354 Communications, the Media and Information Technology
member television and radio consultative scheme as well as focus group discussions to collect audience feedback.
Radio Television Hong Kong
Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK), a government department, is an editorially independent public broadcaster providing quality radio and television programmes.
RTHK currently operates seven radio channels and produces over 980 hours of radio programmes weekly of different genres in Cantonese, English and Putonghua.
RTHK produced about 570 hours of television programmes in 2008 for broadcasting on Hong Kong's two commercial television stations. In addition to 41.3 hours of new school educational television programmes and pre-primary school programmes, an interactive learning platform, the eTVonline, has also been launched to complement the Government's education policies. As the territory's publicly- funded broadcaster, RTHK provides local and overseas broadcasters with audio and video pool feeds of events that are of public interest. In support of the Beijing 2008 Olympics, RTHK took the lead in forming a consortium with six other local electronic media organisations to provide live transmission of the 'Flame Receiving Ceremony' and the 8.5-hour 'Beijing 2008 Olympic Torch Relay in Hong Kong'.
RTHK has embraced the new media era and started broadcasting online in 1994 with the launch of 'RTHK on INTERNET' (www.rthk.org.hk). The daily average hit rate of the website is 33 million. RTHK continues to harness the multi-media potential of the different emerging media platforms, such as licensing web content to mobile operators and providing podcasting services. Since August 2007, RTHK has run an official channel on YouTube (www.youtube.com/rthk) to reach out more to the young audience.
Recent Developments
The boundaries between broadcasting, telecommunications and information technology continue to blur. The present arrangement of separate statutory regulators for broadcasting and telecommunications services is not sustainable in the long term. There was general support in public consultations for the merging of the BA and the Telecommunications Authority into a unified regulator responsible for overseeing the whole electronic communications sector. The Government is preparing for the introduction of legislation to pave the way for the merger's implementation. The Government continues to review the broadcasting policy and regulatory regime in light of technological and market convergence and new services coming on stream.
The Government encourages the deployment of digital terrestrial television broadcasting technology in Hong Kong to enhance spectrum efficiency and enable the provision of new services such as high-definition television (HDTV) broadcasting. The two incumbent terrestrial broadcasters, Asia Television Limited and Television Broadcasts Limited officially launched digital terrestrial television, including the broadcasting of free HDTV programmes and channels, on December 31, 2007. They extended digital coverage to 75 per cent by August 2008 so that more Hong Kong