Media company
Celestial Tiger Entertainment (CTE), formerly Tiger Gate Entertainment, is a diversified media company based in Hong Kong that operates pay television entertainment channels in Asia and oversees Lionsgate distribution rights in Greater China and Southeast Asia.[1] It is a joint venture co-owned by Saban Capital Group, Lionsgate and Celestial Pictures.
Overview
Celestial Tiger Entertainment was founded in 2008 as Tiger Gate Entertainment, as a joint venture between private media investment firm Saban Capital Group and entertainment company Lionsgate. Pay television channels Kix and Thrill were later launched in August 2009.[2]
Celestial Pictures Limited joined Tiger Gate Entertainment in late 2011 adding the already established Celestial Classic Movies and Celestial Movies to the company's channel lineup.[3][4] Following this partnership, the company was renamed Celestial Tiger Entertainment and the high definition (HD) feed was added to existing channels for territories in Asia.[5]
In 2013, cHK was launched in Singapore with Hong Kong celebrities Bernice Liu, Him Law and Liu Kai Chi hosting a media event to promote cHK as a Hong Kong general entertainment channel.[6][7]
Lionsgate partnership
CTE owns the Shaw Brothers film library[8] and leverages a library of film and TV from Lionsgate.[9] In February 2012, YOU On Demand Holdings and Lionsgate announced deal to show a number of Lionsgate films on a Transactional Video On Demand (TVOD) and Subscription Video On Demand (SVOD) basis in China.[10] In 2013, CTE sold over 1700 hours of Lionsgate TV series and movies including Anger Management, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2, and the Hunger Games franchise to broadcasters and media platforms in southeast Asia and China as part of a regional distribution deal,[11] CTE also expanded its Southeast Asian distribution deal with Lionsgate to cover Japan and Korea[12] and sold a further 700 hours of TV series and feature films in an SVOD deal with MediaCorp’s Toggle digital platform in Singapore.[13][14]
Channels
Celestial Tiger Entertainment operates the following channels:
- Celestial Movies - A channel featuring current Asian films and entertainment news
- Available in Malaysia, Brunei, South Korea, Indonesia, Philippines, and Singapore, Also Upcoming in Philippines, Thailand, Myanmar.
- Celestial Classic Movies* - Featuring classic Hong Kong Chinese films
- Available in Australia, Myanmar, Cambodia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia.
- Celestial Movies Pinoy** - Filipino and English dubbed, Original Language subtitles in English Asian movie channel distributed and marketed by Viva Communications.
- Available only in the Philippines via Cignal TV Channel 40 SD.
- cHK - Local Hong Kong entertainment and showbiz news channel
- Available only in Singapore until 2021
- CM+ - Featuring the latest blockbusters and exclusive movies from across Asia
- Available only in Singapore via Singtel TV Channel 571.
- Kix* - Action, MMA, TV series, reality television and extreme sports[2]
- Available in Hong Kong, Indonesia, Philippines, Singapore, Myanmar and Vietnam, formerly available in Malaysia and Thailand. From October 2020, this channel is launched across Africa.
- Thrill* - Horror, thriller and suspense[2]
- Available in Hong Kong, Indonesia, Philippines, Singapore and Myanmar, formerly available in Thailand and Malaysia.
- Miao Mi* - Mandarin Kids Channel.
- Available in Thailand, South Korea.
* Distributed in the Philippines by Creative Programs
** Joint Venture with Viva Communications
