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Second reading of TV (Amendment) Bill 1996
Following is the speech by the Secretary for Broadcasting, Culture and Sport, Mr Chau Tak-hay, on the second reading of the Television (Amendment) Bill 1996 in the Legislative Council today (Wednesday):
Mr President,
I move that the Television (Amendment) Bill 1996 be read a second time.
The purpose of the proposed amendments to the Television Ordinance is to put in place a legislative scheme to regulate the provision of video-on-demand programme services in Hong Kong.
The Bill seeks to create a new category of "programme service licence", which will be subject to all appropriate provisions of the Television Ordinance.
To this end, clause 3(1)(a) of the Bill extends the definition of "broadcasting" to cover the provision of a programme service, that is, the provision for transmission of television programmes on a point to point basis. For the avoidance of doubt, Schedule 1A makes it clear that some services, for example video telephony and transactional services, are not to be considered as programme services. Similarly, Schedule 1C specifies materials which are not considered to be television programmes, such as materials which are predominantly text or data, computer graphics and videogames.
Clause 3(1)(c) extends the definition of "licence" to cover "programme service licence". This will empower the Broadcasting Authority to issue Codes of Practice for programme services and ensures that the present restrictions on voting control held by unqualified voting controllers will apply to programme service licensees.
Clause 10 enables the broadcast of advertising by a programme service licensee. The opportunity has been taken to extend the regulation of advertising to any subscription television broadcasting licensee, which will be allowed to carry advertising.
While a programme service licensee will be allowed to collect subscriptions, Clauses 15 and 16 provide that subscription royalties are payable by a programme service licensee on subscription revenue.