Chunghwa says Games will triple its Web TV users

Chunghwa Telecom Co., Taiwan's biggest phone company, forecast subscribers to its Internet television service will more than triple by the end of next year, boosted by coverage of the Olympic Games to be held in Beijing in August.

Chunghwa's Internet TV subscribers will rise to more than 1.2 million, or 0.5 percent of the island's population, at the end of 2008, from 400,000 now, Chairman Ho-chen Tan said in Taipei, where the company is based.

"For the first time in a long while, Taiwan will have the opportunity to watch the Olympic Games without a time difference," Ho-chen said yesterday. Chunghwa expects its Internet TV users to reach one million by the end of next September, he said.

The phone carrier said on Nov. 27 it won exclusive rights to broadcast the Beijing Olympics Games over mobile phones and the Internet in Taiwan. Ho-chen declined to say how much revenue the company would generate from broadcasting the games.

Chunghwa had gained 8.7 percent this year on the Taiwan Stock Exchange as of Dec. 20, before the stock was suspended from trading because the company canceled 9.1 percent of its shares. The island's benchmark TAIEX index has risen 6.3 percent this year. Chunghwa's stock will resume trading on Jan. 9.

Chunghwa Telecom may post profit of NT$50 billion on sales of NT$191.6 billion in 2008, according to the average of 16 analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg.