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The Government announced today (July 2) that the Chief Executive in Council had approved the recommendations made by the Broadcasting Authority (BA) following the mid-term review of the domestic free television programme service licences of Asia Television Limited (ATV) and Television Broadcasts Limited (TVB), including new licence conditions to be imposed for the coming six years, i.e. from 2010 to 2015.
"We are pleased that the Chief Executive in Council has accepted the recommendations of the BA. These will go a long way to improving the services of ATV and TVB. The additional conditions will ensure that the two licensees will have the best interest of viewers at heart for the remaining term of their licences," BA Chairman Mr Ambrose Ho said.
The recommendations made by the BA and approved by the Chief Executive in Council are as follows:
(a) ATV and TVB are required to comply with their respective investment plans for 2010 to 2015, i.e. ATV to make a programming and capital investment of $2,332 million and TVB to make a programming and capital investment of $6,336 million, and submit by the end of 2011 updated investment plans for the period 2013 to 2015 for the BA's approval. In addition, ATV will have to increase the amount of locally produced programmes from 225 hours to 273.5 hours per week from 2010 to 2015.
(b) ATV and TVB are required to commit to enhanced programme requirements, namely, an additional 120 minutes per week of arts and culture programmes and programmes for senior citizens or an additional 90 minutes of government (RTHK) programmes per week. In addition, ATV and TVB will have to broadcast an additional 60 minutes per week of RTHK programmes during weekends;
(c) ATV and TVB will have to increase the amount of high definition television (HDTV) programming, namely, from 14 to 60 hours per week starting from 2010 for ATV and from 20 hours per week to 120 hours per week by 2015 for TVB;
(d) ATV and TVB will have to step up incrementally their subtitling service; and
(e) ATV and TVB will have to participate in annual public engagement activities in the form of focus group discussions to be conducted by the BA.
The Government and the BA have been monitoring closely developments relating to ATV's shareholders and their implications on the investment commitments pledged by ATV in the context of the mid-term review. The BA has recently received an application from ATV for shareholding changes. Without prejudice to the BA's deliberations on the application, the BA recommended, and the Chief Executive in Council agreed, to impose an additional licence condition on ATV to require it to submit on or before December 31, 2010, to the satisfaction of the BA a statement of compliance as to whether it is capable of complying with the committed investment plan, and demonstrate to the satisfaction of the BA the means to deliver the investment plan.
"Wrapping up the mid-term review for ATV and TVB would mean giving early effect to the recommended service improvements as set out in the amended licences and BA directions. Needless to say, the BA will need to process the application for shareholding changes for ATV separately, in accordance with established procedures," Mr Ho added.
During the mid-term review, the BA conducted an extensive public consultation exercise in May to August 2009, including a territory-wide household opinion survey, three public hearings and seven discussion sessions with interested groups to gauge public views on the services provided by ATV and TVB. There were calls for greater programme diversity and more local productions, HDTV programmes and subtitling.
The BA also examined the records of the compliance of ATV and TVB with the various regulatory requirements under the Broadcasting Ordinance, the licence conditions and the relevant codes of practices. It considered that the two licensees had generally complied with the regulatory requirements over the past six years but public concerns needed to be addressed to enhance the services of ATV and TVB.
The current licences of ATV and TVB have a validity period of 12 years from December 1, 2003, to November 30, 2015. The Broadcasting Ordinance and the respective licences provide that the licences may be reviewed after December 1, 2009, when they have run for half of their validity period, i.e. six years.
Ends/Friday, July 2, 2010
Issued at HKT 11:23
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