Hong Kong’s TV broadcasters adopt mainland digital standard

[BGonaSTICK]

Hong Kong’s two terrestrial television broadcasters have decided to adopt the mainland’s home-grown digital terrestrial television standard, a government spokesman has said. Television Broadcasts (TVB) and its rival Asia Television (ATV) jointly submitted a proposal on digital television to the Office of the Telecommunications Authority (OFTA). “The government received the proposal last week and OFTA will make a final decision before the end of March,” the spokesman said.

Both broadcasters were required to decide which standard to adopt before the end of last year in order to comply with the deadline to begin digital broadcast services, South China Morning Post reports. The mainland digital terrestrial television standard was developed by Beijing Tsinghua University and Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

Both TVB and ATV have run laboratory tests of the mainland system in China and field tests in Hong Kong. The broadcasters have committed themselves to spend HK$400 million (US$51.38 million) each in the next two years to produce programmes in the digital format. TVB will offer a new channel for high definition programmes while ATV will add four channels devoted to business, culture and entertainment.

Source: Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union