COMMUNICATIONS AND THE MEDIA
195
Brigade of Gurkhas, providing music and features reflecting daily life in Nepal, Nepalese and world news, news reviews, quiz shows and audience participation phone-in pro- grammes. A few programmes are received from Radio Nepal, other Nepalese government agencies and from the BBC Nepali service.
The English language service broadcasts for some 100 hours each week, providing news from the United Kingdom and a music format familiar to British Forces. About 30 hours each week is provided by the BFBS London Production Centre, which keeps listeners in touch with home events and provides specialist programmes from premier British broad- casting personalities. The BBC Transcription Services provides high quality drama, comedy and documentary material. Some live outside broadcasts are mounted covering major social and formal military events.
Television
Television viewing continues to be Hong Kong's prime leisure activity with more than 93 per cent of households owning one or more television sets. Two enfranchised commercial wireless broadcasting stations, Television Broadcasts Limited (TVB) and Asia Television Limited (ATV), transmit an average of 470 hours of programming each week and together provide two English and two Chinese-language services for the community. The UHF 625-line PAL colour system is standard and virtually all transmission is in colour. Both TVB and ATV maintain large well-equipped studios and office complexes using the latest production and transmission techniques.
The television stations are licensed to operate under the provisions of the Television Ordinance which is administered by the Television Authority. The Commissioner for Television and Films is responsible for the regulation of the stations' licences and the issue and enforcement of the programme, advertising and technical standards required of the licensees. He is advised in these responsibilities by the Television Advisory Board. One of the main roles of the Television and Entertainment Licensing Authority (TELA) is to monitor regularly the performance of the television stations to ensure that the terms and conditions of their licence requirements are being met.
On the programme side, locally-produced drama series remain the most popular among the programmes - talk shows, sports, popular music, current affairs, variety, women's and children's programmes - available. Of the drama series, both contemporary and period kung-fu categories continue to be favourite viewing. The trend in contemporary drama storylines is towards light-hearted entertainment while costume dramas have become more sophisticated technically, with laser beams and other advanced visual gimmicks being used to portray combat feats.
Sports programmes are gaining increasing popularity and occupy many weekend peak viewing hours. Major international sports events are broadcast live via satellite. Both stations continue to feature two comprehensive news bulletins daily on their Chinese and English channels, scheduled between 6 p.m. and midnight. Selected news bulletins are sub-titled for the benefit of the deaf. Locally-produced public affairs programmes are broadcast on each channel, some having won international awards for their high standards. With the assistance of the government's district offices, the Television Authority has appointed public television viewing groups in each of Hong Kong's 18 districts to provide a flow of public opinion on television programming from a broad spectrum of the popula- tion, and to help the Television Advisory Board keep in touch with public attitudes towards programme and advertising standards. These groups, consisting of between 20 and 25 volunteers, are appointed for a one-year period in the first instance. Group members follow