TNAG-1817-FCO40-2578-Broadcasting-in-Hong-Kong-1988 — Page 232

FCO40 Hong Kong Department Records 聯邦事務部香港部檔案 All

XCC (88)38

Page

4

as well as the adverse effects of disruption of service to the public. In addition, there should be a prescribed maximum period of suspension of, say, one month. If the offence is so serious that a longer suspension might be warranted, consideration should be given to revocation.

Royalty Payments

13

On 14 October 1986, the Governor in Council, after considering the recommendations of the Broadcasting Review Board (BRB) relating to the regulation of the

the broadcasting industry, directed that BRB's recommendation to calculate royalty payable by the

the television licensees on the basis of gross receipts should be adopted in the new licence period after December 1988, subject to review in 1994.

14

BRB was of the view that the current formula of calculating royalty payments at 25% of net profit was satisfactory. The main shortcomings are

15

gross

(a)

(b)

one

of the licensees, by

by not making any profits, has not made any royalty payments since its licence was awarded 14 years ago; and

since royalty is calculated on net profit, it is possible for a licensee, in particular one which is part of a group of companies, to use legitimate accounting methods to reduce the amount of its net profit liable to royalty payments.

not

BRB's proposal to calculate royalty payments on the the licensee was based on the receipts of

following

principles

(a) frequencies are limited

(b)

resources belonging

to the community, the use of which by a television licensee should be regarded as a privilege for which royalty should be irrespective of the performance of licensee;

paid

the

since the two licensees are using the same number of frequencies, thereby enjoying franchises Of theoretically equal value this should be reflected in the system of calculating royalty payments;

as

the

(c) royalty payments are also regarded

public's share in the financial benefits enjoyed by the franchise holder; and

3

Comments

Approved members can add comments, bookmarks, and private notes.

No comments yet.

Private Research Note

Private notes are available after approval.