SATURDAY, APRIL 227 1972
Sou China Morning Post
H
Toug Chong Street.
Hongkong.
Tel: 620161
City Office:
Star Ferry Concourse
Central
Tel: 221011
Kowloon Office:
Salisbury Road.
Tel: K 664145
Dial an Ad
Tel: 614141
15
Copyright of all articles vested in the S.C.M. Post. Reproduction in whole or part strictly forbidden. All
communications To the
Editorial Department should be addressed to the Editor. and not to individuals.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
BIRTH
KHEMLANI
To Jyoti
and Bob, a baby girl, little sister for Manju and Shamu, bom April 20, at Queen Eliza beth
Hospital. Thanks
doctors and nurses.
ENGAGEMENT
Pun
-
to
'Lau
The engage ment is announced between Gideon Fook-kee. younger son of the late H.F. Lau and Mrs C.L. Lau, of Kensington, London, and Stella Lai fong, younger daughter of Mr. and Mrs. C.W. Pun, of Kowloon, Hongkong. The wedding will take place shortly in London.
A Text For Today
These are the things that ye shall do: Speak ye every man the truth to h neighbour; execute the judgment of truth and peace in your gates.
Zechariah 8, verse 16.
20
cars
Yago
London Billy Wright, captain of England and Wolverhampton Wanderers, has been voted the "Footballer of the year" by the members of the Football Writers' Associa tion.
Rome - Rome celebrated its 2:705th birthday Commemorative ceremonies were conducted by the Mayor and City Council on Capitol Hill. site of ancient Rome's temple of Jupiter and Symbolic centre of the city through the
The
centuries.
A
city was founded, according to legend, when Romulus traced out a square on the flank of the Palatin Hill, 100 yards from the capital, on April 21, 753 B.C.
Rome A BOAC Come: blazed a trail for the world's first jet airliner service opening next month - by flying 14 Kuest passengers from London to Rome. It took two hours and 17 mins for the 927 mile flight, compared with four and a half to five hours taken by a piston engined aircraft.
Windsor Queen Elizabeth
24 her husband, the Duke dinoutes, ti, t... Order of the Thistle. enc of Paige oldest established Orders of Chivalry, at Windsor Castle,
3Cmp
2X Soy
RTV chief believes revenue insufficient for third station
Rediffusion (Hongkong) Ltd does not believe that, at this stage, there is sufficient revenue to support the third single-service station proposed by Government.
In an exclusive interview, Mr R. J. Warren, Managing Director of Rediffusion (Hongkong) Ltd, said yesterday he was surprised Government had decided to inaugurate a third station without first evaluating the performance of the two bi-lingual stations.
He claimed Government did not yet have sufficient knowledge of the operation of commercial television to justify the establishment of a third station.
He suggested that Government delay the decision on the third station until it had time to assess the revenue generated by the other two.
Mr Warren, however, fully supported the broadening of the franchise. He believed there was enough revenue to support two two-channel wireless stations in the next five years.
Rediffusion had anticipated this development and was ready to submit a very competitive tender as soon as Government opened the bidding.
"In view of our wide experience of producing and distributing programmes," Mr Warren said, "and with the goodwill which I hope we have in the community, I think we stand a good chance, especially with the infrastructure which we have already established in Hongkong." But he stressed he was not presuming anything.
as a
Mr Warren regarded Government's action logical move to give HK-TVB "proper" competition.
"At the
" he moment, explained. 'we are competing on different levels. Our subscribers pay a monthly fee of $17 to receive RTV and therefore we find ourselves inevitably catering more for the middle and upper income groups.
Ray of hope for mother
of triplets
There is now a ray of hope for the poor San Po Kong mother. Mrs Lam Shiu wah, who had given birth to triplets but is facing eviction from her home a small cubicle.
A spokesman for the Social Welfare Department yesterday said they would investigate the
case
and help Mrs. Lam whenever possible.
The Lam family, comprising Mrs Lam, her husband a two year old son and the triplets, is now being accommodated in a small, $130 per month cubicle. But they are facing eviction.
Their plight became known after interview with the S.C.M. Post.
an
The Social Welfare Departmel is expected to jok into their, case and recommina ssistanc. from ou departrients Mesenteric
ent Ljepaticieni in particular.
www
Mr Warren
our
"At present we reach only five per cent of the population of the settlements and overall share of viewers compared to TVB is about one to five.
"But if we win the tender for a wireless system. We will be able to reach a much wider audience, including the lower income groups.”
As { result of this, Mr Warren pointed out, Rediffusion would broaden the range of its programmes in order to cater for the greater diversity of tastes.
"But we would still maintain our high quality," he insisted, "and vet programmes which we consider unsuitable for our audience. It is hateful to be moralistic but we must be careful in the standards we set.'
If it was successful. Rediffusion would also gear itself for 625 lines and colour. At present, there are about 9,000 colour TV sets installed in the Colony but sales are picking up rapidly and Rediffusion see all colour programmes as a logical development of future broad casting.
Although he is ready and eager to compete with TVB in a wireless system. Mr Warren believes that the long-term development of television will lead it back to invest in a cable system.
"The whole world is being wired for sight and sound,” he said. "In America 50 per cent of the sets will be wired by the mid-1970's.
"Aerial transmission is very limited in its capacity compared to cable transmission which can carry a great number of channels simultaneously. So it might well happen that within the next 10 years, television in Hongkong will revert back to a wired system.
"We are, therefore, eagerly awaiting the report of the panel currently investigating the future of cable television. We are sure it has a future and we in # good position to
are
develop it
In the meantiric. Rediffusion nopes to pioneer the use of Common Aerial Television
in
order to rid the skyline of its present clutter of 600,000 individual aerials.
A resettlement estate, for example, could be wired up to one central aerial which would serve the whole community.
Mr Warren believed the present commitment of the two commercial stations to public service broadcasting was already high. He pointed to the amount of time that is given to ETV and the number of community service, documentary and general interest programmes. This was another reason why he did not believe that a third station was justified on the grounds of the "specialised services" stipulated by Government.
Commenting
on the proposed fixed royalty of 25 per cent of net profits, Mr Warren said that although it was quite high, it compared favourably with the present royalty of 10 per cent of gross revenue in that it enabled the new stations to establish themselves before having to pay heavy duties.
Mr Warren concluded that if Rediffusion was given a fair chance, he was "absolutely confident" it would be able to provide a highly competitive, reliable and ethical service.