COMMUNICATIONS AND THE MEDIA
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The terms and conditions recommended by the authority included restrictions on the ownership and control of television companies, including ownership and control by persons and companies which do not satisfy certain residential qualifications, a prohibition on a television company being a subsidiary of another company and restrictions on the subsidiary businesses which a television company may hold. The purpose of these condi- tions is to ensure that television companies are independent, remain in local hands and concentrate on the business of television broadcasting and directly related businesses. Other terms and conditions recommended by the authority included the stipulation of minimum programme requirements for children's programmes, documentary, current affairs, and news programmes; the stipulation of the maximum amount of advertising material and other non-programme material permitted in a clock hour; the inclusion of provisions to permit the introduction of classified advertisements; to prohibit completely the broadcasting of tobacco advertisements and sponsorship by tobacco companies of television pro- grammes as from December 1990; and to update and extend the sanctions which may
be imposed on a licensee for breaches of the legislation, licence conditions or Codes of Practice. The Broadcasting Authority further recommended that the television companies should be required to submit plans for capital investment over the next six years sufficient to ensure an acceptable standard of broadcasting. The television companies subsequently attended a meeting of the authority to present their plans. They also sought the views of the authority on their proposals to reorganise their corporate structures to comply with the new provisions in the Television Ordinance.
During the year the Broadcasting Authority also recommended the introduction of limited subscription television services for hotels.
Complaints Committee
Complaints relating to the television industry are considered by the Complaints Committee of the authority. Most of the 515 complaints in 1988 were received on the committee's 24-hour complaints hotline and were concerned with the quality and standard of television programmes. The authority, acting on the recommendations of the Complaints Committee, issued 10 warnings to the two stations and fined one station for excessive violence in a prime-time programme.
The Commissioner for Television and Entertainment Licensing is the principal executive officer of the Broadcasting Authority. He is responsible for the enforcement of the standards on programmes, advertising and technical matters and for monitoring the performance of the television stations and ensuring compliance with the terms of their licences.
Television
Television viewing continued to be Hong Kong's prime leisure activity in 1988, with more than 96 per cent of households owning one television set or more. The two franchised commercial wireless broadcasting stations, Television Broadcasts Limited (TVB) and Asia Television Limited (ATV), transmitted an average of 450 hours of programming each week, together providing two English and two Chinese-language services for the community. The standard for colour transmissions currently used in Hong Kong is UHF 625-line PAL-I.
Commercial Broadcasters
It was a year of significance for the television industry. The licences of the two television stations expired on November 30, 1988 and, based on the recommendations of the