05-002 King Arthur

05-002
King Arthur

To start talking about epic fantasy, there is one person that should not be ignored. Whether or not he himself, or the stories around him, are a part of epic fantasy is arguable, saying that his life or stories have inspired most modern-day epic fantasy works is in no doubt. And the person’s name is, King Arthur.

King Arthur

Image Source: Wikipedia

The Arthurian literary cycle is the biggest formation of the Matter of Britain, which is one of the three great Western story cycles recalled repeatedly in medieval literature. The other two being the Matter of France and the Matter of Rome. Dragons, dungeons, knights, swords, shields, witchcrafts, together with Christian mythology such as the Holy Grail, are important compositions in many of the modern-day epic fantasy works.

Although I grew up in an ex-British colony, I was not taught anything on King Arthur in school. (Maybe I was but just not paying enough attention in my English or history classes, sorry.) My adventure in epic fantasy started from those American Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (AD&D) computer games. That was my teenage. The next work that I set my feet on is already The Hobbit.

When I started to dive deep into the origins of epic fantasy, I was expecting a book called “The Bible of King Arthur”. Then I just simply borrow that book, read it and learn everything about this legendary king. Or even easier, I just find a good faithful Arthurian movie adaptation of that book, watch it and bling! “I am now an Arthurian expert!” Unfortunately, it does not work out like this.

The reason is, there is no such a canon for the Arthurian legend. Even worse, most scholars are now saying that King Arthur may not have existed at all. The beginning of the Arthurian legend is more like a composition of different legends in different time from different areas of the ancient Britain, attributed to an imaginary figure that has never existed in the real world.

All these started from a book called Historia Brittonum, first published in the 9^th century. The book contains the first datable mention of King Arthur. Even though, its reliability is questionable.

Knights of the Round Table
Image Source: Wikipedia

Nevertheless, people kept contributing their stories to the Arthurian legend. And in 1136, Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia Regum Britanniae somehow solidified all the core Arthurian components, his father the king of England Uther Pendragon, his wife Guinevere, his mentor Merlin the wizard, his best friend and also betrayer Sir Lancelot, the knights of the round table, the sword from the stone, and the general storyline of King Arthur’s reign. I do not want to repeat all these here. There is an excellent page that outlined the story of King Arthur. If you are a dummy to the Arthurian legend like me, read the page:

The Beginner's Guide to King Arthur -
https://www.rabbies.com/en/blog/beginners-guide-king-arthur

Historia Regum Britanniae is not the end of the story. It is actually the beginning. Over the following centuries, people from all over the world started adding their own creations to the legend. Those derivative works enriched the Arthurian literary cycle a lot. However, they also brought in contradictions. That is why there is no such a so-called canonical King Arthur. The whole Arthurian legend is contributed by different people from different countries throughout different centuries. It is a mess, but fun. Even up to this moment, there are still people writing new King Arthur stories. Readers can just pick their beloved version to read. But remember to let go those contradictions found between different books.

Tristan and Iseult, a side-story of the Arthurian legend
Image Source: Wikipedia

As a father of 2 kids, there is not much time for me to read books. So, I turned to movies. Since there is not a canon for King Arthur, I just picked several movies that are popular and earnest to the King Arthur legend. In the next post, I will briefly talk about those I picked.

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05-001 My journey into the world of epic fantasy

05-001
My journey into the world of epic fantasy

I was born in Hongkong in the mid-70s. I have never come across any works of epic fantasy until my teenage, or not any I have remembered. English books were available at that time, both in school and in the libraries. But my English was not really good, and I am never a bookworm. There were a few epic fantasy movies or TV dramas showing on TV though, mostly on the English channels. But again, because of language barrier, my TV speaks Cantonese for most of the time.

How about the TV dramas on the Cantonese channels? Yes, we have TV dramas. TV dramas from Hong Kong are, or were, the leader in the Asian TV market. Many Asian movie stars started their career from TV dramas here. But the settings of our TV dramas will never be in the medieval European world. Gandalf with black hair, holding a pair of chopsticks and speaking Cantonese? No way.

Hillsfar
Image Source: Wikipedia

My first glimpse into epic fantasy is from a video game called Hillsfar. All boys love video games. I got my first game console in 1983 or 1984. It was a VTech CreatiVision, a local copycat of the Atari 2600. Only less than 20 game titles were ever published on that console. But those were already enough to get my small little brain entertained. It was also a personal computer, well, sort of, as it ran BASIC. So, I always told my friends that I had a computer at home!

When I entered my secondary school, the CreatiVision has reached the end of its life. My dad bought me a proper computer then. It was an 8088 PC, second hand, with 2 floppy drives, keyboard, a joystick and a CGA screen. Yes, it is coloured! I kept using this computer until my O-level exam.

Opening screen of Hillsfar
It is a real charm to play this game on a colour monitor.

The guy who sold me his old PC was a colleague of my dad. He was switching to 80286 and hoping to get rid of the old one. While he was setting up the PC in my home, I asked him, secretly, fearing of being heard by my dad, “Can I play Mario using this?” He said there is no Mario but something similar. He gave me Karnov, a platformer game in Mario style. Then he told me, “This is an expensive IBM PC. You are now a PC owner. And we PC owners don’t play Mario. Mario is a cheap game! I will bring you something that you can never found on Nintendo. A game genre that you have never imagined. A game that you can play for months or even year.” In the next week, he gave me Hillsfar.

Riding a horse, travel between villages

Elf, dwarf, wizard, dragon, dungeon, magic, shield, sword, all these difficult words that I have never learned, I started playing the game with my dictionary aside. Hillsfar is sort-of an open world role-playing action adventure game. You can create your own character with different race, sex, and ability. You can be a dwarf or an elf. The most important thing is, you are not playing Mario or Sonic in the game. You are playing yourself! And the city is so big with lots of places to explore. Outside the city gate is a stable where I can grab my horse and travel around to different villages and campsites. I was totally astonished by this game!

Overview of Hillsfar, with lots of areas to explore

To be fair, Hillsfar isn’t really that good. It was just because Hillsfar is my first adventure game so the impact on me was so strong. The game, together with Karnov, are now available to download for free, if you don’t care about copyright. But to be honest, I don’t think you will play this old game so I put a video below showing the game play.

 

I went to England in 1992 and picked up a book called There and Back Again from Waterstones. Yes, The Hobbit! My Chinese friend told me, “This is the western style of our wuxia.” He is also an epic fantasy fan. “I don’t like wuxia, although I am a Chinese.” I am a Chinese. I also don’t like wuxia. Then it comes Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Then it comes Voldemort and Narnia. And I am now watching The Rings of Power with my kids.

So, this is my journey into the world of epic fantasy. How is epic fantasy in my eyes? I found something strange. In wuxia, dragons represent emperors. They are elegant creatures, clam, thin, and always shinning in golden rays. In epic fantasy, dragons represent evils. They are fat, dumb and ruthless. In wuxia, all evils come from the west, such as the Bull Demon King in Journey to the West. In epic fantasy, all evils come from the east, such as, Sauron and Mordor are all from the eastern side of the Middle Earth.

Doesn’t this look like today’s CNN news?

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05-000 Epic fantasy

05-000
Epic fantasy

The fifth chapter is about epic fantasy. Also called high fantasy, epic fantasy is my favorite fantasy subgenre and also the favorite of many others. In this chapter, I will talk about my journey on becoming an epic fantasy fan, the famous works that I have read or watched, and as a man grown up in an Eastern culture, how do I view epic fantasy.

The One Ring

Image Source: The Hunt for Gollum

This chapter is not only about The Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter. I will also mention some lesser known but good works belonging to this subgenre and also its foundation, which almost all epic fantasy works are basing on.

 

Lobby Directory

• 001  My journey into the world of epic fantasy
• 002  King Arthur
• 003  Earnest Arthurian adaptation
• 004  The Chronicles of Narnia
• 005  Screen adaptations of Narnia
• 006  Mysterious Narnia DVD found in China
• 007  Breath of the Wild

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04-004 Radio broadcast in Hong Kong

04-004
Radio broadcast in Hong Kong

After talking about the big screens and the small screens, I am now moving onwards to talk about broadcast without a screen. Well, I mean radio.

Radio

Image Source: Wikipedia

Yes, sure, we have radio here. Actually, radio broadcast has started since almost a century ago. And our first radio station, GOW, is still broadcasting today.

Same as many other countries, we have our heydays of radio broadcast. Everyone was listening to radio. It was the 60s and the 70s. Factories were everywhere at that time. Factory owners allow workers to listen to radio at work, as a sort of welfare. Cantonese radio dramas were so popular that they attracted more audiences than TV dramas.

Not so now. People are all asking for big TV with 4K or even 8K resolution. Entertainment without a screen is just not entertaining enough. Drivers and cooks are among the last group of people where you can find some loyalty. Watching cellphones while driving or cooking would be dangerous. Listening to radio seems to be okay. Radios are also common in barber shops. Apart from these, I can hardly think of a fourth scenario.

A shrinking of audiences makes radio broadcast difficult to survive. All radio stations in Hong Kong are just hanging on. We have technically 4 radio stations operating in the territory, one operated by the government, 2 commercial stations and 1 underground station. Together, they are broadcasting 15 different channels.

Analogue broadcast

Radio broadcast in Hong Kong still uses the traditional way, AM and FM. We did tried to introduce digital broadcast but the plan flopped. I will tell you the reasons but before that, let me first list out all existing radio stations and channels.

4 radio stations, 15 radio channels

Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK)

RTHK is the public broadcasting service in Hong Kong. GOW, the predecessor to RTHK, was established in 1928 as the first broadcasting service here. RTHK is a government department under the Commerce and Economic Development Bureau. It currently operates 8 channels.

RTHK Radio 1 (FM 92.6 ~ 94.4 MHz)

A Cantonese radio channel focusing on news, politics, world and local information, finance, education and other general topics.

RTHK Radio 2 (FM 94.8 ~ 96.9 MHz)

Another Cantonese radio channel focus on more leisure topics, such as music, movie, pop stars, artists, trendy topics, cultural topics, etc.

RTHK Radio 3 (AM 567 kHz)

The successor of Hong Kong’s first radio channel GOW, RTHK Radio 3 is the only English channel of RTHK that provides programmes on news, politics, world and local information, finance, music, pop stars, trendy topics, religion, etc. Yes, it broadcasts programmes in almost every topics. To take care the minorities in Hong Kong, there are also programmes in Nepali, Urdu and Tagalog.

RTHK Radio 4 (FM 97.6 ~ 98.9 MHz)

A bilingual music channel, RTHK provides programmes of fine music and arts topics here. How can an FM radio channel broadcast in bilingual? It is easy. The presenter will first speak in Cantonese and then repeat what he or she has just said in English, or vice versa.

RTHK Radio 5 (AM 783 kHz)

Radio 5 is the only Cantonese channel in Hong Kong that is broadcasted in AM. Programmes mainly focus on elders and Chinese operas. There are also programmes for youth and family, as well as religious broadcasts.

RTHK Putonghua Channel (AM 621 kHz)

A Mandarin radio channel focusing on news, politics, world and local information, finance, education and other general topics.

CNR/HK (AM 675 kHz)

Used to be a relay channel of BBC World Service, after the rising tension between the China and UK governments, the channel switched to relay China National Radio (CNR)’s “Voice of Hong Kong”. Voice of Hong Kong is a Mandarin and Cantonese channel with news, cultural and music programmes.

CMG/RGB (FM 102.8 MHz)

This is the newest radio channel that just started broadcasting on 1^st July, 2022. It is a relay channel of CNR’s “Radio The Greater Bay”. It broadcasts using the same frequency as the underground radio station uses. It is only receivable in some areas of Hong Kong, mainly the urban areas on both sides of Victoria Harbour.

Commercial Radio Hong Kong (CRHK)

Established in 1959, CRHK is the most popular and probably the only profitable commercial radio stations in Hong Kong. It now operates 3 channels.

CR1 (FM 88.1 ~ 89.6 MHz)

The most popular radio channel in Hong Kong, CR1 provides news, politics, finance, information, music and entertainment programmes. Language is Cantonese.

CR2 (FM 90.3 ~ 92.1 MHz)

CR2 focuses on more leisure topics, such as pop music, movies and other entertainment news. It targets on younger generation audiences. CR2 is also known for organising one of the four Hong Kong annual music awards, in which the prizes are awarded to the singers according to how often their songs are plugged. Language is Cantonese.

AM 864 (AM 864 kHz)

Due to license agreement, CRHK is required to also broadcast a channel in English. AM 864, as its name suggests, broadcasts in AM. It is a channel with minimal investment. Apart from the news section broadcasts at the beginning of every hour, all remaining air times are only music broadcast.

Metro Broadcast Corporation Limited

As a subsidiary of the Hong Kong conglomerate CK Hutchison Holdings, Metro Broadcast was established in 1991. It became the second commercial radio stations in the territory. It now operates 3 channels. Ever since the start of its broadcast, Metro Broadcast is never a success, at least not financially. Numerous reformations have been taken place in its just over 3 decades of its broadcast history.

Metro Info (FM 99.7 ~ 102.1 MHz)

The name of this channel has been changed numerous time but its theme remains. It focuses on music and entertainment and produces hourly news information as required by the license. It broadcasts in Cantonese.

Metro Finance (FM 102.4 ~ 106.3 MHz)

As its name suggested, this channel mainly focuses on financial news. Only on weekends when the stock market is closed, you can hear programmes in other topics such as health, travel, leisure, family and youth, etc. Language is Cantonese.

Metro Plus (AM 1044 kHz)

AM radio channel in English simply goes nowhere in this Cantonese dominant city. But compare to CRHK’s AM864, we can see more investments are put into this channel. On every Sundays, there are hours long Christian broadcast. There are also programmes in Tagalog and Bahasa in different days of the week for Filipino and Indonesian minorities living in Hong Kong. News and weather announcements in English are also available.

Citizens' Radio

Citizens' Radio is a radio station in Hong Kong established by pro-democracy camp figure Tsang Kin Shing. The station is run as a non-profit organization. It now operates only 1 channel, underground. The station has been repeatedly raided by the Telecommunications Authority since but it kept on broadcasting as a form of civil disobedience.

FM1028 (FM 102.8 MHz)

It started trial broadcasting on 3^rd October 2005 on 102.8 MHz FM. The regular broadcasting hours are 7:00 pm–12:00 pm from Monday to Friday.

They only have a small transmitter located on the rooftop of a factory building in Chai Wan. Programmes can be heard in parts of Hong Kong Island, most of Kowloon, and on the Internet. I have successfully picked up their signal in Chai Wan using a handheld radio. But since the launch of the RTHK relay channel of CMG/RGB using the same broadcast frequency in July, I am not sure if FM1028 can still be heard now.

All radio channels in Hong Kong, except FM1028, broadcasts 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. But during midnights, most minor channels only simulcast their sister channels’ programmes. And even for those main channels, many only play preprogrammed music, with no presenters at all.

All channels are simulcasted on internet and can be listened through mobile apps. But due to copyright issue, some of the programmes or channels can only be accessed by IP addresses from Hong Kong.

Why digital radio broadcast flopped in Hong Kong?

On 1^st December, 2020, Hong Kong has followed the international trend to switched off our analogue TV signals. Some countries in the world have successfully switched their radio broadcast from AM or FM to digital. Not so for radio broadcast here. We did introduced digital radio broadcast in DAB+ format in early 2011. But digital radio was never a success and the plan flopped after 6 years of introduction. Why digital radios success in some countries but not in Hong Kong? Below are the reasons.

First, radio broadcast is never a money making business in Hong Kong. Except CRHK, none other commercial radio stations ever managed to make a profit here. A business without profit simply couldn’t sustain.

Second, there is no one radio for all channels. Ever since the first day of digital TV broadcast in Hong Kong, all 4 existing analogue TV channels were simulcasted in digital. That means if you had a digital TV at that time, you were already able to watch all existing analogue TV channels in the first day, plus lots of newly introduced digital channels. That gives people motivation to buy a new TV.

Not so for radio broadcast. All 6 analogue channels of CRHK and Metro were not simulcasted in digital. That means with a digital radio on hand, you will miss many of those old programmes. And it happens that those are the most popular radio channels in Hong Kong.

Third, compare to PAL vs 1080i on TV broadcast, the difference between sound qualities on radio broadcasts is not that significant. I did a little research on this topic. The so-called “perfect sound” produced by a CD has a sampling rate of 44.1kHz and a frequency response up to 22.05kHz. There is no sampling rates for AM or FM as signals are analogue but frequency response still matters. Frequency response for AM is only 4.5kHz. FM can reach 15kHz. Digital broadcast? That is even more complicated as it depends on compression rate as well. But a study by comparing different waveforms shows DAB+ broadcast is similar to soundwaves with a frequency response of 18kHz.

Yes, DAB+ is better than FM and far better than AM. It provides a sound quality very close to that of a CD. But the quality of radio programme is more important than the quality of sound. And most people listen to radio in a noisy environment, inside a kitchen or in a vehicle. That little differences in sound quality are not convincing enough for people to buy a new radio.

Internet hammered down the final nail of the coffin. All radio channels broadcasting in Hong Kong started simulcasting their programmes on internet long before the introduction of digital broadcast. Their mobile apps provide programmes with sound quality comparable to CD, even for those AM channels. And radio streaming takes up much less data than video streaming and became popular since a decade ago. In fact, most people now listen to radio through mobile apps instead of through real radio. That technically bypasses all differences between AM, FM and DAB+. Furthermore, this trend provides rooms for enormous internet radio stations to flock into the already competitive market. I myself listen to “radio” every night before sleep but the “radio” I listen to is not a real radio. It is an internet podcast by my favorite presenter.

Telephone broadcasting

Same as TV broadcast, there are 4 normal ways to transmit a radio programme, terrestrial, satellite, cable and internet. Satellite radio never exists here. Radio Rediffusion (Hong Kong) broadcasted through their cable network from 1949 till 1973 and then closed down due to loss in competition. AM & FM broadcasts are listed above and internet radio stations are enormous. However, someone thought of a fifth way of delivering radio programmes to his audience, by telephone line.

Telephone line has a very high penetration rate. Although more and more people opted to cellphones or voice over IP nowadays, plain old telephone services (POTS) are still the most available and reliable network. As radio programmes do not consist of any image, it is absolutely possible to transmit them through telephone line.

In fact, telephone broadcasting is not any new technique. France had a telephone broadcast network since the late nineteenth century. The service was called Théâtrophone, which allows audiences to listen to opera through telephone line. The system operated until the beginning of WWII.

Théâtrophone
Image Source: Wikipedia

Albert Cheng, the founder and the ex-chairman of Digital Broadcasting Corporation (DBC) ran into a major argument with other shareholders as he insisted on an independent editorial policy that is critical of government failings. He left DBC in late 2012 and founded D100 Radio, an online multimedia operation.

Since many of Albert’s audiences are elders and not familiar with smart phones or even have no internet access at home, Albert thought of an idea of broadcasting his programmes through telephone lines. By dialing the phone number +852-1831100, one can listen to D100 programmes. He even created a specially made easy-to-use “D100 telephone radio”, targeting the elders. It is technically a landline phone with a speaker and a preprogrammed dialing button. By just pressing one button, the “telephone radio” will automatically dial the number and broadcast will begin after 10 seconds.

There is one drawback, however. Landline is very reliable but the sound quality is extremely poor. Frequency response of landline is only 3.3kHz. And it only supports mono channel. It is okay to use it for phone-in programmes. But for music programmes, it sounds like this: 

The D100 phone number is still working at the time of writing. But broadcast was cut down to evening programmes only because of limited budget. In fact, RTHK also broadcasts on telephone line. Their number is +852-22720000. You can listen to 7 channels of RTHK by dialing this number. No real radio is needed, no mobile apps, no internet, just your old granny landline phone will do.

This number also works from your cellphone.
Caution: Air time applies and sound quality is the same as using landline.

It also works from overseas.
Caution: International call applies!

Before finishing up this post, I summarized the sound qualities of different broadcasting ways for easy comparison.

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04-003 Small screens in Hong Kong

04-003
Small screens in Hong Kong

[Update: This post is updated on 20-Jun-2023 with new information added.]

After talking about big screens in Hong Kong, I am going to move on to the small screens.

Small screen, and a cup of tea
Image source: Wikipedia

Hong Kong is an international city flooded with all kinds of entertainment and information. And the easiest way to get entertained is definitely by watching TV! Yes, we have Netflix and Disney+ here. But traditional terrestrial television broadcast still plays an important role in the TV industry of Hong Kong.

Terrestrial Television >> 63.7% of total screen time

At the time of writing (Oct-2022), we have 4 TV stations broadcasting 13 terrestrial TV channels throughout the city, with another TV channel set to begin broadcasting by the end of this year. [Update: Channel 78 started broadcasting on 21-Nov-2023.] For a city of 7 million, that sounds good, isn’t it? And even better, all these channels are free to watch. The signals are not encrypted thus no subscriptions are needed. And unlike the UK, there is no license fee to watch TV here. So, anyone can just throw an antenna out of the window, picks up some signals and watches!

Antennas hanging on rooftops. Can you see our passion in TV watching?

Before discussing any further on the details of those TV channels, there are something to clarify, however. Yes, just like most part of the world, people here are shifting away from traditional TV to internet TV. The reason is simple. No one likes sticking to broadcast schedule. The era of buying a TV magazine to find out which program to watch has ended. This trend is especially significant between the younger generations.

A friend of mine, married, at around his thirties, commented on one of my Facebook thread. “I have a TV at home but with no antenna attached to it.” I was, at that time, sharing the news of a new TV channel in Hong Kong.

Similar conversations were heard when I was buying my son some Pokémon collecting cards. At a toy shop counter, a salesman, who looks like in his fifties, was talking to another salesman, younger, at around twenties. “All children like Pokémon. You don’t watch Pokémon cartoons at home? It is showing on channel 77 every evening.” The young man replied, looked puzzled, “I have never heard of channel 77. I don’t watch TV.”

Yes, this may be the truth. People don’t watch TV so often nowadays. Or at least, not in the traditional way. But having no knowledge on the TV industry of the place you are living in is another thing. I believe watching TV or not is a personal preference. But not knowing how many TV channels in your city is a lack of common sense.

4 TV stations, 14 TV channels

The latest (Jan-2022) survey [link] from Nielson shows that traditional Terrestrial TV still occupies 63% of TV time in average Hong Kong families. Ever since the switch off of analogue broadcast in Hong Kong, which happened on 30^th November, 2020,  all 14 TV channels now broadcasting are digital.

Digital TV in Hong Kong uses DTMB encoding, a standard originated from China and not really popular in the world. Apart from China, including Hong Kong and Macau, only a handful of other countries use this encoding format. But as an audience, we do not need to worry too much on the differences between DTMB and other encoding formats. The TV will do the decoding for us. But just bear in mind one thing. If you are going to bring a TV from other countries to here, or planning to buy a TV from Hong Kong back home, you will need a TV box.

Picture format is 1080i HDTV. With an aspect ratio of 16:9, all pictures are technically 1980 x 1080 pixels. However, there are differences in compression ratios between channels. So, some channels will have clearer pictures while others, the pictures are less clear.

Below is a list of all 14 channels.

Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK)

RTHK is the public broadcasting service in Hong Kong. GOW, the predecessor to RTHK, was established in 1928 as the first broadcasting service here. RTHK is a government department under the Commerce and Economic Development Bureau. It currently operates 4 channels.

RTHK TV31 (Channel Nr. 31)

This is the main TV channel of RTHK. It offers diversified programmes on current affairs, education, information, arts and culture, dramas, movies and minority interests. It broadcasts in Cantonese.

RTHK TV32 (Channel Nr. 32)

A live-event channel covering Legislative Council meetings and other important press conferences, news sports highlights and events of public interests. It also features live broadcast of local football and basketball matches. Language is in Cantonese mainly.

RTHK TV33 (Channel Nr. 33)

TV33 is a Mandarin channel relaying the programmes of CCTV-1. As Hong Kong is a part of China and CCTV-1 is the basic TV channel freely available to all areas under the rule of Beijing government, this is why we have it here. Similar to RTHK TV31, TV33 offers diversified programmes on current affairs, education, information, arts and culture, and minority interests. Only the language is different.

RTHK TV34 (Channel Nr. 34)

A simulcast of CGTN Documentary. It is a documentary channel broadcasting 24 hours a day in English.

Fantastic Television Limited (FTV)

Established in 2009, Fantastic TV granted its broadcast license in 2016 and started broadcast in 2017. It is a company owned by i-Cable Communications, which also owns Cable TV, one of the 2 Pay TV stations in Hong Kong and also one of the largest internet providers. In the first few years after establishment, FTV was only broadcasting through its cable network. Terrestrial broadcast began in April, 2022.

Hong Kong International Business Channel (Channel Nr. 76)

An English and Mandarin business channel simulcasts Bloomberg Television for most of the day, but also relays CGTN in the mornings from 7 am to 9 am. The channel also produces English language news bulletins & other non-business and obligatory programmes as mandated in the license.

HOY TV  (Channel Nr. 77)

“HOY TV” is the main channel of FTV. It offers diversified programmes on current affairs, education, information, arts and culture, dramas, movies and minority interests. Broadcast is in Cantonese.

HOY Infotainment (Channel Nr. 78)

Started broadcasting on the 21-Nov-2022, HOY Infotainment is the youngest TV channel in Hong Kong. It is a 24 hours news and finance channel, broadcasting in Cantonese.

Television Broadcasts Limited (TVB)

TVB is the oldest commercial TV stations in Hong Kong, now operates 5 free-to-air TV channels. Broadcast began in 1967, TVB is known primarily for its dramas, and produces the Miss Hong Kong and Miss Chinese International pageants. It has historically been the leading television broadcaster in Hong Kong. Many Chinese movie stars and singers came from there, including Chow Yun-fat, Tony Leung, Andy Lau, just to name a few.

TVB Jade (Channel Nr. 81)

Broadcasting started on 19^th November, 1967, TVB Jade is the flagship channel of TVB. Primarily broadcasting entertainment programming, TVB Jade has historically been the most dominant television channel in the region in terms of viewership. Language is in Cantonese. Many famous Cantonese TV dramas are from TVB Jade. It is also the birthplace of many Chinese movie stars and singers, well at least used to be.

TVB J2 (Channel Nr. 82)

As a channel mainly focus on young people, TVB J2 is occupied by Korean and Japanese dramas. It also broadcast self-produced documentaries, mainly travel programmes, as well as other TV programmes adapted from mainland China, Japan, Korea, Singapore and Taiwan. Language is in Cantonese.

TVB News Channel (Channel Nr. 83)

TVB News Channel is a 24-hour non-stop Cantonese news and information channel based in Hong Kong and Asia. The channel provides news and information updates every 30 minutes.

TVB Pearl  (Channel Nr. 84)

TVB Pearl is TVB’s only English channel which heavily relies on imported programmes, including foreign drama series and movies. Before the age of video rental, internet BT and streaming, TVB Pearl is one of the only two sources for home viewing of Hollywood movies. Other being the now defunct ATV World. It also produces news and other public affairs programmes in English.

TVB Finance, Sports & Information Channel (Channel Nr. 85)

Cantonese and Mandarin channel provides financial, sports and monetary information, and also different documentaries. It shows live football, horse racing and other sports. Different from J2, this channel targets a more mature audience group.

Hong Kong Television Entertainment Company Limited (ViuTV)

ViuTV is operated by Hong Kong billionaire Richard Li's PCCW, through its subsidiary PCCW Media, which also owns an IPTV platform, Now TV and operating an OTT service, Viu. PCCW is also the major internet provider in Hong Kong and Now TV is one of the two Pay TV providers here. ViuTV has already overtaken the popularity of TVB and became the city’s greatest hit. City’s topmost popular boy band Mirror comes from Viu.

ViuTVsix (Channel Nr. 96)

This channel offers 17 hours of English programming a day including news and public affairs, lifestyle shows, foreign television series, and documentaries. Similar to TVB Pearl, it relies heavily on imported TV dramas and movies, mainly from the US. It also produces its own news programmes.

ViuTV (Channel Nr. 99)

Last but not least, ViuTV is the flagship channel and also the most popular TV channel in Hong Kong at the moment of writing. Broadcasting in Cantonese, ViuTV offers diversified programmes on current affairs, education, information, arts and culture, dramas, movies and minority interests. Its talent show King Maker successfully produced many pop stars and singers, including the highly prominent boy band of the area, Mirror.

Cable TV, or “Pay Television” >> 2.4% of total screen time

 

Cable TV & NOW TV, the 2 Pay Television stations in Hong Kong

When talking about “Pay Television”, many Hongkongers will immediately think about Cable TV, which is also the mother company of the free-to-air TV channel Fantastic TV. In many local’s mind, Cable TV is the first pay TV in Hong Kong. But in fact, it is not.

We have our first cable subscription service back in the 50s. Rediffusion Television (RTV), later renamed as Asia Television (ATV), was launched on 29^th May, 1957. It is also the first TV station in Hong Kong. (RTHK only provides radio services at that time.) To compete with the then newly-launched free-to-air TV station TVB, RTV changed from cable subscription to free-to-air in 1973. This marked a temporary suspension of pay TV service here. Its cable network was however retained as an auxiliary broadcast network of its programmes until 2012.

As a former British colony, Hong Kong follows the broadcast standard defined by the British. We adopted the PAL I standard which was used in the UK. However, with the limitation on the bandwidth of analogue broadcast, only 5 TV channels can be squeezed in. With the enhancement of living standard, demand for more home entertainment was increasing since the 90s. Video rental became very popular but can only be a workaround. There were continuous voices for more TV channels to be available in the city.

Next generation of cable network started building up to link the city. And in 1993, Cable TV started its broadcast through its newly-laid cable network. Since it is a pay TV, Cable has more resources than other free-to-air TVs on biding the broadcast rights of various foreign programmes, especially football matches. It soon became very popular in the city. Having a Cable TV connection at home is a proud in the mid-90s.

Nowadays, coaxial cables were all replaced by optical fibers. Cable TV has also upgraded its network to become one of the main internet providers. And its internet competitor, PCCW Netvigator, also launched iTV in 1998 to compete with Cable TV. iTV was renamed as Now TV in 2003, which is also the second Pay TV station in the city.

Office of the Communications Authority (OFCA) provides an updated list of all Pay TV channels. At the time of writing, Cable TV is providing 124 TV channels while Now TV is providing 211 channels.

[Update: Cable TV ceased operation on 1-Jun-2023. Now TV is the only Pay TV station in Hong Kong, broadcasting 210 channels.]

The latest Nielson report shows that Pay TV only occupies 2.4% of total screen time. Figure is not really attractive and the reason is obvious. Yes, because of streaming.

Streaming and OTT >> 20.1% of total screen time

Technically, all TV providers with an office in Hong Kong should be licensed. But we cannot see Netflix listed as one of the Pay TV. Why? Thanks to the internet. The government has ruled out the license requirement for internet broadcast since 2003. Netflix, Disney+, HBO Go & Apple TV+ have already “landed” Hong Kong. Amazon Prime Video and Hulu are also available but they are not officially “landed”.

YouTube, the company that turned TV industry upside down

There are also several local OTT providers such as Hmvod, TVB’s MyTV SUPER, ViuTV’s Viu, ATV’s Asia Television Digital Media, etc. Several local production houses also broadcast their programmes through YouTube or Facebook, such as TVMost (毛記電視), Trial & Error (試當真), & Pomato (小薯茄). They are extremely popular among the younger generations.

TVB's "MyTV SUPER" is the most popular local OTT provider

Netflix only comes third on streaming in Hong Kong

 

Not only big bosses can be the winner.
Local production houses "Trail & Error" and "Pomato"

also gained a lot of popularities in Hong Kong.

The latest Neilson report shows that streaming occupies more than 20% of total screen time in Hong Kong. The most popular streaming service is YouTube. Local OTT provider MyTV SUPER is the first runners-up. Netflix only comes third.

To gain popularity, sometimes a production house is not even needed.
Ming Jai is a local YouTuber that has almost half a million subscribers.
He is earning more than 30k USD per month.
Image Source: KK Box

Satellite Television >> less than 1% of total screen time

This post won’t be complete if I don’t talk about satellite TV a bit. Yes, we have satellite TV here. Many buildings’ public antenna has satellite dish attached. But satellite TV is never popular in Hong Kong.

The reason is because of language. In order to protect the local TV broadcasters, Satellite TV stations were not allowed to broadcast in Cantonese, the most common language spoken in Hong Kong. The ban was only lifted in the recent decade. Coverage is another a problem. As in my apartment, there is no satellite dish. And even though I want to watch Satellite TV, there is nothing I can do. To increase their coverage, some satellite channels were simulcasted on Pay TV.

At the time of writing, there are 6 Satellite TV stations in Hong Kong but none of them are popular. Some of them are merely relay stations of foreign TV broadcasters.

Phoenix TV, everyone here knows about it.
But no one really cares about it.

Phoenix TV is probably the most well-known Satellite TV station in Hong Kong. They launched their first Cantonese channel, Phoenix Hong Kong Channel, in 2011. But it was never popular.

Other Screen Time  >> 13.7% of total screen time

For sure, there are more usages of TV than watching live broadcasts. Video gaming and DVD watching also pays an important portion. The figure counts 13.7% in January, 2022. 

This is what actually happening in my home.
Most of my screen time is devoted to this device.
Image source: Wikipedia

That is all for the "Small screens in Hong Kong". I am not going to dig deep into different channels or programmes. I will do this in later posts. This post only serves as an brief introduction to TV industry of Hong Kong.

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