COMMUNICATIONS, THE MEDIA AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
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Domestic Pay Television Programme Services
There were five domestic pay television programme service licensees in Hong Kong in 2003 Hong Kong Cable Television Limited (HKCTV), PCCW VOD Limited (PCCW VOD), Yes Television (Hong Kong) Limited (Yes TV), TV Plus (HK) Corp. Limited (TV Plus) and Galaxy Satellite Broadcasting Limited (Galaxy). At year-end, a total of 130 pay TV channels were available in Hong Kong. The total number of subscribers exceeded 860 000.
Non-domestic Television Programme Services
Many regional and international broadcasters have chosen Hong Kong as their broadcasting centre in Asia, attracted by the excellent infrastructure and world-class telecommunications facilities, as well as the other advantages that make Hong Kong the best place to do business in Asia. There are 12 non-domestic television programme service licensees providing 59 satellite TV channels to the region, of which 24 channels are receivable in Hong Kong.
The licensees are: Starvision Hong Kong Limited, Galaxy Satellite Broadcasting Limited, APT Satellite TV Development Limited, Starbucks (HK) Limited, Asia Plus Broadcasting Limited, MATV Limited, China Entertainment Television Broadcast Limited, Turner International Asia Pacific Limited, Pacific Satellite International Limited, i-Cable Satellite Television Limited, Sun Television Cybernetworks Enterprise Limited and Pacific Century Matrix (HK) Limited.
Radio
Hong Kong has 13 radio channels - seven operated by RTHK, three by Hong Kong Commercial Broadcasting Company Limited and three by Metro Broadcast Corporation Limited.
Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK)
RTHK is a publicly funded, editorially independent broadcaster whose mission is to provide quality programmes that inform, educate and entertain the people of Hong Kong. RTHK's online Cyberstation provides a 24-hour live webcast of six of its radio channels and its TV programmes, plus an online archive service for programmes broadcast in the past 12 months. The daily average access rate of the Cyberstation has reached a record of 16 million website hits, with about 45 per cent of them logging in from overseas. In 2003, RTHK commemorated 75 years of broadcasting in Hong Kong.
Film Industry
Hong Kong is a major film production centre. During the year, a total of 79 films produced in Hong Kong were released. Action films, romance and comedies were the main genres.
In 2003, there were 57 cinemas (with 188 screens) compared with 61 cinemas (with 184 screens) in 2002. The box-office hits of the year included Finding Nemo ($31.89 million), Twins Effect ($28.42 million) and Infernal Affairs III ($28.04 million)3.
3 Box office up to December 31, 2003