PRESS, BROADCASTING AND CINEMA
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Commercial Radio services comprise two in Chinese and one in English broadcast on AM from its new studios in Broadcast Drive. The move to the new site was delayed for seven days due to typhoon Rose which damaged the transmitter on Peng Chau and put the station off the air for about six days. The studios were opened by the Governor, Sir David Trench, on August 26, the 12th anniversary of the opening of Commercial Radio.
The opening of the studios marked a further stage in establishing Broadcast Drive as the centre for all Hong Kong's radio and tele- vision stations. The complex now houses the headquarters of all the Colony's broadcasting and television media.
Both Commercial Radio and Radio Hong Kong operate between 6 a.m. and 1 a.m. and broadcast a wide_yariety of programmes including comprehensive news and weather services throughout the day.
The wired sound service of Rediffusion (Hong Kong) Ltd is dis- tributed throughout the urban areas of Hong Kong and Kowloon and to many outlying areas in the New Territories by more than 1,500 miles of trunk lines and another 4,000 miles of installation cabling. At the end of the year there were 40,000 loudspeakers connected to these sound services offering a choice of three pro- grammes.
FILM INDUSTRY
The film industry in Hong Kong again maintained the output which has won it a place among the world's leading film producing
centres.
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In 1965, the Hong Kong movie industry was practically monop- olised by Cantonese films and more than 500 feature length films were made a year. The Colony was then rated as one of the top three production centres in the world in terms of volume. However, Cantonese films were intended mainly for the local market. Gradually the two leading studios in Hong Kong, Shaw Brothers and the Cathay Organisation, developed a different kind of motion picture which won widespread public appeal. This was the quality Mandarin picture in colour and widescreen, and with box office takings favour- ing the new cinema trend, the Cantonese picture industry collapsed. Today not a single Cantonese picture is produced in Hong Kong.
The principal Hong Kong company following the closure of the Cathay Organisation is now Shaw Brothers, and a number of smaller independent companies also have studios. Shaw Brothers,