Free-TV-license holders in Hong Kong — Television Broadcasts and HK Television Entertainment (ViuTV) — are no longer required to broadcast programs produced by the government-funded Radio Television Hong Kong, the Communications Authority announced on Wednesday.
The mandate was lifted at the request of the city’s largest television station, TVB, which airs 3.5 hours of RTHK shows on its Chinese channels each week. ViuTV was obliged to carry 2.5 hours of the public broadcaster’s programs a week.
This could
also allow commercial broadcasters to generate more advertising/
sponsorship incomethe Hong Kong Communications Authority
TVB on Feb 9 asked for abolishing the requirement, in place since 1990, saying that it was introduced before RTHK launched its own TV channels in 2014. With RTHK’s three channels now covering 99 percent of the local population, and some of its programs available on its websites and apps, TVB argued against the necessity of the rule.
Under the new arrangement, TVB and ViuTV can offer more-diverse programs to viewers more efficiently, the Communications Authority said in a statement.
“This could also allow commercial broadcasters to generate more advertising/sponsorship income, thereby helping their businesses amid increasing challenges faced by the broadcasting industry,” the statement read.
RTHK has not objected to the decision, it added.
TVB welcomed the authority’s move, saying it plans to use the freed-up time slots to extend its evening news program from 30 minutes to one hour to meet the increasing public demand.
Lawmaker Elizabeth Quat pui-fan, a member of the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong, said there had been a lot of public support for the authority’s decision.
The mandatory broadcast of RTHK’s shows occurred only because the radio did not have its own TV channels, but this is no longer the reality, Quat said.
There have been arguments that it was unfair for TV stations that had to run other companies’ shows during the peak time in a challenging business environment, she added.
RTHK has recently come under fire for airing shows that are “biased” against the government, which has led to speculation over the motive behind the authority’s move. Quat said it is unreasonable to politicize the decision and call it “political censorship’’.
Police Commissioner Chris Tang Ping-keung on Tuesday lodged a complaint to Leung Ka-wing, RTHK’s director of broadcasting, accusing its program Headliner of discrediting the police and misleading the public.
The authority said it has received around 2,700 complaints about an episode of Headliner broadcast on Feb 14.
In mid-February, Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development Edward Yau Tang-wah called out the broadcaster after more than 200 complaints were filed against the episode, which suggested police officers had stockpiled masks for themselves when the city was short of them during the initial stages of the novel coronavirus outbreak.
The Commerce and Economic Development Bureau, which oversees RTHK, also noted Leung should be held accountable for decisions taken by the station’s producers.
