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The following is issued on behalf of the Broadcasting Authority:
At its meeting this month (December), the Broadcasting Authority approved to commission an opinion survey for the mid-term review of the domestic free television programme service licences of Asia Television Limited (ATV) and Television Broadcasts Limited (TVB) in early 2009.
Section 4(2)(b)(i) of Schedule 4 to the Broadcasting Ordinance (Cap. 562) and Condition 3.2 of the licences of ATV and TVB provide that the licences, under which operation was started on December 1, 2003, may be reviewed by the Chief Executive in Council within such period after December 1, 2009. Following established practice, the Broadcasting Authority will review the performance of the licensees and make recommendations to the Chief Executive in Council for the purpose of this mid-term review.
The Broadcasting Authority has already started preparatory work for the review, a part of which includes an opinion survey to obtain the public's feedback on the services of ATV and TVB. In addition, the Broadcasting Authority will gauge public views through other channels, including its website, focus group meetings of the Television and Radio Consultative Groups and a public hearing in the coming year.
In addition to collecting public opinions, the Broadcasting Authority had issued written invitations to the licensees to make submissions on various areas including, inter alia, corporate competence, financial, technical and programming capabilities, and a six-year investment plan covering the second half of the validity period of the licences - from 2010 to 2015. The Broadcasting Authority will assess the performance of the licensees against the various statutory requirements, requirements under the licence conditions, and codes of practice, before submitting its recommendations to the Chief Executive in Council thereafter.
The Broadcasting Authority noted that the Commissioner for Television and Entertainment Licensing (CTEL) dealt with 124 cases (217 complaints) under her delegated authority in November 2008, of which three cases (three complaints) were classified as minor breaches and 92 cases (183 complaints) were unsubstantiated. The remaining 29 cases (31 complaints) were held to be outside the ambit of the Broadcasting Authority Ordinance. The monthly complaints figures dealt with by CTEL since January 2008 are shown in Figure 1. A chart showing the respective natures of the unsubstantiated complaints in November is at Figure 2. Please visit the BA website www.hkba.hk for further information of the complaints.
Ends/Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Issued at HKT 16:16
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