Broadcasting

Broadcasting Policy and Regulation

The broadcasting policy objective is to enhance Hong Kong's position as a regional broadcasting hub by promoting programme choice and diversity through competition and facilitating innovation and investment in the industry.

The Government opened up the television market and put in place a technology-neutral, pro-competition regulatory framework with the commencement of the Broadcasting Ordinance in mid-2000. It separated the licensing and regulation of 'carriage' and 'provision' of television programme services under the technology-neutral regime. A television programme service provider may hire operators of any transmission networks to transmit its television programme service instead of investing in transmission infrastructure itself. Such a framework facilitates entry to the television programme service market and is flexible enough to embrace new services made possible by emerging technologies and convergence.

Under the Broadcasting Ordinance, the four categories of television programme services — domestic free, domestic pay, non-domestic and other licensable television programme services that may be licensed — are regulated in accordance with the nature and pervasiveness of the services rather than the transmission mode. The former two categories of licences are issued by the Chief Executive in Council, and the latter two by the Broadcasting Authority (BA).

New Developments

In the light of emerging media and technological convergence, the Government is conducting a review of the broadcasting regulatory regime to ensure that the regulatory framework remains conducive to new business developments in the broadcasting industry. It is planned to consult the public on the outcome of the review in 2004.

The Government encourages the deployment of digital terrestrial broadcasting technology in Hong Kong to enhance spectrum efficiency and enable new and better services such as high-definition television broadcasting to be introduced. The Government published a second consultation paper on digital terrestrial broadcasting in December 2003 for a three-month consultation. It was proposed that the existing two terrestrial television broadcasters should start simulcasting their existing television services in analogue and digital forms in 2006 with a view to achieving territory-wide digital coverage by 2008.

Broadcasting Authority

Licensed broadcasters are regulated by the BA which comprises members from various sectors of the community and three public officers. The BA's major functions are to make recommendations to the Chief Executive in Council with respect to the licensing and renewal of domestic free and domestic pay television programme services and sound broadcasting services; to issue non-domestic and other licensable television programme service licences; to administer the provisions of licences; and to safeguard proper standards of television and sound broadcasting with regard to both programme content (including advertisements) and technical performance.

During the year, the BA submitted its recommendations to the Chief Executive in Council on the renewal of the sound broadcast licences of Hong Kong Commercial Broadcasting Company Limited and Metro Broadcast Corporation Limited, and the licensing arrangement for PCCW-VOD to replace its video-on-demand service by a multi-channel service, the subscription of which is on an innovative 'a la carte' basis. It also commenced the licence renewal exercise of the Domestic Pay Television Programme Service of Hong Kong Cable Television Limited (HKCTV) and commissioned an opinion survey and conducted a public hearing to collect public views on the service of HKCTV.

In 2003, the BA's Complaints Committee dealt with 32 complaint cases involving a total of 613 complaints. Having considered the recommendations of the Complaints Committee, the BA issued five warnings.

Television

Hong Kong's television viewers have access to over 159 domestic and non-domestic television programme service channels in various languages. These include four free-to-air terrestrial TV channels, 130 pay TV channels and a variety of free-to-air satellite channels.

Domestic Free Television Programme Services

The two domestic free television programme service licensees — Television Broadcasts Limited and Asia Television Limited — are each licensed to broadcast one Cantonese and one English channel. Both stations are required to broadcast programmes produced by the publicly funded Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK).

Domestic Pay Television Programme Services

There were five domestic pay television programme service licensees in Hong Kong in 2003 — Hong Kong Cable Television Limited (HKCTV), PCCW VOD Limited (PCCW VOD), Yes Television (Hong Kong) Limited (Yes TV), TV Plus (HK) Corp. Limited (TV Plus) and Galaxy Satellite Broadcasting Limited (Galaxy). At year-end, a total of 130 pay TV channels were available in Hong Kong. The total number of subscribers exceeded 860 000.

Non-domestic Television Programme Services

Many regional and international broadcasters have chosen Hong Kong as their broadcasting centre in Asia, attracted by the excellent infrastructure and world-class telecommunications facilities, as well as the other advantages that make Hong Kong the best place to do business in Asia. There are 12 non-domestic television programme service licensees providing 59 satellite TV channels to the region, of which 24 channels are receivable in Hong Kong.

The licensees are: Starvision Hong Kong Limited, Galaxy Satellite Broadcasting Limited, APT Satellite TV Development Limited, Starbucks (HK) Limited, Asia Plus Broadcasting Limited, MATV Limited, China Entertainment Television Broadcast Limited, Turner International Asia Pacific Limited, Pacific Satellite International Limited, i-Cable Satellite Television Limited, Sun Television Cybernetworks Enterprise Limited and Pacific Century Matrix (HK) Limited.

Radio

Hong Kong has 13 radio channels — seven operated by RTHK, three by Hong Kong Commercial Broadcasting Company Limited and three by Metro Broadcast Corporation Limited.

Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK)

RTHK is a publicly funded, editorially independent broadcaster whose mission is to provide quality programmes that inform, educate and entertain the people of Hong Kong. RTHK's online Cyberstation provides a 24-hour live webcast of six of its radio channels and its TV programmes, plus an online archive service for programmes broadcast in the past 12 months. The daily average access rate of the Cyberstation has reached a record of 16 million website hits, with about 45 per cent of them logging in from overseas. In 2003, RTHK commemorated 75 years of broadcasting in Hong Kong.