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Three local TV stations and two radio stations must broadcast at least an additional 30 minutes of National Security Law programs every week

2023-02-14T10:11:51.133Z


The Government announced today (14th) that the Chief Executive in Council has accepted the Communications Authority's approval for three local free television program service licensees (Television Broadcasting Limited, Hong Kong Television Entertainment Limited and


The Government announced today (14th) that the Chief Executive in Council has accepted the Communications Authority's approval for three local free television program service licensees (Television Broadcasting Limited, Hong Kong Television Entertainment Limited and Fantastic Television Limited) and two The sound broadcasting licensees (Hong Kong Commercial Broadcasting Co., Ltd. and Metro Broadcasting Co., Ltd.) have put forward proposals after the mid-term review of licenses to encourage further investment in the industry, optimize and update program requirements, and continue to promote the development of the broadcasting industry.


During the mid-term review, the CA consulted extensively with the public, including conducting opinion surveys, online public consultation meetings, focus group discussions and collecting written opinions, and comprehensively considered the opinions expressed by licensees.

The CA considers that the services provided by licensed organizations generally meet public expectations, and the public also supports the relaxation of certain requirements to allow licensed organizations to have more flexibility in program management.

The Communications Authority has also assessed the performance record of each licensed organization in terms of compliance with relevant laws, license conditions and codes of practice, and believes that each licensed organization can generally comply with various regulatory requirements during the first six years of license.

Licenses for free television and sound broadcasting are both valid for 12 years.

According to the relevant legal provisions and license conditions, when half of the validity period of the license has passed (ie 6 years), the Chief Executive in Council must conduct a mid-term review.

The mid-term review does not take into account the future license renewal arrangements of licensed broadcasters.

The CA proposals accepted by the Chief Executive in Council will be implemented through license amendments and/or directions issued by the CA.

Consolidation of 7 categories of TV programs into 5 categories

With regard to free TV, the Government pointed out that the main proposals of the Communications Authority accepted by the Chief Executive in Council are as follows: to accept the investment plan for the remaining 6-year validity period of the licenses of the three free TV licensees; to accept the licensees to increase their local production programs and/or New commitments on the number of independent locally produced programmes; Designated programmes: Consolidation of the existing 7 categories of designated programs into 5 categories, namely News, Current Affairs, Children, Youth and “Other” programmes; In addition to the number of hours, the licensee must also broadcast an additional 30 minutes of programs on national education, national identity and correct understanding of the "Hong Kong National Security Law" in the category of "current affairs programs" every week; "programs for young people" will continue to be an independent designated For the types of programs broadcast, the number of weekly broadcast hours of such programs by the licensees must be doubled; children’s programs are broadcast at a prescribed number of hours per week instead of daily, and the total number of weekly broadcast hours of children’s programs provided by each licensee is reduced. half to 14 hours; the total broadcast hours of designated programs remains unchanged, allowing all licensees to flexibly choose to provide designated programs (except news programs) on any of their program channels; the cancellation of designated programs requires "entirely local production in Hong Kong" "; and adding empowering clauses to the license to authorize the Communications Authority to issue directions on the requirements for designated broadcast programs, replacing the detailed description of the designated broadcast program requirements in the license.

Impose the sign language requirements on all licensees by including empowering provisions in the licences; allow licensees to set aside no more than 45% of the overall broadcasting time of the English integrated channel to broadcast non-designated language programs, and relax the relevant non-designated language Restrictions on language advertisements; unify the two time slots in which subtitles must be provided for all programs of the Cantonese and English integrated channels as 7:00 to 11:00 p.m.; and delete the requirement for licensed organizations to submit auditor certificates and publish relevant information to prove their fixed network License conditions for coverage.

The government approved the investment plan for Taiwan, Hong Kong and Taiwan for the next 6 years.

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The government accepts the investment plan for the remaining 6 years of validity of the 2 radio stations

As for the sound broadcasting license, the investment plan for the remaining 6-year validity period of the licenses of the 2 sound broadcasting licensees is accepted; the licensed institutions are allowed to deviate from the established 6-year investment plan, but the cumulative total investment amount is not much different from the committed investment amount at 10%.

If the difference exceeds 10%, the licensee must obtain prior approval from the Communications Authority;) In addition to broadcasting 90 minutes of current affairs programs per week according to the current regulations, at least 30 minutes per week of national education, national Current affairs programs that recognize identity and correctly understand the "Hong Kong National Security Law"; and reduce the proportion of English-language radio channels to provide English-language broadcasting hours from no less than 80% to no less than 55%.

Source: hk1

All news articles on 2023-02-14

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