COMMUNICATIONS AND THE MEDIA
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owned a video cassette recorder. Each of the television licensees, Television Broadcasts Limited (TVB) and Asia Television Limited (ATV), provides one Chinese and one English language channel and together, on average, they transmitted over 580 hours of pro- gramming per week an increase of about three per cent compared with 1992.
Competition between the two wireless television stations remained keen. Both tried to strengthen their audience share, and efforts were made to diversify programme contents and to enrich programme scheduling. A variety of programmes such as musicals, magazine shows and 'infotainment' programmes were screened during prime time in addition to serialised dramas. More feature films were also shown by both stations.
On the Chinese channels, locally produced serialised dramas remained the main attraction, with plots revolving around romance, human conflicts, kung fu fantasies, and police and gangster confrontations. Feature films and made-for-television films continued to enjoy a steady share of popularity, while beauty pageants, game contests, charity fund-raising events and musical specials constituted standard fare. Foreign serials dubbed into Cantonese were also broadcast at prime time.
On the English channels, films, imported dramas and musical specials remained major attractions. Documentaries, arts and cultural programmes were featured regularly in the programme line-up. Feature films and cartoons in foreign languages formed part of the off-peak programming.
News and information programmes remained an important part of the programming on all channels, and Putonghua news programmes and financial reports were also introduced. The two English channels continued to carry live satellite telecasts of news programmes from the United States.
Coverage of international sports events was given priority in programme scheduling during the year. Satellite feeds were often used to provide live coverage of sports events, including soccer and tennis.
There was an increase in the use of multi-channel sound television broadcasts with the Near Instantaneously Companded Audio Multiplex (NICAM) system. Feature films, documentaries and sports programmes were broadcast in bilingual format, enabling English services to attract more Chinese-speaking viewers.
The two wireless television stations also embarked on the testing of teletext transmission. For the transmission of television signals, there were altogether 24 transposer stations. Of these, 23 had adopted the combined broad-band antenna system, to offer a more standardised control of the quality of transmission signals.
Satellite Television
STAR TV provides the satellite television and sound service from Hong Kong to the Asian region. Five channels providing news, sports, music, entertainment and Chinese programmes are receivable in countries as far apart as Japan and Turkey, Indonesia and Mongolia. The service is predominantly in the English language but also includes Putonghua programming. An additional channel in various Indian languages was launched in October 1992, but is not receivable in Hong Kong. The STAR TV service also carries the BBC World Service programmes.
At the end of 1993, over 325 000 homes in Hong Kong were able to receive STAR TV's service and other satellite television programme services through Satellite Master Antenna Television (SMATV) systems.