By DPA,
Hong Kong : One thousand football fans a day are taking out subscriptions for a pay-TV service in Hong Kong that holds exclusive rights to screen the World Cup, a news report said Thursday.
The rights to screen all games from the South Africa tournament were bought by iCable, which at the beginning of this year had one million subscribers in the city of seven million.
Tens of thousands of new subscribers have since signed up for the service ahead of the tournament, iCable chief executive Stephen Ng told the Standard newspaper, and 1,000 more a day are signing up.
Ng said he expected new customers to continue signing up at the same rate up to and after the beginning of the tournament June 11. Subscriptions cost around $33 a month.
Only the World Cup opening game, semi-finals and final will be shared with free channels in Hong Kong, where overseas football and gambling on matches are hugely popular.