BACKGROUND
CONFIDENTIAL
5.
BROADCASTING ORGANISATIONS IN HONG KONG
There are three sound and two television broadcasting
organisations in the Colony:-
6
Sound:
(1) Radio Hong Kong: a Government owned wireless broad-
casting organisation.
(2) Commercial Radio Limited: a commercial wireless
broadcasting organisation.
(3) Rediffusion (Hong Kong) Limited (RTV): a commercial
organisation which provides a wired sound broadcasting
service. RTV is a subsidiary company of Rediffusion
Limited, whose headquarters are in London.
Television
(4) Television Broadcasts Limited (TVB): a commercial
organisation which provides a wireless television
broadcast service.
(5) Rediffusion (Hong Kong) Limited (RTV): the same
organisation as at (3) above, which also provides a
wired television service.
In the case of its wired sound service, RTV both origin-
ates its own programmes and uses its wired networks in a limited way to relay the programmes of Radio Hong Kong and
Commercial Radio Limited. In the case of its wired tele- vision service, RTV likewise originates its own programme material. The licence under which RTV operates its tele- vision service' (which was issued in 1957 and which expires in 1973) also confers on the Company the exclusive right to
relay by wire any broadcast television programme put out by any other broadcasting organisation included in the official
list of broadcasting stations issued by the International
Telecommunications Union at Geneva contemporaneously with the broadcast of such programmes. The Company has not until recently been in a position to exercise this right
because there has been no other television broadcasting
station in Hong Kong. However, in 1967 TVB was granted a franchise for a term of years to operate a wireless television service, and in November of that year began regular wireless
CONFIDENTIAL
/television