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China Star, Yahoo to start web broacasts in H2

HONG KONG: China Star Entertainment Ltd and Internet portal Yahoo! Inc's Hong Kong arm said on Monday their online entertainment channel venture would begin Internet broadcasts in the second half of 2000.

"In addition, Yahoo has worldwide royalty-free rights and licence to distribute certain motion pictures and television dramas from China Star," the two companies said in a joint statement.

Under the venture between China Star and Yahoo Holdings (Hong Kong) Ltd, China Star films and programming can be "directly accessed through the Internet," they said.

The two firms first announced the deal on February 14, saying that the broadcasts would come from web pages designed, hosted and maintained by Yahoo.Both companies refused to disclose financial details of the deal, except to say viewers would be able to watch movies free of charge. "We will not charge viewers for the movies. our income will be from advertisements," said Heung Wah-keung,

China Star chairman.

The new site will be available on Yahoo!'s ortal, but the name has yet to be announced, the companies said.-Reuters