Rediffusion Television (, RTV) was a defunct television station 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 ...

. It was the city's first broadcaster and the first in any British colony or majority-Chinese city.Kitley, Philip. 003(2003). ''Television, Regulation and Civil Society in Asia''.

Routledge Routledge ( ) is a British multinational corporation, multinational publisher. It was founded in 1836 by George Routledge, and specialises in providing academic books, academic journals, journals and online resources in the fields of the humanit ...

. It began as a radio station in 1949 and became

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 televis ...

on 24 September 1982.

History

Radio Rediffusion was officially founded in 1949 as a wired radio station run by the

Rediffusion Rediffusion was a business that distributed radio and TV signals through wired relay networks. The business gave rise to a number of other companies, including Associated-Rediffusion, later known as Rediffusion London, the first ITV (TV network ...

company. The radio service was highly successful against its main competitor,

Commercial Radio 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, for example. It was the United States' first model ...

. Some of the early contents included plays, stories, concerts and Cantonese operas. The broadcasts were one of the main attractions in Hong Kong tea shops. One of the most famous broadcasters was Li Ngaw: another was Uncle Ray, the pioneering DJ. It later became a subscription cable television station on 29 May 1957, becoming the first television station in a

colony A colony is a territory subject to a form of foreign rule, which rules the territory and its indigenous peoples separated from the foreign rulers, the colonizer, and their ''metropole'' (or "mother country"). This separated rule was often orga ...

of the

British Empire The British Empire comprised the dominions, Crown colony, colonies, protectorates, League of Nations mandate, mandates, and other Dependent territory, territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It bega ...

, as well as the first television station in a predominantly Chinese city. It initially offered a four-hour-per-day English-language and Chinese-language service. The installation fee during its launch was HK$25, with an equipment rental fee of $45, and a monthly subscription charge of $36. The charge was considered expensive, at a time when the average worker in Hong Kong earned HK$100 per month. Hong Kong tea shops again provided an outlet for the broadcasts to the working class who could not afford the subscription fees. When competitor

TVB 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 ...

made its first free-to-air broadcast on 19 November 1967, RTV had 67,000 subscribers. It was renamed Rediffusion Television Limited (RTV; ) on 1 June 1973 when it was granted its free-to-air terrestrial broadcasting license. Cable television broadcasts were ceased thereafter. On 24 September 1982 it was renamed as

(ATV; ).

References

{{Authority control Defunct television networks Television stations in Hong Kong Television channels and stations established in 1957 Asia Television Defunct companies of Hong Kong Television channels and stations disestablished in 1982

History

See also

References