Singapore's YR Asia TV targets 1.2 billion in A-P rollout

The entertainment channel, offered by Net Leader Holdings, is the first regional satellite TV channel broadcast out of Singapore and will launch in 15 countries to target over 1.2 billion Mandarin-speaking viewers in China and the rest of Asia-Pacific.

After its Hong Kong and Macau debut, YR Asia will premiere in Singapore, the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Indochina and Pakistan by the end of this year and Taiwan in January 2009.

The 24-hour channel will feature variety, sports, drama, animation, lifestyle and documentary content from a host of global content partners and local Singaporean content, made with the support of the country’s Media Development Authority (MDA).

More local content is also expected to make its way overseas as three distributors - MediaCorp, ThreeSixZero and Six-six-eight, have been appointed to manage a library of over 5,000 hours of programming supported by MDA in the last two years.

Separately, MDA has partnered its Western Australian counterpart, ScreenWest, to develop cross media initiatives in both markets.