Provided by Australia's national broadband television service, ReelTime Media, the new service offers a variety of broadband video content.

iPSTAR customers can view downloaded movies and television entertainment on a title-by-title basis, for sale or rent.

This service will be available in Australia late next month from selected iPSTAR service providers, the company said in a statement yesterday.

The successful deployment of the iPSTAR broadband-satellite television service in Australia will lead to further implementations and expansions in other iPSTAR markets through selected partners in the Asia-Pacific.

Shin Satellite executive  chairman Dumrong Kasemset called the ReelTime broadband-television programmes via the iPSTAR platform more living proof of iPSTAR's "triple play" solution, which enables customer access to the Internet, Voice over Internet Protocol and broadband television all on a single platform.

"The roll-out of the iPSTAR broadband-satellite service in Australia has shown dramatic growth during the last 12 months, and the addition of this value-added video service will further provide iPSTAR users

the opportunity to experience rich broadband-TV content," he said.

"We're planning to provide similar services in other markets in the Asia-Pacific," he added.

iPSTAR already provides full nationwide broadband-satellite service through 10 gateways in Thailand, Australia, New Zealand, Vietnam, Burma, Laos, China as well as  Cambodia.

It plans to expand coverage to the rest of the Asia-Pacific this year.