TNAG-1077-FCO40-1327-Broadcasting-in-Hong-Kong-proposed-BBC-relay-station-1981 — Page 117

BBC CHINESE SERVICE 40TH ANNIVERSARY PRESS RECEPTION

(28 APRIL 1981 Douglas Muggeridge, Managing Director, External Broadcasting:

"That will give you some idea of the response we are getting.

It is heartening and gratifying after so many years. The

importance of China in a political and economic sense -

and from a sheer demographic point of view cannot be over-

emphasised. The challenge thus presented to us as a major

international broadcaster is of great importance and, on

this anniversary occasion, I wish I could tell you that we

have the necessary resources to meet this challenge. But

I am afraid I cannot for 2 main reasons.

In terms of the number of hours we broadcast each week to

China we are well down the league table. The Soviet Union

leads with a massive 206 hours a week, followed by the Voice

of America with 63 hours. The BBC broadcasts only 15 hours

a week and that total is easily surpassed by even India and

Albania, which broadcast about 20 hours each. Clearly we

should like to increase our services in Mandarin and Cantonese

but our present budgetary position makes this impossible at

present.

(8)

However, even more important is the problem of audibility.

All BBC programmes directed towards China in both Chinese

and English are fed from the U.K. by short-wave or by satellite

to Singapore and relayed on by short-wave from the BBC's

Far Eastern Relay Station at Kranji. The distance therefore

we have to cover is significantly greater than that covered

by the V.0.A. from their Relay Station in the Philippines

or by the Russians from their many transmitters just across

the Chinese border. It is thus not surprising that in many

A

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