************************************************************
The Government announced today (September 23) that the Chief Executive in Council had approved the proposed revision of the fee structure for domestic free television programme services and Type A other licensable television programme services.
ˇ§In line with the established full-cost recovery principle adopted by the Government, the revision is necessary to cope with the latest development in the broadcasting market and technologies,ˇ¨ a spokesman for the Commerce and Economic Development Bureau said.
With regard to the licence fees for domestic free television programme service which comprises both fixed and variable components, the variable component was proposed to be based on the yearly total number of hours of television programmes provided by the licensees.
The spokesman explained that the launch of new digital terrestrial television (DTT) services had led to multi-channeling and audience fragmentation. Licensees could now introduce seasonal or event-based channels on an ad hoc basis. The original fee structure based on the number of programme channels provided on a specified date could not cope with the new DTT environment as these ad hoc channels might not be counted towards the variable fee while channels provided on a long-term basis but with limited hours of programmes per day could be unfairly charged as if they were fully-fledged channels.
Using the new fee structure and based on the current programming plan, the two current licensees, namely Asia Television Limited (ATV) and Television Broadcasts Limited (TVB), would be charged a fixed fee of around $4.7 million, plus a variable fee of about $2.94 million for ATV and $2.67 million for TVB for 2008-09, subject to the actual hours of television programmes to be provided. This represented a slight increase of around 3% to 7% compared with the fees charged for 2007-08.
The Government also took the opportunity to review and revise the fixed element of the licence fee downward by 57% to $73,500 for ˇ§Type A other licensable television programme service licenceˇ¨, a category of licence for provision of internal television services within private residential premises or housing estates. The revision aims to reduce the entry barrier, if any, for the provision of such service thereby encouraging market investment and more television programme choices for viewers.
The Broadcasting (Licence Fees) (Amendment) Regulation 2008, proposing the fee revisions, will be published in the Government gazette on October 3 and tabled at the Legislative Council on October 8. The revised fees will come into effect on December 1, subject to the approval of the Legislative Council.
Ends/Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Issued at HKT 16:35
NNNN