By PETER GRIFFIN
New Zealand's low level of broadband internet take-up is not fazing executives of video-on-demand provider Intertainer Asia, which has begun trialling its service locally with Telecom.
About 100 households across the country will begin trialling JetVideo, a service allowing the delivery of movies and music directly over the
internet to users' PCs and TV sets.
The service is being pitched by Telecom as a "video library at your fingertips", removing the need to go in search of movies at the local video-rental store.
It is the first of the services that incumbent telcos such as Telecom claim will help drive demand for high-speed internet, which has so far been taken up by just 2 per cent of the population, despite Telecom's ability to reach nearly 1.5 million homes.
The demands of web-streaming video will restrict use of JetVideo to subscribers of Jetstream, Telecom's high-speed DSL offering that comes with a minimum monthly subscription of around $80.
The lower-speed Jetstart product is incapable of delivering reliable video on demand.
Intertainer senior vice-president Tony Manton said New Zealand was a "green fields" market for the service because of its good infrastructure and lower level of pay-TV penetration than the United States.
"There are hundreds of thousands of households with 300 channels [in the US]. It's a mature cable market. We're sure [penetration] will pick up here. People are looking for something more than high-speed internet."
Intertainer already operates in Hong Kong with PCCW and in Singapore with Singtel, mainly using the DSL technology employed by Telecom.
In Australia, a service will be launched with the small Canberra-based broadband provider TransACT.
Telecom's group marketing manager, Sandra Geange, said Intertainer would not compete directly with Sky TV, which already reaches 500,000 homes.
Intertainer would generally offer 500 hours of content at any one time available 24 hours a day through an interactive menu on a pay-per-view basis. No pricing details have yet been released.
Internet-enabled set top boxes are being trialled as an alternative to watching movies on a PC screen.
Manton said Intertainer Asia had sidestepped the issues that had seen the closure of Intertainer in the US.
That operation has a minority shareholding in Intertainer Asia and has licensed its technology.
A company named Intertainer New Zealand had been set up to oversee the local operation.
