and creation for information to be in more than one form, i.e. digital content such as text, sound, graphic, animation and still or full motion video. In addition, CBN also provides related services like encoding, media storage, media streaming, etc.
Press Contact for CBN
Ms Caroline Ee-Lee
Tel: +65 337 2800
About Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore
The Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) is a dynamic organisation with an integrated perspective to developing, promoting and regulating info-communications in Singapore. In the fast-changing and converging spheres of telecommunications, information and media technologies, IDA will be the catalyst for change and growth in Singapore's evolution into a vibrant global info-communications technology centre. For more information, please visit www.imda.gov.sg.
For further information, please contact:
Ms Yang Sook Chin / Mr Robert de Quelen
Edelman Public Relations
Tel: +65 733 1110 ext. 235 / 221
Fax: +65 733 5550
Mr Kelvin Lee
Manager, Corporate Communication
Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore
Tel: +65 211 1726
Fax: +65 211 227
Annex A: Online Activities for November & December
- Online Music Carnival (November 9 to November 11)
Party to 72 hours of non-stop online music, with the Best of Music weekend. This first weekend in the thematic series allows users to view concert webcasts, preview album launches, meet favourite rock stars, and enjoy any kind of music, anytime! International acts that will be featured include Cher, Zouk's longest-serving resident DJ, Adam Low, with his special House Mix, Australian Singing Sensation JENN and Coco Lee. - Online E-Learning Carnival (November 16 to 18)
Users will have a taste of what makes learning so much more exciting and interesting with broadband, and how it engages children and adults alike. With popular educational content like Encyclopedia Britannica, which features a myriad of subjects from Geography and History to Nature studies; Dr Grammar, an online real time diagnostic system that tests and pin-points each child's weakness in grammar accurately; myRediffusion.com features Chinese programmes like Fun with Proverbs, and Monja Kids, a platform for children to understand and learn more about the media with tailor-made messaging applications. Users can experience full interactivity, streaming videos and multimedia rendering of e-lessons over broadband. Learning has never been so much fun for the whole family! - Online Games Carnival (November 23 to 25)
Online game enthusiasts will not want to miss BBCG's third weekend of Games Galore. Featuring hot new games and online tournaments from Singapore ONE partners like StarHub, Pacific Internet, Singtel, GIME and Walker Asia. What's more, be among the first to try out GIME's first game title, which is also the region's first massive online strategy game, "Century of Three Kingdoms" (C3K), which will be making its debut in end-November. - Online Movies Carnival (November 30 to December 2)
Movie fans get a weekend of their own, and get to enjoy full-length movies from USA, Taiwan and Hong Kong, drama series from Japan and Korea and satellite TV programmes. Keep a lookout for several online movie hits starring popular movie stars and celebrities.
More details on the Broadband Channel Guide can be found at http://s-one.net.sg/bbcg.
Annex B: About New Partnerships and Content Launches
1. The Ednovation-Pearson Broadband Exclusive Partnership will see the launch of SchoolDNA-KnowledgeBox in Asia, starting with Singapore.
Ednovation, a homegrown e-learning solutions provider, has clinched an exclusive partnership with Pearson Broadband. The partnership will see Ednovation's state-of-the-art SchoolDNA technology combined with KnowledgeBox*, Pearson Broadband's digital core curriculum initiative adopted in schools in the U.S.
SchoolDNA-KnowledgeBox is a system that offers users a single point of access to a diverse repository of interactive multimedia content. Delivered direct through broadband networks in schools, teachers can use SchoolDNA-KnowledgeBox to access multimedia resources, develop online lessons and projects, build test questions and share resources with fellow teachers within their school or cluster of schools. With broadband infrastructure in place, Singapore is ideally suited to benefit from the resource-rich SchoolDNA-KnowledgeBox.
Through the exclusive partnership, Ednovation and Pearson Broadband will collaborate over the next 10 years to expand the SchoolDNA-KnowledgeBox to markets in Japan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Taiwan, South Korea and other countries in the region. In each market, Ednovation will partner with local content providers, developing tailored content catering to the educational needs of each individual market.
"We are very excited to be able to partner Pearson Broadband in this venture. KnowledgeBox has already enjoyed a positive response from U.S. schools and this partnership allows Ednovation to tap on Pearson Broadband's hugh media-rich content," said Dr. Richard Yen, Managing Director of Ednovation, "It makes perfect business sense for two very strong education companies to work together to develop and expand a product which supports Asia's education initiatives. This product is a 'must have' for educational institutions that want to maximise opportunities for their students."
"This alliance represents a major step towards our objectives of making KnowledgeBox the leading global platform for digital core instruction," said John Lollar, President of Pearson Broadband. "Ednovation lends enormous strength in that plan and opens the Asian education market in Ways that will be of great benefit to both companies."
Pearson Plc. is the multimedia broadband education division of Pearson Broadband, and one of the world's leading international media and education companies. Pearson Broadband is the multimedia broadband education division of U.K.-listed Pearson plc (FTSE: PSON), one of the world's leading international media and education companies. With this partnership, Pearson Broadband is also taking a 1.4 percent equity stake in Ednovation.
2. webs-tv.net will be introducing a huge range of broadband entertainment content, ranging from movie hits in Hong Kong, Japanese and Korean drama serials, satellite TV programmes and many more. In addition, webs-tv.net launched V-Chat, a first-of-its-kind video chatroom that offers image, text, sound, and video conferencing capabilities for its online community.
"Providing high picture quality for online entertainment content has become an increasingly vital component in the delivery of value-added broadband services to consumers," said Mr Morse Chen, Chief Executive Officer of webs-tv Digital International Corporation. "Leveraging on our collaboration with telecommunications and access service providers from around the world, we are able to offer broadband users the choice of a whole new surfing experience."
3. Intertainer aims to be the premier provider of on-demand content in the region. Based in Singapore, Intertainer (Asia) recently introduced its service here with a limited soft launch exclusively for SingTel Magix subscribers.
On offer is an array of exciting content from local and global studios, like music videos, Hollywood movies and more, on-demand. With a full launch in Singapore come February next year, all SingTel Magix subscribers can expect their choice of entertainment at the controls of their fingertips, whenever they want.
"We are pleased to be part of the broadband community in Singapore. Singapore was an obvious choice for Intertainer's service. Along with a population that is comfortable with technology, the well established infrastructure and strong governement support, enables Intertainer to bring to the consumer, high quality, full screen, entertaining content," said Mr. Steve Smith, Chief Operating Officer, Intertainer (Asia). "Intertainer's service delivered through SingTel Magix will usher in a new era where consumers get to watch what they want, when they want it."
4. GIME International Pte. Ltd is a fast growing local company with a talented developmental team. With leading edge technology in the development of massive multi-user online applications, it has created the region's first massive online strategy game.
Titled Century of Three Kingdoms or C3K, it is scheduled to be launched on Singapore ONE and will serve the regional market by the end of November 2001.
According to Oliver Wu, CEO of GIME, "We see great strategic value in being a partner on Singapore ONE. We believe that our strength in the industry and Singapore ONE's excellent infrastructure will help establish Singapore as one of the regional online entertainment hubs."
5. Developed by M&E (China), ME360i.com is the world's first truly multimedia, Chinese language "interactive magazine" (i-zine). Developed in collaboration with US-based digital media company Innovatv, and Singapore-based Pandora Interactive Studio, it will be launched on Singapore ONE in the fourth quarter of 2001. It will then be syndicated to regional, subscriber-based broadband networks throughout the Asia-Pacific region beginning in second quarter of 2002.
ME360i's multimedia i-zine format has been especially designed to appeal to a new generation of Web users by synchronically "wrapping" 8-minute, viewer-controlled videos with CD-quality audio, related text information, photos, weblinks, and unobtrusive and targeted advertising. The unique i-zine's format empowers its users in two very compelling ways: offering complete control over the on-demand video experience and access to virtually unlimited sources of information and weblinks at the click of a mouse.
Content is drawn from the high-quality, digital footage shot by M&E's award-winning production team as a part of its Vision without Boundaries programming series. It highlights the people, culture, history and economy of different communities throughout the six continents of the world. Beginning in the Asia-Pacific, users are presented with videos on interesting aspects of Australia and New Zealand, from education to environment, shopping to dining, and travel to investment. Sixteen HTML pages are synchronized with the eight-minute video streaming in each i-zine. Compiled after extensive research, the supplementary text enriches the topical content with practical facts and well-selected web links.
In the near future, M&E plans to launch content partnership channels on ME360i.com platform.
6. Multimedia content from SpeedCast Ltd, including Bloomberg Television, ChannelNewsAsia, Fashion TV and much more ethnic content in multiple languages from world-class content partners, is now available on a co-branded page on SingTel Magix's homepage as well as on SingNet Broadband's. Subscribers simply need to login with their name and password in order to gain access to these channels.
Up to 30 channels of interruption-free content in English, Mandarin, Cantonese, Korean, French, Indian and Arabic is available online 24 hours a day. Subscribers will experience optimized bandwidth delivery of video content, as SpeedCast delivers content with its satellite IP network to by-pass Internet congestion and minimize packet loss that usually impacts the end users' viewing experience.
"We are very proud to extend our multimedia service offering to both SingTel Magix and SingNet Broadband subscribers," remarked Tom Choi, CEO of SpeedCast Ltd. "SpeedCast Multimedia delivers a variety of world-class content directly to the PC for end users to enjoy on-line, twenty-four hours a day. SingTel's outstanding network infrastructure ensures optimal viewing conditions for SpeedCast Multimedia channels."
7. Walker Asia Entertainment Pte Ltd has reached an agreement with CinemaNow, Inc, one of the leading video-on-demand distributors of feature films over the Internet in the States, to distribute their content over broadband to users in Singapore as well as other major cities in Asia.
CinemaNow, mainly owned by Lions Gate Entertainment (NASD: LGF), currently streams more than 250 feature length films, using the Windows Media Player on an ad- supported, subscription and pay-per-view basis. CinemaNow's library of more than 1000 films from the Lions Gate, Trimark Pictures, Avalanche, Allied Artists and so on. This is truly the most comprehensive collection of exclusive content available via a vide-on-demand video service. CinemaNow today delivers nearly 2 million streams to approximately 1 million users per month.
Walker Asia's Managing Director Mr Akihiko Seki commented, "We are very pleased to work with CinemaNow who has valuable experience and knowledge in both movie content distribution over the Net as well as content management. Walker Asia, likewise, consists of partners such as Kakokawa Publishing and Sumitomo Corporation who are the leading multimedia content producers and distributors in Japan and other parts of Asia. I trust this cooperation between Walker Asia and CinemaNow will bring further benefits to broadband users in Singapore as well as other Asian cities.
Walker Asia will commence its services in Singapore in December together with popular Japanese movies produced by one of our shareholders, Kadokawa Publishing Co., Ltd. These movies will be available to viewers in Singapore on an ad-supported basis at www.walkerasia.com.sg.
8. Cyber Business Network who operates CZINE, is a Chinese portal serving the Chinese Internet community in Singapore and overseas. It has tied up with ELTA, one of the top broadband content aggregators in Taiwan, to set up a Singapore Internet Multimedia Data Centre (SIMDC). The SIMDC will stream audio, video and animated digitized content from the Asia Pacific region to users through the website http://cstar.tv.
"With the increasing growth in broadband access and demand for multimedia broadband content, CBN is confident that SIMDC will become the new revenue stream for the company. Through the alliance with ELTA, CBN is glad to offer high quality, international content to surfers in Singapore. CBN strongly believes that the new venture will change the online experience and lifestyle of users," said Ms Caroline Lee, Chief Operating Officer of Cyber Business Network (Singapore) Pte Ltd.
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