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Friday, June 16, 1972
At present TVB is required to provide Government with up to one hour of transmission time per day up to a maximum of seven hours per week.
In addition, it is also required to provide four hours for the broadcasting of schools television. These requirements would apply to each licensee in the future except that public service programmes may be varied up to one and a half hours per day within the seven-hour weekly maximum which is unchanged. Spread between three stations this
will give a total of 15 hours of television per day for schools and
public service broadcasts.
Mr. Watt then went on to explain the work and functions of the Television Authority. Television stations, he said, must comply with the statutory requirements of the Television Ordinance and the
three Codes of Practice covering programme, advertising and technical
standards.
He said television exerted a very powerful influence on the
community, and in Hong Kong as a medium for entertainment, information
and education it reached a great number of persons of all ages in the
privacy of their homes. Great care therefore must be exercised in the
selection of programmes by the television stations and to assist them certain rules had been laid down as broad guidelines.
Comprehensive Rules
"There are fairly comprehensive rules about violence,
Conflict is a
especially as it relates to children and young people.
major element in drama but violence for its own sake is not permitted
simply because it attracts or secures the attention of certain types of audiences. There are also rules relating to religious rites, marriage, drug addiction to mention only a few."
Mr. Watt said there were strict rules relating to medical
advertisements and to advertisements directed towards children or in
which children appear. All advertisements intended for television,
he pointed out, were subject to censorship by the Panel of Film Censors.
What will the coming changes mean for the Hong Kong viewer?
Firstly, with a marked increase in the choice of programmes freely
available it was almost certain that the number of viewers would
increase, particularly with the cost of television sets getting cheaper.
Secondly, colour television which was a dream only a few years ago, is
now a reality and with prices falling still further more colour television will be within the reach of many more people.
/Mr. Watt....