MUMBAI: BBC Worldwide and a unit of MEASAT Global Berhad, owner and operator of the MEASAT satellite network, announced an agreement for using MEASAT to broadcast BBC Worldwide's international entertainment channel BBC Prime into Asia.

The channel is a specially developed version of BBC Worldwide's international entertainment channel of the same name currently available in Europe, Middle East and Africa and will start broadcasting on 1 December, 2004. The announcement was made at the CASBAA convention in Hong Kong.

BBC Prime will bring the best of BBC entertainment to viewers in Asia, with a varied mix of comedy, drama, life style, talk shows, game shows, music and documentaries. Through the MEASAT-1 satellite, BBC Prime will be offered to TV platforms across the South East and East Asian regions. The channel will be transferred to the MEASAT-3 satellite after launch in mid-2005. The bandwidth has sufficient capacity to accommodate BBC Prime's plans to provide subtitling for major markets.

BBC Worldwide EMEIA director of channels Wayne Dunsford said, "With MEASAT, we have found a strong and reliable partner to lay the foundation for the roll-out of BBC Prime into Asia and we look forward to a long and successful cooperation."

MEASAT vice president sales and marketing Paul Brown-Kenyon said, "We are delighted to be able to support BBC Worldwide on this channel. MEASAT-1 provides an excellent distribution platform for BBC Prime across East and South East Asia. It also allows for seamless migration to MEASAT-3 in 2005, a satellite which will reach over 70 per cent of the world's population through a single beam."