ENG-1991 — Page 352

COMMUNICATIONS AND THE MEDIA

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Complaints Committee

All complaints relating to television and sound broadcasting are considered by the Complaints Committee of the Broadcasting Authority unless they are of a trivial or frivolous nature. Complaints may be lodged in writing or through a 24-hour hotline provided by the Broadcasting Authority. During the year, the authority dealt with 383 complaints concerning quality and standard of television and radio programmes and advertisements. Acting on the recommendation of the Complaints Committee, the authority issued 21 warnings to the two wireless television stations and three warnings to Commercial Radio and imposed a financial penalty on one wireless television station.

Working Group on Review of Codes of Practice

The Working Group on Review of Codes of Practice of the Authority met regularly during the year to review the codes on programme, advertising and technical standards for wireless television and radio. As a result, new provisions were drawn up to regulate classified advertising, advertisements for establishments of dubious propriety and multichannel sound television broadcast. Revisions were also made to the provisions on impartiality in current affairs and documentary programmes, and portrayal of mental and physical disabilities. During the year, the working group drew up new codes of practice on programme and advertising standards to regulate satellite television and sound programmes uplinked from Hong Kong.

Wireless Television

Television viewing remained Hong Kong's most popular leisure activity in 1991, with more than 98 per cent of households owning one television set or more. Sixty-seven per cent of them also owned a video cassette recorder. Each of the two franchised stations, Television Broadcasts Limited (TVB) and Asia Television Limited (ATV), provides one Chinese and one English-language service and generally, on average, transmits over 550 hours of programming per week. The average was slightly less than that in 1990 due to the absence of major sports events such as the World Cup and Asian Games.

Competition between the two wireless television stations remained keen. Both tried to strengthen their audience shares with creative programming and more diversified choices for viewers. Attempts were made to increase the audience outside prime time by scheduling first-run programmes in the morning, afternoon and late evening hours.

On the Chinese services, locally-produced serialised dramas were the main attraction, with stories evolving around romance, human conflict, kung fu fantasies and police and gangster confrontation, while feature films and telemovies played an increasingly dominant role in programming.

There was also an increase in productions featuring topics of a more controversial nature such as prostitution, homosexuality, organised crime, fortune-telling, fung-shui and the supernatural.

Game contests were revived, while beauty pageants, charity fund-raising events, talent shows, musical specials and magazine shows constituted the standard fare.

On the English services, films, imported dramas and musical specials were the major offers. The screening of quality documentaries, arts and cultural programmes also showed an increase.