Phillipines: HBO+ Hallmark beef up 2006 offerings

March 22 Manila -- Last week, the HBO Asia and Hallmark Channel Asia Pacific beefed up their Phillipine channel content feeds.

HBO Asia added the "HBO PAK," comprising HBO Signature, HBO Family and HBO Hits to its offerings of HBO and Cinemax. Caroline Wong, HBO Asia’s marketing director during the said the new channels wouldn’t be competing with the two original channels. The additional channels simply give viewers a more flexible schedule.

The Philippines is only the second country to launch HBO PAK after Hong Kong while HBO has launched other channels in Indonesia.

The Hallmark Channel is emphasising quality drama in its 2006 programming schedule.A total of 242 hours of Hallmark Entertainment original movie productions account for 80 percent of the movies scheduled on the channel. According to Andrew Hanna, Hallmark’s MD, Asia Pacific some 20 percent of the channel’s total prime-time schedule will be "first time on TV" premieres.