MUMBAI: HBO Asia is launching two 24 hour, commercial-free movie channels in the region. HBO Family and HBO Hits join the existing flagship channel, HBO Signature and Cinemax.

With this, HBO Asia operates five channels in the region now. All the channels will be available in Hong Kong, Philippines, Taiwan, Singapore and Indonesia by May this year, starting with Hong Kong on 16 March.

Both the new channels will have its own programming and unique on-air identity, designed to appeal to different segments of the network's overall audience.

In select markets, the five channels will be bundled as the HBO/MAX Pak.

Said HBO Asia CEO Jonathan Spink, "Less than a year after the successful introduction of HBO Signature, the first channel in our bouquet of multichannel services, we have now expanded on our multichannel strategy to launch two more genre-based channels-HBO Family and HBO Hits. Now with five movie channels to choose from, the HBO/MAX Pak offers subscribers more premium programming and greater added value and greater viewing choice, driving subscriber acquisition while improving retention for the cable operators throughout the region."

Closed-captioned subtitling in Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesia), Cantonese (Hong Kong) and Chinese (Taiwan) will be offered across all channels.