Maharaja Group to air local TV content in Asia via the Internet - LBO

Capital Maharaja, a unit of the privately held media house the Maharaja Group, has tied up with Tokyo based media group, to digitally deliver television content via broadband to Sri Lankan diaspora in Korea and Japan.

Capital Maharaja group's e-commerce and internet arm RaiderTech penned the deal on Wednesday to deliver MTVs locally produced programs in Sinhala, Tamil and English to Sri Lankans living in Japan and Korean regions.

Tokyo based New Media Group was chosen for their ability to transmit TV software across the internet called IPTV (Internet Protocol Television).

IPTV is a system where a digital television service is delivered using the Internet Protocol (IP) over a network delivered by a broadband connection.

"Japan and Korea has the most broadband connections (to individual homes) in the world," said Maharaja Group Director Mano Wickramanayake said describing why the Korea-Japanese region was chosen.

"Broadband penetration in Korea is almost 100 percent," he said.

Capital Maharaja, a diversified group with interests in manufacturing, marketing, exports, communications, media, information technology, foods and packaging among others expects a full scale launch in mid January 2007.

The group hopes to introduce to many communities as possible during the initial period, Wickramanayake says.

"We want to propagate our signal across thy world," Wickramanayake said.