XN000022-1973-10-18 — Page 3

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Thursday, October 18, 1973

But the government, together with the television companies,

had found a means of bringing one of Rediffusion Television's main

transmitters on air before TVB clears the required channels.

As a result, Mr. Watt said, the Chinese language service of

Rediffusion could expect to begin transmission this December. This

would be followed by the opening of their English channel probably a few

months later, while the third Chinese channel run by Commercial

Television would come into operation in July 1975.

Turning to the question of wired television sets after Rediffusion

Television closes down its wired services on November 1, Mr. Watt

gave an assurance that all dual-purpose sets would be able to receive

all the new wireless television transmissions, although sete previously

used only for wired reception would have to be modified at a small cost.

He said Rediffusion Television had been importing only dual-purpose

sets since 1963 and "unless you have a ten year old wired set you have

no real problem".

Mr. Watt added: "If you are one of the very few who have the

very old set (405 line only set) you will have to replace it with one

capable of receiving wireless television signals on 625 lines in Bands IV

and V, that is channels 27-59 on the tuning knob."

Note to Editors:

Copies of the full text of Mr. Watt's speech (in English only) are boxed for collection.

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