COMMUNICATIONS AND THE MEDIA
broadcasting. The exercise consisted of a household survey with a sample size of 2 000 and a focus group survey of 540 selected individuals.
During the year, improvements continued to be made in television transmission coverage. Two new transposer stations were completed, bringing the total number to 23. Current plans are for additional transposer stations to be built at the rate of two each year until all areas with a population of 2 000 within a radius of three kilometres can receive satisfactory television signals. To standardise and improve the quality of the transmission signals, separate antennae systems were replaced by combined broad-band antenna systems in 13 of the existing transposer stations. The ultimate aim is to extend the replacement programme to the remaining transposer stations.
Radio Television Hong Kong (Television)
During 1990, Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK) continued to produce 12 hours of public affairs television programmes each week. The programmes fall basically into six categories: current affairs (both English and Chinese), drama, information and community services, variety and games shows, children's and youth programmes, and general educa- tional productions. Under an agreement with the two commercial stations, certain RTHK programmes are transmitted during prime-time on weekdays. According to the AGB McNair Report, up to March 1990, the average audience size of RTHK programmes was 1 576 301 and 276 671 in TVB and ATV respectively. From October onwards, prime-time transmission on one of the commercial stations moved to weekends to provide a greater choice of programmes to the public during Saturdays and Sundays.
As regards current affairs, the key words are motivation and innovation. In the summer, a new programme Media Watch was launched, keeping a close eye on the watchdog of society. Another new programme, Two Points of View, for the first time brought together the elderly and teenagers discussing topics related to the generation gap. As a curtain raiser to the 1991 elections, a series publicising voter registration was produced in late summer, with plans for more in election year. Promoting Hong Kong as an international trade/ finance centre, the station continued its joint effort with the Trade Development Council in producing the Made in Hong Kong series. In the year the programmes Headliner and Monthly Topical established a strong foothold, while the evergreen programmes Common Sense and City Forum continued their weekly examination of current issues.
To keep the public fully informed of the proceedings in the Legislative Council, the Today-in-Leg Co programme was produced weekly in both Chinese and English. The English-language weekly current affairs series In Sight had a half-year run, and Common Sense also made a weekly appearance in English, under the title The Hong Kong Connection.
The drama section of RTHK continued to provide programmes catering specially to the younger audience and also presented historical drama series.
The historical drama, Tales of Two Cities highlighted significant events that occurred from the signing of the Sino-British Accord in 1984 to the end of 1989, and showed how the community reacted and coped with these events. The Way We Are was a children's drama series which highlighted the bittersweet years of the five to twelve-year-old in the growing up process.
Variety shows such as Dreams of Hong Kong, Climb the Lion Rock and Talent Quest for Disabled featured as some of the major RTHK campaigns to promote social interest towards building a better Hong Kong.
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