Macau Cable TV (MCTV) has set up its network in University of Macau (UMac). Faculty members and students who live on campus can access 44 cable channels if they sign up for the service, according to Doris Loi, sales representative of MCTV.

Promoting its service with a demonstration counter in front of the old Student Affairs Office in Block I on February 15, Loi showed some of the channels including Animal Planet, National Geographic Channel, Discovery Channel and ESPN Asia. They are both informative and educational for students, she said.

Currently, residents in the university quarters have free access to 20 channels through antenna facilities.

A demo of MCTV was available in the TV rooms in Block III for the student residents, said Roberto Antonio Noronha, head of Student Affairs Office. 

"Upon our evaluation of the system and feedback from the students, we will determine if we will continue this service which will be paid for by the University," he added.

L. L. Alexandria, lecturer of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, signed up for the MCTV service on March 2.  She said that the service was wonderful, but the price of the service was more expensive and with fewer channels when compared to those similar services in other Southeast Asian countries. 

MCTV provides five packages for its customers. The basic package with 39 channels costs $168 monthly. Four additional packages which include more popular channels such as HBO, Cinemax, STAR Movies and [V] International, would add $40 to $88 a month.

In addition, the service requires a digital decoder to be connected to television sets. A decoder costs $1688 and is also available for rental service. Customers have to pay a $800 deposit and a $30 monthly rent for each decoder.

Loi admitted that MCTV might not be very popular in a short period of time, as Macau people are usually slow in accepting new things.  The aim of their campus promotion was to let more people know about their service.