TVB license renewed for 12 years; city sees relaxed TV measures

TVB -- and two other local broadcasters -- have their free TV licenses renewed for another 12 years.

TVB welcomes the approval, noting its full commitment to invest in the industry and produce more high-quality entertainment and informative content to bring a more diverse viewing experience to global Chinese-speaking audiences.

This as the CE in Council also introduces both relaxation measures and new requirements on the TV licensees.

They include relaxing the daily cap of Putonghua programmes for integrated Chinese channels from 2.4 hours to 4.8 hours, accounting for 20% of the air time.

For English channels, the weekly cap of non-English language shows during prime time saw a big leap from 2.5 hours to 12.5 hours.

The English channels will also allow broadcast of live sports, major or mega events in original languages such as Cantonese. The broadcast requirement for the national education programmes will be separated from the "current affairs" category to form a new "national education" category which will require one hour of showtime per week.

They include a mandate of an hour-long Engilsh production for telling the good stories of Hong Kong per week.

In its statement, TVB Limited says the company will continue to uphold our corporate social responsibility and play an active role in telling the good stories of Hong Kong and China.