Topical Information

The Government carried out a comprehensive television policy review in 1998, and subsequently opened up the television market in 2000. There is no ceiling on the number of licences to be granted, subject to physical or technological constraints.

The Government has adopted a technology-neutral regulatory regime since 2000. Television programme services are licensed and regulated according to their nature and pervasiveness rather than their transmission mode. Under the Broadcasting Ordinance, there are four categories of television programme services, namely domestic free, domestic pay, non-domestic and other licensable television programme services. The former two categories of licences are issued by the Chief Executive in Council and the latter two by the Broadcasting Authority.

There are currently two domestic free television programme service licensees: Television Broadcasts Limited (TVB) and Asia Television Limited (ATV). They commenced digital broadcasting since end-2007 and are currently providing four domestic channels in analogue format and 10 domestic channels (including simulcasting the four analogue channels) in digital format. The two companies are required to broadcast news, documentary, current affairs, arts and culture programmes and programmes for children (including educational programmes targeting teenagers), young persons and senior citizens, as well as programmes provided by Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK), HK's sole publicly-funded broadcaster that produces TV and radio programmes.

Pay television has no longer been a monopoly since 2000. There are currently three domestic pay television programme service licensees, namely, Hong Kong Cable Television Limited, PCCW Media Limited and TVB Pay Vision Limited.

Pay television services are subject to less content regulation but it is a statutory requirement that the service provider must provide a locking device to protect minors from accessing contents for adults. Pay television operators may provide their services via multiple transmission means, e.g., hybrid fibre coaxial cable, microwave, satellite, broadband network using ADSL technology, etc.

As a result of our liberalised, light-handed and pro-competition regulatory approach, Hong Kong viewers now enjoy a diversity of television programming. The number of pay television channels provided by licensees has increased to around 300 from only eight when pay television was first launched in 1993. Pay television is available to around 97% of population, and the household penetration rate is over 60%. The monthly subscription fee for a service package is as low as $15, and some operators are offering a-la-carte services (subscribers can choose to subscribe individual channels instead of a package of channels), the lowest monthly fee being only $10 per channel.

Pay television operators are also providing better services as competition is growing rapidly. All the pay television platforms are now fully digitised, and some television operators have launched innovative services such as high-definition television and interactive programmes.

Hong Kong positions itself as the broadcasting hub of the Asia Pacific region. In 1991, the first Hong Kong-based non-domestic television programme service operator, Starvision Hong Kong Limited started to broadcast satellite television service to the entire Asian region. Currently, there are 16 other non-domestic television programme service licensees: TVB Pay Vision Limited, APT Satellite TV Development Limited, Starbucks (HK) Limited, MATV Limited, Turner International Asia Pacific Limited, China Entertainment Television Broadcast Limited, i-CABLE Satellite Television Limited, Sun Television Cybernetworks Enterprise Limited, GlobeCast Hong Kong Limited, Skywave TV Company Limited, ATV, Auspicious Colour Limited, Phoenix Satellite Television Company Limited, Times International Media Group Limited, Asia Times Online Limited and Real Global Broadcasting Hong Kong Limited.

The Government also adopts an "open sky" policy. Through satellite master antenna television (SMATV) and television receive only systems, Hong Kong people are free to receive unencrypted satellite television programme channels uplinked from Hong Kong and elsewhere. There are now over 400 such free-to-air satellite television channels available for reception in Hong Kong. About 862 000 premises in multi-storey buildings have access to satellite channels through their SMATV systems. Typically, they can receive about 10 satellite channels.

(Last update on 1 June 2009)