I
سبها
on B.3. 16
t. s.lv.
STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL
The Colonial Secretaxy Colonial Secretariat Lower Albert Road HONG KO
Mh Gangana
3)
We shall be receiving
an accomî
п
2 lat March 1972.
2.2
Wilfed's Fol Denni.
En
ウィ
Dear Sir,
We very much hocitete to traspass on your time and patience, and would not approach you again en this subject unless we felt the very gravest concern at a developmont which, we understand, took place at the meeting of Executive Council held on the 22n3 February 1972. It is our understanding that during consideration of broadcast television, it was suggested that the next broadcast television franchise should be let by tender, rather than by a negotiated grant to a Rediffusion consortium, The tonder proposal is so pregnant with sarious consequances that we feel compelled to draw attention to cortain crucial features.
2.
If a tender procedure is adopted, we understand that it would take 11 months to accomplish and therefore, if commenced in April 1972, it would not be completed until March 1973. From that month a successful tenderer would require a period (10 month in the cage of the Radiffusion consortium, ending in January 1974, and a minimum of 19 months ending not earlier than September 1974, in any other cass) to get on ait.
3.
If a tender procedure is to be adopted,
it will be inevitable, whether the Rediffusion consortium is or is not the successful tenderer, that Radiffusion must close down both its television and wired network operations upon expiry of its present licence on the 30th April 1973. The harsh facts are that Rediffusion will sustain losses during the current year which will increase significantly in 1973. If Rediffusion were to continue in operation after April 1973 for a period of 9 months before getting on air, the cash losses sustained would be of such a magnitude as would make it impossible
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