Miss Spencer
MB 301
2 JUN 091
Ms
P
is
FROM : A D Harris
Information Department
DATE : 31 May 1991
CC : Mr
Mr Furness
Hong Kong Dept
Mr Davies
Miss Forryan
BBC WORLD SERVICE TELEVISION AND HUTCHISON
1.
Mr Chris Urwin, the Chief Executive of BBC World Service
Television, rang me on 31 May to give some of the background to the proposed call by Mr Richard Li and Lord Derwent on you on 4 June.
As you may know Mr Li is the son of Mr K S Li, the owner of Hutchison, a prominent Hong Kong company, and Lord Derwent is
Hutchison's Managing Director (Europe).
2.
Mr Urwin claimed that BBC World Service Television and
? Hutchison (who own Hutchison, who have a third share in Asiasat) were about to sign an agreement to use Asiasat to broadcast 24 hours a day to Asia. (The footprint extends from the Persian Gulf to the
Pacific.) Hutchison would be interested to hear if HMG had any
views on their plans which include buying rights from the BBC to
broadcast in Mandarin and "another language", besides English. Sir
John Nott of Lazards who acts as adviser to Mr K S Li told Mr Urwin
earlier in the day that the other language was Cantonese which was
7 naturally a matter of some sensitivity in Hong Kong. Apparently a
recent project to install a cable system in Hong Kong had collapsed
81
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