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LCQ19: Reception quality of free TV signals
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    Following is a question by the Hon Howard Young and a written reply by the Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury, Professor K C Chan, (in the absence of the Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development) in the Legislative Council today (November 14):

Question:

     Recently, quite a number of members of the public have complained to me that free television programmes cannot be viewed clearly due to blockage of television signals since the completion of some high-rise buildings in the vicinity of their residence.  In this connection, will the Government inform this Council of:

(a) the number of complaints received by the Office of the Telecommunications Authority (OFTA) over the past three years about newly-built high-rise buildings adversely affecting the reception of television signals; whether there is a rising trend for this type of complaints in recent years and how OFTA helped complainants solve the problem;

(b) the total number of existing television signal transposers in the territory; the number and locations of such transposers to be built in the next three years, and the districts in which the residents will be benefited; and

(c) the factors being considered by OFTA at present in deciding whether proposals for building new transposers should be made?

Reply:

Madam President,

(a) In relation to poor television reception owing to signal obstructions by existing and newly-built buildings in the vicinity, the annual number of enquiries received by the Office of the Telecommunications Authority (OFTA) over the past three years shows a declining trend with details as follows (Annex 1):

     On receipt of complaints or requests for assistance about television reception, OFTA will investigate and, depending on the specific circumstances of each case, help find a solution such as advising the household to approach contractors for examining, resetting or adjusting the position or direction of the communal antenna as appropriate, and check if indoor wiring is in order.

     For areas in which reception cannot be improved through the above measures, OFTA will assess the technical feasibility of building new analogue signal transposers, e.g. spectrum availability in the area, to address the reception problem of the entire locality.

     As required by the Government, Asia Television Limited (ATV) and Television Broadcasts Limited (TVB) will launch digital terrestrial television (DTT) broadcasting by the end of 2007.  With the implementation of DTT and the further expansion of the digital coverage, television reception problems such as "snowing" and "ghosting" will be resolved.  The overall TV reception situation is expected to be significantly improved.

(b) There are currently 51 analogue television transmission stations in Hong Kong.  To tie in with the implementation of DTT, ATV and TVB will construct six principal DTT transmission stations by the end of 2008.  Details are as follows (Annex 2):  

     From 2009 to 2011, another 23 transmission stations will go on stream, extending DTT coverage to over 99%.

(c) Under section 18 of the Broadcasting Ordinance (Cap 562), unless exempted by the Broadcasting Authority (BA), the two domestic free television programme service licensees (i.e. ATV and TVB) shall provide the service in such manner as to enable their programmes to be received throughout Hong Kong.  In order to strike a balance between the need to meet the public demand for receiving free-to-air terrestrial television and to take into account the reasonable investment of the two broadcasters, the BA has exempted the two broadcasters from providing service to areas of 3 kilometers radius with a population of less than 2,000 and areas having technical constraints (e.g. lack of spare frequency spectrum to improve reception, or lack of suitable site for building transposers).  These are the guidelines on which the BA and OFTA plan with the two broadcasters for projects to construct new transposers.



Ends/Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Issued at HKT 16:39

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