There are four active

free-to-air Free-to-air (FTA) services are television (TV) and radio services broadcast in unencrypted form, allowing any person with the appropriate receiving equipment to receive the signal and view or listen to the content without requiring a subscripti ...

television networks in Hong Kong. Of the four networks, only TVB, HKTVE and FTV operate English language channels. There are also a number of cable, premium, and subscription television services. Currently, there is not any free-to-air television licence applicant. Since 2007, both free-to-air television broadcasters in Hong Kong have been allocated extra frequency bands and bandwidth to provide additional digital broadcasts over and above that needed to provide simultaneous digital and analogue broadcasting of the four original multi frequency free-to-air channels. Digital broadcasts began on 31 December 2007. Analogue broadcasts were originally slated to end in 2012, but in 2011 was deferred to 2015, and then in 2014 deferred again to 2020.

Free-to-air television licences

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 ...

(TVB; ) *

Radio Television Hong Kong 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 ...

(RTHK; ) (Hong Kong government owned, no licence required) *

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 ...

(HKTVE; ) * Fantastic Television Limited (FTV; )

Former licence applicants

* New Asia Network Limited (NAN; ), parent company Forever Top (Asia) Limited abandoned the application, following its acquisition of

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-Cabl ...

and its subsidiary, Fantastic Television, which is a free television provider. * Phoenix Hong Kong Television Limited (PHKTV, ), parent company

Phoenix Television Phoenix Television is a majority state-owned television network that offers Mandarin and Cantonese-language channels that serve mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and other markets with substantial Chinese-language viewers. It is operated by ...

announced its decision to rescind the application on 18 August 2017. *

Hong Kong Television Network Hong Kong Technology Venture Company Limited (HKTV, ) is a Hong Kong-based technology company primarily known for its e-commerce platform and once had plans to become a television station. HKTV currently provides an over-the-top shopping and ...

(HKTV; ) – 2nd time applicant. First application was rejected in 2013. Mobile television licence that restricts in-home viewing granted in 2017. Gave up the application in 2018.

Licence expired

Asia Television Asia Television Limited (, also known as ATV) is a digital media and broadcasting company in Hong Kong. Established as the first television service in Hong Kong as Rediffusion Television () on 29 May 1957, it shifted to terrestrial television ...

Limited (ATV; . Non-renewal announced in 2015. Ceased operation in 2016) *

Commercial Television Commercial broadcasting (also called private broadcasting) is the broadcasting of television programs and radio programming by privately owned corporate media, as opposed to state sponsorship. It was the United States′ first model of radio (a ...

(CTV; . Ceased operation in 1978)

Free-to-air television channels

Channels currently on-air

Defunct channels

Additional channels

Operative services

Hong Kong uses the same Digital Terrestrial Multimedia Broadcast (DMB-T/H) standard as

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 pop ...

and

Guangdong Guangdong (, ), alternatively romanized as Canton or Kwangtung, is a coastal province in South China on the north shore of the South China Sea. The capital of the province is Guangzhou. With a population of 126.01 million (as of 2020 ...

and, because of

signal overspill Signal overspill is the receiving of a broadcast signal outside of its geographical target area. Radio frequencies have no way of obeying geographical borders and licensing arrangements, and the extent of overspill depends on where broadcast trans ...

, viewers in Hong Kong can receive and watch all free to air channels from these areas without much difficulty. However, because of licensing and intellectual property reasons, except for the four local free-to-air channels and

CCTV-1 CCTV-1 (CCTV General Channel) is the primary channel of CCTV, the national flagship terrestrial television network of the People's Republic of China. It broadcasts a range of programs from CCTV Headquarters at East 3rd Ring Road in Beijing and ...

, a subsidiary of

China Central Television China Central Television (CCTV) is a Chinese state- and political party-owned broadcaster controlled by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Its 50 different channels broadcast a variety of programing to more than one billion viewers in six lan ...

(CCTV), viewers outside of certain confines government offices and statutory bodies; consulates-general and officially recognised bodies; guest houses and hotels ranked with four stars or above that receive foreign guests; apartment buildings exclusively for office and residential use by persons from abroad; clubs exclusively serving persons from abroad; residential use by the family which included the person(s) directly employed by or retired from the following stipulated confines, such as: departments and related organisations of the government of the HKSAR, office and branches of the Central People's Government in Hong Kong, consulates-general and officially recognised bodies,

MTR Corporation MTR Corporation Limited is a majority government-owned public transport operator and property developer in Hong Kong which operates the Mass Transit Railway, the most popular public transport network in Hong Kong. It is listed on the Hon ...

. are not legally allowed to watch these channels. Residential subscribers to cable premium and subscription services are free to use these services within certain confines, usually within their own homes, and under the terms and conditions of their service provider. Other contracts deal with the provision of services to non-domestic properties, e.g. premium sport content to bars.

On-demand stations

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 ...

* Phoenix Satellite Television

References and notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:List Of Television Stations In Hong Kong Television stations in Hong Kong

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 List of cities in China, city and Special administrative regions of China, special ...

Hong Kong television-related lists