Communications in Hong Kong includes a wide-ranging and sophisticated network of radio, television, telephone, Internet, and related online services, reflecting Hong Kong's thriving commerce and international importance. There are some 60

online In computer technology and telecommunications, online indicates a state of connectivity and offline indicates a disconnected state. In modern terminology, this usually refers to an Internet connection, but (especially when expressed "on line" o ...

newspapers (in various languages, but mostly in

Traditional Chinese A tradition is a belief or behavior (folk custom) passed down within a group or society with symbolic meaning or special significance with origins in the past. A component of cultural expressions and folklore, common examples include holidays ...

) and the numbers of online periodicals run into the hundreds. The territory is in addition the

East East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the fac ...

and

Southeast The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each sepa ...

Asian headquarters for most of the major international communications and media services. Broadcast media and news is provided by several television and radio companies, one of which is

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is ...

-run. Television provides the major source of news and entertainment for the average family. Chinese television programs are produced for both local and overseas markets. Hong Kong also ranks as an important centre of publishing and printing: numerous books are published yearly for local consumption, several leading foreign publishers have their regional offices in Hong Kong, and many international magazines are printed in the territory.

Radio

* 5 radio networks, one of which is government-funded, operate 30 radio stations (2014) * Radios: 4.45 million (1997)

Television

Terrestrial television

There are a total of nine terrestrial television channels in Hong Kong, owned by three television networks, one of which is a public broadcaster. Hong Kong's terrestrial commercial TV networks can also be seen in

Macau Macau or Macao (; ; ; ), officially the Macao Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (MSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China in the western Pearl River Delta by the South China Sea. With a p ...

, via cable.

TVB

Television Broadcasts Limited Television Broadcasts Limited (TVB) is a television broadcasting company based in Hong Kong SAR. The Company operates five free-to-air terrestrial television channels in Hong Kong, with TVB Jade as its main Cantonese language service, and TVB ...

operates

TVB Jade TVB Jade (), or simply Jade, is a Hong Kong Cantonese-language free-to-air television channel owned and operated by Television Broadcasts Limited (TVB) as its flagship service, alongside its sister network, the English-language TVB Pearl. Br ...

TVB Pearl TVB Pearl is a terrestrial television channel in Hong Kong owned by Television Broadcasts Limited. Established on 19 November 1967, it shares headquarters with TVB's other properties at TVB City at 77 Chun Choi Street in Tseung Kwan O Industr ...

, J2,

TVB News TVB News (), formally known as the News and Information Division (), is the newsgathering arm of Hong Kong's Television Broadcasts Limited (TVB), responsible for different news programme in TVB Jade, Pearl and Finance & Information Channel, also ...

and J5, of which Jade and Pearl are available on analogue frequencies. TVB is the city's first commercial terrestrial television network ( Asia Television (ATV) began as a subscription television network), and is the city's predominant TV network.

HKTVE

HK Television Entertainment HK Television Entertainment Company Limited (, or HKTVE) is a television service operator in Hong Kong operated by Hong Kong billionaire Richard Li's PCCW, through its subsidiary PCCW Media, which also owns an IPTV platform, Now TV and opera ...

operates

ViuTV ViuTV is a Cantonese language Generalist channel, general entertainment television channel in Hong Kong operated by HK Television Entertainment (HKTVE), whose parent company PCCW also operates the IPTV platform Now TV (Hong Kong), Now TV and the ...

, which is a Cantonese general entertainment channel. The network is mandated by its service license to launch a 17-hour

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

television channel on or before 31 March 2017. ViuTV does not broadcast on analogue frequencies.

RTHK

Public broadcaster

RTHK Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK) is the public broadcasting service in Hong Kong. GOW, the predecessor to RTHK, was established in 1928 as the first broadcasting service in Hong Kong. As a government department under the Commerce and Econo ...

operates three digital channels, two of which have been simulcast on analogue frequencies formerly used by ATV since April 2, 2016.

Paid television

Paid cable and satellite television have also been widespread, with

Cable TV Hong Kong Hong Kong Cable Television Limited (), formerly known as Wharf Cable Television Limited () until 31 October 1998, is a cable television provider in Hong Kong currently owned by Forever Top (Asia) Limited, which operates it as a part of i-Cable ...

Now TV Now most commonly refers to the present time. Now, NOW, or The Now may also refer to: Organizations * Natal Organisation of Women, a South African women's organization * National Organization for Women, an American feminist organization * No ...

, TVB Network Vision and

HKBN bbTV HKBN bbTV is a discontinued Pay TV IPTV service in Hong Kong operated by Hong Kong Broadband Network which was launched in August 2003, and bbTV ceased its service at 1 January 2017. In September 2017, it is planned to reopen bbTV, but will be c ...

being the more prominent providers. The production of Hong Kong's soap drama, comedy series and variety shows have reached mass audiences throughout the Chinese-speaking world. Many international and pan-Asian broadcasters are based in Hong Kong, including

News Corporation News Corporation (abbreviated News Corp.), also variously known as News Corporation Limited, was an American multinational mass media corporation controlled by media mogul Rupert Murdoch and headquartered at 1211 Avenue of the Americas in New ...

STAR TV Star TV may refer to: * E! (Canadian TV channel) (formerly Star!), a Canadian entertainment news channel * Las Estrellas (Spanish for The Stars), the Mexican television network * Estrella TV (Spanish for Star TV), the American Spanish-language net ...

Telecommunication industry

*Telecommunications system: modern facilities that provide excellent domestic and international services. *Domestic: microwave radio relay links and extensive fibre-optic network *Satellite earth stations – 3 Intelsat (1 Pacific Ocean and 2 Indian Ocean) *International coaxial cable: to Guangzhou, China; access to 5 international submarine cables providing connections to

ASEAN ASEAN ( , ), officially the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, is a political and economic union of 10 member states in Southeast Asia, which promotes intergovernmental cooperation and facilitates economic, political, security, militar ...

member nations, Japan, Taiwan, Australia, Middle East, and Western Europe The Hong Kong telecommunication industry was deregulated in 1995. There are no foreign ownership restrictions. The Office of Telecommunications Authority (OFTA) is the legislative body responsible for regulating the telecommunications industry. Competition in this sector is fierce. Since 2008, one can get 10 Mbit/s up and down unlimited

VDSL Very high-speed digital subscriber line (VDSL) and very high-speed digital subscriber line 2 (VDSL2) are digital subscriber line (DSL) technologies providing data transmission faster than the earlier standards of asymmetric digital subscriber li ...

, telephone line rental, unlimited local calls, and 100 minutes of international calls for US$25/month. Telephone line rental and unlimited local calls is only US$3/month.

Telecommunication company

, the penetration rate in

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...

was estimated at 240.8% over a population estimate of over 7.325 million. Hong Kong's telecom regulator is the Office of the Communications Authority (OFCA).

Telephone

*International dialling code: +852 *Telephones – main lines in use: 4.345 million, 37th in the world (2009) *Telephones – mobile cellular: 13.416 million, 54th in the world (2009) *Major fixed-line operators:

PCCW PCCW Limited (formerly known as Pacific Century CyberWorks Limited) is a Hong Kong-based information and communications technology (ICT) company. The company is the majority owner of telecommunications company HKT Limited, and also holds a m ...

*Major cellular operators:

3 Hong Kong 3 Hong Kong (also known as 3HK or Three HK; ) is a telecommunications and internet service provider operating in Hong Kong by Hutchison Telecommunications Hong Kong Holdings, a subsidiary of CK Hutchison, operating under the global Three b ...

SmarTone SmarTone Telecommunications Holdings Limited, trading as SmarTone (), is a telecommunications company headquartered in Hong Kong. The company is a subsidiary of conglomerate Sun Hung Kai Properties. The company provides voice, multimedia, plai ...

, CSL,

China Mobile Hong Kong China Mobile Hong Kong Company Limited or CMHK (), is a wholly owned subsidiary of China Mobile. The company was incepted in January 1997 and was the first PCS operator to launch such services in Hong Kong. CMHK is currently the largest telecom ...

Internet

*Number of Internet users: 4,920,255 or 69.4% of the population (2010)"Percentage of Individuals using the Internet 2000–2010"

International Telecommunication Union The International Telecommunication Union is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for many matters related to information and communication technologies. It was established on 17 May 1865 as the International Telegraph Unio ...

, accessed 16 April 2012. *Number of Internet hosts: 861,516 hosts, 48th in the world (2010)"Internet hosts"
, ''CIA World Factbook'', U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, accessed 2 April 2012 *IPv4 addresses allocated: 11,777,024 or 1,646 per 1000 population (April 2012) *Internet Service Providers (ISPs): 179 (May 2007) *Dial-up access accounts: 0.99 million (Mar 2007) *

Country code Country codes are short alphabetic or numeric geographical codes (geocodes) developed to represent countries and dependent areas, for use in data processing and communications. Several different systems have been developed to do this. The term ...

(Top-level domain):

.hk .hk is the designated Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Hong Kong. It is administered by the Hong Kong Internet Registration Corporation (HKIRC), the only organization endorsed by the Hong Kong Government to undertake the adminis ...

Broadband Internet access

*Fixed broadband subscriptions: 2,111,109 or 29.93 per 100 inhabitants (2010)Fixed broadband subscriptions

. Accessed on 8 April 2012.Excluding subscriptions that have access to data communications (including the Internet) via mobile cellular networks
Definitions of World Telecommunication/ICT Indicators, March 2010
,

. Accessed on 30 September 2011. As of April 2006, HKBN offers its customers Internet access with speeds starting from 10 Mbit/s up to 1000 Mbit/s (1 Gbit/s) via

Fiber to the building Fiber to the ''x'' (FTTX; also spelled "fibre") or fiber in the loop is a generic term for any broadband network architecture using optical fiber to provide all or part of the local loop used for last mile telecommunications. As fiber optic ...

and

Fiber to the Home Fiber to the ''x'' (FTTX; also spelled "fibre") or fiber in the loop is a generic term for any broadband network architecture using optical fiber to provide all or part of the local loop used for last mile telecommunications. As fiber opt ...

. However the speed to non-Hong Kong destinations is capped to 20 Mbit/s. As of November 2009, the company was offering 100 Mbit/s service for HK$99 (about $13 US) per month. Major Internet Service Providers (ISPs) include: *

Netvigator, with a 95% coverage area and providing internet access to 1.9 million users. ADSL connections, speeds up to 8M/800K are priced differently. Newly constructed apartments have ADSL2 and VDSL connections, which have speeds up to 100M/100M. FTTH for last mile broadband of speeds up to 10G/10G. Business plans have speeds up to 10G/10G. *

HGC HGC can stand for: * Human Genetics Commission *Hercules Graphics Card * H.O.C. Gazellen-Combinatie, a Dutch field hockey club * HGC Global Communications, an internet service provider in Hong Kong * HGC (field hockey) H.O.C. Gazellen-Combinatie, ...

ADSL & VDSL & FTTH broadband of speeds up to 1G/1G.

ADSL & VDSL broadband of speeds up to 10M/10M. * HKBN

Metro Ethernet A metropolitan-area Ethernet, Ethernet MAN, or metro Ethernet network is a metropolitan area network (MAN) that is based on Ethernet standards. It is commonly used to connect subscribers to a larger service network or the Internet. Businesses c ...

( CAT-5E/FTTH for last mile) broadband of speeds up to 1G/1G.
I-cable Broadband
Cable HFC Broadband of speeds up to 200M/10M shared by one tower (tens of apartments) and FTTH Broadband of speeds up to 1G/1G.

Internet censorship in Hong Kong

There is very little Internet censorship in Hong Kong beyond laws that criminalise the distribution of unlicensed copyrighted material and obscene images, particularly child pornography. Hong Kong law provides for freedom of speech and press, and the government generally respects these rights in practice. Freedom of expression is well protected by the

Hong Kong Bill of Rights The Hong Kong Bill of Rights Ordinance (HKBORO), often referred to as the Hong Kong Bill of Rights, is Chapter 383 of the Laws of Hong Kong, which transposed the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights so that it is incorporated i ...

.Hong Kong Bill of Rights
, 8 June 1991, Hong Kong Human Rights Monitor, accessed 30 June 2012 No websites, regardless of their political views, are blocked and government licenses are not required to operate a website. There is some monitoring of the Internet. Democratic activists claim central government authorities closely monitor their e-mails and Internet use.
''2011 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices'', Bureau of Democracy, Human rights, and Labor, U.S. Department of State, 24 May 2012

References

{{Chinese-language radio