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Newsday BY MARK HARRINGTON STAFF WRITER September 21, 2005 In a move that joins the interests of two of Long Island's most prominent businessmen, Computer Associates founder Charles Wang and Cablevision founder Charles Dolan are partners in a start-up technology-media venture that delivers viewer-targeted broadcast TV and video to home subscribers over the Internet. Called KyLinTV Inc., the venture, actively piloting since June, has been providing hundreds of hours a week of TV broadcasts and video-on-demand from China to more than 500 paying subscribers in the metropolitan area. The so-called Internet-protocol TV venture uses set-top boxes hooked to standard televisions to pipe in specialized programming via broadband Internet lines from broadcasts from the Far East. KyLinTV, more than 10,000 hours of stored video, will have its official coming-out party at the Flushing Mall on Saturday. Wang said it's aimed at a market of more than 3 million Chinese-American homes, which can link to the broadcasts by carrying the box to any broadband Internet connection. But the Chinese TV venture is only the beginning, Wang and his team said in an interview yesterday. They pointed to plans for niche programming for a wide breadth of ethnic, religious and sports-based TV channels, including one for Wang's New York Islanders, and pending rollouts with area businesses using similar technology and business models. KyLinTV is being run by Nancy Li, who is its chief executive and the CEO of an affiliated company, NeuLion Software. Li, who is Wang's wife, demonstrated the DVD-quality video at her Plainview headquarters yesterday. Li said broadband Internet has reached a high enough penetration to make IPTV ventures viable. As subscriber numbers increase, she said, KyLinTV and affiliated channels will generate revenue from subscriptions and advertising. Viewers pay $30 a month ($15 during a promotional period) for the wireless-enabled Linux-based set-top box, which was developed and manufactured in China by TransVideo, a company in which Wang has an ownership interest. Two real-time TV Chinese channels (12 by year's end) are free; users pay up to $1 to watch episodes of popular Chinese programming and movies. Live broadcasts are stored for a week for re-viewing. In a statement, Dolan said that rather than compete with other video delivery methods such as cable, IPTV will broaden the audience. "I believe that Internet-protocol TV, and specifically KyLinTV, gives consumers even more choices for video entertainment," he said. "This is definitely a great complement to what cable and satellite TV provides today." Li said the company is using a local fiber-optic cable loop provided by Open Access Inc., while the backup video-on-demand data center is hosted by FalconStor Software, both of Melville. NeuLion Software, meanwhile, is already in negotiations to offer IPTV to regional businesses, including a major sports retailer that will roll out an in-store channel in coming months, said Chris Wagner, KyLinTV and NeuLion's executive vice president. Companies exploring the venture are using it for customer programming with vendor-sponsored ads, employee training and broadcasts from the corporate office, Wagner said. "Any company can have its own TV station," he said. "All you need is the IP network and content." |
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