COMMUNICATIONS AND THE MEDIA
Complaints Committee
All complaints relating to wireless and satellite television and sound broadcasting are considered by the Complaints Committee of the Broadcasting Authority. Complaints may be lodged in writing or through a 24-hour hotline provided by the authority. During the year, the authority dealt with 707 complaints concerning quality and standard of tele- vision and radio programmes and advertisements. Acting on the recommendations of the Complaints Committee, the authority issued 10 warnings and nine serious warnings to the two wireless television stations and the satellite television station, one warning to a commercial radio station and imposed three fines on the two wireless television stations and one fine on a commercial radio station in the year.
Working Group on Review of Codes of Practice
The Working Group on Review of Codes of Practice of the authority met regularly during the year to review the codes of practice on programme, advertising and technical stand- ards for television and radio. The television broadcasting review conducted during the year has resulted in recommendations by the working group to lift the restrictions on certain types of advertisements. These included advertisements on local property, financial services, educational institutions, matrimonial services, correspondence clubs and condoms. Programming restrictions on advertising breaks, minimum programme segment duration requirements and repetition of children programmes were also relaxed for television to give the stations more flexibility in programme scheduling and presentation. The working group also drew up new codes to regulate programme sponsorship, substantiation of claims made in advertisements, off-shore deposit advertise- ments, and teloping of advertisements and non-programme material on television during the year.
Wireless Television
Television viewing remained Hong Kong's most popular leisure activity in 1992, with more than 98 per cent of households owning one television set or more. Sixty-eight per cent of them also owned a video cassette recorder. Each of the two franchised stations, Television Broadcasts Limited (TVB) and Asia Television Limited (ATV), provides one Chinese and one English language service and together, on average, transmitted over 560 hours of programming per week, a slight increase of about two per cent compared with 1991.
Competition between the two wireless television stations remained keen. Both tried to strengthen their audience shares through exploration of new grounds in programming. Efforts were made to diversify programme content and to enrich programme scheduling. A variety of programmes like magazine shows, 'infotainment' programmes, game shows and musical programmes were provided during prime time in addition to serialised dramas. Programming in fringe hours was also strengthened. First-run programmes were scheduled in the morning, afternoon and late evening hours in addition to the usual line-up of repeats.
On the Chinese services, locally produced serialised dramas remained the main attrac- tion, with stories revolving around romance, human conflicts, kung fu fantasties and police and gangster confrontation while feature films and telemovies continued to enjoy a steady share of popularity.
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