Chapter 17
Media and Communications
Hong Kong's lively media and world-class telecommunications provide ready access to a wealth of information and entertainment. Some 675 daily newspapers and periodicals are published in Hong Kong, more than 92 per cent of households are broadband service subscribers and the mobile subscriber penetration rate is about 248 per cent.
Hong Kong has one of the most successful telecommunications markets in the world. Fully liberalised and highly competitive, the market provides a wide range of innovative and advanced telecommunications services to consumers and business users. The city also has a long history of film production and a vibrant broadcasting industry.
Mass Media
Hong Kong's mass media at the end of 2017 included 68 daily newspapers (including electronic newspapers), 607 periodicals, three domestic free-television programme service licensees, two domestic pay-TV programme service licensees, 15 non-domestic TV programme service licensees, one government-funded public service broadcaster and two sound broadcasting licensees.
The availability of the latest telecommunications technology and keen interest in Hong Kong's affairs have attracted many international news agencies, newspapers with international readership and international broadcasters to establish regional headquarters or representative offices here. The production of regional publications in Hong Kong underlines its importance as a financial, industrial, trading and communications centre.
Registered Hong Kong-based press at the year end included 37 Chinese-language dailies, 13 English-language dailies, 13 bilingual dailies and five in Japanese. One of the English dailies publishes a daily Braille edition in conjunction with the Hong Kong Society for the Blind. Of the Chinese-language dailies, 31 cover mainly local and international news, and the remaining ones specialise in other subjects such as financial news. The larger newspapers include overseas Chinese communities in their distribution networks and some have editions printed outside Hong Kong, particularly in Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States.
270