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 as "on lin ...

newspapers (in various languages, but mostly in

Traditional Chinese A tradition is a system of beliefs or behaviors (folk custom) passed down within a group of people or society with symbolic meaning or special significance with origins in the past. A component of cultural expressions and folklore, common examp ...

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

East East 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 fact that ea ...

and

Southeast The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, Radius, radially arrayed compass directions (or Azimuth#In navigation, azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A ''compass rose'' is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, ...

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 (polity), state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive (government), execu ...

-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 is a special administrative regions of China, special administrative region of the People's Republic of China (PRC). With a population of about people and a land area of , it is the most List of countries and dependencies by p ...

, via cable.

TVB

Television Broadcasts Limited Television Broadcasts Limited (TVB; zh, t=電視廣播有限公司) is a television broadcasting company based in Hong Kong. The company operates five free-to-air terrestrial television channels in Hong Kong, with TVB Jade as its main Canton ...

operates

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

TVB Pearl TVB Pearl () is an English-language 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 ...

, TVB Plus (formerly two separate channels, TVB J2 and J5), and

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 TVB Jade, Jade, TVB Pearl, Pearl and TVB Financ ...

, 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 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 television channel on or before 31 March 2017. The English channel named "ViuTVsix" officially launched on March 31, 2017 (local time). ViuTV does not broadcast on analogue frequencies.

RTHK

Public broadcaster

RTHK Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK) is the public broadcasting service of 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 Econom ...

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, Now TV, TVB Network Vision and HKBN bbTV 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 The original incarnation of News Corporation (abbreviated News Corp. and also variously known as News Corporation Limited) was an American Multinational corporation, multinational mass media corporation founded and controlled by media mogul Ru ...

's STAR TV.

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 The Association of Southeast Asian Nations, commonly abbreviated as ASEAN, is a regional grouping of 10 states in Southeast Asia "that aims to promote economic and security cooperation among its ten members." Together, its member states r ...

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)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

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 The Office of the Communications Authority (OFCA) is an executive arm of the Communications Authority in Hong Kong. It is the body responsible for telecommunications regulation (through the Regulatory Affairs Branch), antitrust enforcement (thro ...

(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 communication technology (ICT) and telecommunications company. The company is the major owner of telecommunications company HKT Limited, ...

*Major cellular operators: 3 Hong Kong,

SmarTone SmarTone Telecommunications Holdings Limited (0315.HK), listed in Hong Kong since 1996 and a subsidiary of Sun Hung Kai Properties Limited, is a leading telecommunications provider with operating subsidiaries in Hong Kong, offering voice, multi ...

, CSL, China Mobile Hong Kong

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 (ITU)In the other common languages of the ITU: * * is a list of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for many matters related to information ...

, 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 A country code is a short alphanumeric identification code for countries and dependent areas. Its primary use is in data processing and communications. Several identification systems have been developed. The term ''country code'' frequently re ...

(Top-level domain): .hk

Broadband Internet access

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

. Accessed on 8 April 2012. 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 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 optic ...

. 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 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, carrier Ethernet 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 for intern ...

( 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

Hong Kong law provides for freedom of speech and press, and the government generally respects these rights in practice. Although freedom of expression is protected by the Hong Kong Bill of Rights, the Hong Kong national security law gives the government the power to "take down any electronic messages published" that the government considers endangering national security.Hong Kong Bill of Rights
, 8 June 1991, Hong Kong Human Rights Monitor, accessed 30 June 2012 No government licenses are required to operate a website. 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