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The Government today (July 7) announced that the Chief Executive in Council had promulgated a set of criteria for the granting of licences for sound broadcasting services.
The Chief Executive in Council had also approved the introduction of the Telecommunications (Amendment) Bill 2009 into the Legislative Council to prescribe the licensing criteria.
¡§The promulgation of the licensing criteria could help increase the transparency of the existing licensing regime under the Telecommunications Ordinance,¡¨ a spokesman for the Commerce and Economic Development Bureau (CEDB) said.
¡§This set of criteria is based on local experience in considering broadcasting licence applications as well as overseas best practices,¡¨ the spokesman said.
Subject to the availability of suitable spectrum as an overriding factor or condition precedent, applications for sound broadcasting licences will be considered according to the following criteria:
(a) Financial soundness and commitment to investment;
(b) Managerial and technical expertise;
(c) Programme variety, quantity and quality;
(d) Technical soundness and quality;
(e) Speed of service roll-out;
(f) The extent of inconvenience caused by construction work, if any;
(g) Benefits to the local broadcasting industry, the audience and the community as a whole;
(h) Quality control and compliance capability; and
(i) Fit and proper persons.
The set of licensing criteria will be uploaded onto the website of the Communications and Technology Branch of the CEDB (www.cedb.gov.hk/ctb). The Broadcasting Authority will adopt the same set of criteria in making recommendations on sound broadcasting licence applications to the Chief Executive in Council.
In addition to prescribing the licensing criteria by law, the Telecommunications (Amendment) Bill will also enable the Broadcasting Authority to issue guidelines indicating how it proposes to perform its function of making recommendations on sound broadcasting licence applications to the Chief Executive in Council. The bill will be published in the Gazette on Friday (July 10) and introduced into the Legislative Council in October.
Under section 13C of the Telecommunications Ordinance, the Chief Executive in Council, after considering recommendations made by the Broadcasting Authority, may grant a licence for maintaining and operating sound broadcasting services.
Ends/Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Issued at HKT 16:31
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