360 Communications, the Media and Information Technology
The BA's main function is to safeguard proper standards of television and sound broadcasting with regard to both programme and advertising content, as well as technical performance. It publishes codes of practice on programme, advertising and technical standards with which licensees are required to comply. The BA is also responsible for upholding a fair and competitive television market in Hong Kong through the enforcement of the competition provisions of the Broadcasting Ordinance.
In light of media and technological convergence, the BA constantly examines and updates its regulatory approach and codes of practice to ensure that public expectations are met and at the same time that the operators have sufficient flexibility to operate effectively and efficiently. It engages the public through its 540- 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 publicly-funded 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.
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 to the younger 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 previous public consultation exercises 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 establishment of a combined Communications Authority. The Government continues