Hong Kong on track for digital TV rollout

[BGonaSTICK]

Hong Kong is on track to implement digital terrestrial television next year, Secretary for Commerce, Industry and Technology Wong Wing Ping has said. The South China Morning Post quoted Mr Wong as saying the two domestic free television programme service licensees, namely Asia Television (ATV) and Television Broadcasts (TVB), shall launch digital terrestrial television by 2007 and expand digital coverage to at least 75 percent of Hong Kong by 2008.

“According to the implementation framework, if the mainland has not promulgated a national standard before the end of this year, the government will adopt a market-led approach to the selection of digital terrestrial television technical standard,” Mr Wong said. “Earlier when the mainland did not promulgate the national standard, ATV and TVB indicated that they would consider adopting the European DVB-T standard, which has been widely adopted internationally.”

Mr Wong said ATV and TVB had tested the DVB-T standard before and tests indicated it was suitable for Hong Kong. He said that by the end of this year, ATV and TVB should submit their proposal for the technical standard to the Telecommunications Authority (TA). “After evaluating their proposal based on the merits of the proposed technical standard and on-site testing results, the TA will decide whether the proposed standard should be adopted.”

(Source: Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union)