ENG-2007 — Page 398

334 Communications, the Media and Information Technology

broadcasting hub with 16 licensed satellite television broadcasters providing about 170 channels for the Asia-Pacific region.

The Government continues to review the broadcasting policy and regulatory regime in the light of technological and market convergence and new services coming on stream. The Government conducted a public consultation exercise on mobile TV and related digital broadcasting services which went on from January to May 2007. In March 2007, the Committee on Review of Public Service Broadcasting submitted to the Government a review report on future policy and arrangements for public service broadcasting in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong is one of the world's major film production centres. It produced 60 films in 2007. The film industry is a flagship of Hong Kong's creative industries. The Government is committed to promoting its development and has introduced a host of measures to assist it in strengthening its competitiveness in both the local and global markets.

The Mass Media

Hong Kong's mass media at the end of 2007 included 44 daily newspapers, a number of electronic newspapers, 689 periodicals, two domestic free television programme service licensees, three domestic pay television programme service licensees, 13 non-domestic television programme service licensees, one government- funded public service broadcaster and two sound broadcasting licensees.

The availability of the latest telecommunications technology and keen interest in Hong Kong's affairs have attracted many international news agencies, newspapers with international readership and overseas broadcasting corporations to set up regional headquarters or representative offices here. The production of regional publications in Hong Kong underlines its importance as a financial, industrial, trading and communications centre.

The Press

The registered Hong Kong press at year-end included 19 Chinese-langauge dailies, 13 English-language dailies (one in Braille and another in internet edition), seven bilingual dailies and five in Japanese. Of the Chinese-language dailies, 14 cover mainly local and overseas news, three specialise in finance and the others cover horse racing. The larger papers include overseas Chinee communities in their distribution networks and some have editions printed outside Hong Kong, in particular in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia.

One of the English dailies publishes a daily Braille edition, in conjunction with the Hong Kong Society for the Blind, as well as an internet edition. One English daily and four bilingual dailies are published on the Internet. Hong Kong is the base for a number of regional publications such as the Far Eastern Economic Review and business and trade magazines. The Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal Asia, International Herald Tribune, USA Today International and Nihon Keizai Shimbun are printed in Hong Kong.