Owned by Asia Television | Language English | |
Launched May 29, 1957; 59 years ago (1957-05-29) Closed April 2, 2016; 10 months ago (2016-04-02) Picture format 576i (PAL) 4:3
576i (SDTV) 16:9 Broadcast area Hong Kong
Macau
parts of Guangdong Province | ||
ATV World (國際台), was one of two free-to-air English language television channels in Hong Kong, the other being its arch-rival TVB Pearl. Its sister station, ATV Home, broadcast in Cantonese language. It is owned and operated by Asia Television (Chinese: 亞洲電視有限公司), and was broadcast from the ATV Enterprises Office at 25–37 Dai Shing Street in Tai Po Industrial Estate in Tai Po, which is in the Tai Po District, in the North East region of Hong Kong's New Territories.
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From Rediffusion to ATV
ATV World's English channel, Rediffusion Television, began as a cable-operated and subscription-based TV service on 29 May 1957 known on-air as Rediffusion Television Network, and on 30 September 1963, the channel was renamed Rediffusion Television Cantonese Channel and Rediffusion Television English Channel. On 1 February 1967, the channels were renamed RTV-1 and RTV-2 respectively. On 1 December 1973, Rediffusion Television was granted a free-to-air television broadcasting license for its two television channels, and closed its cable television channels. On 24 September 1982, Rediffusion Television was bought out by the new ATV, and consequently the Cantonese and English language channel was renamed ATV Cantonese and ATV English. The channel was again renamed on 2 February 1987 as ATV Gold and ATV Diamond The channel was again renamed on 13 February 1989 as ATV Home and ATV World.
ATV World broadcasts 24-hour channel with multi-lingual programmes, transmitted in NICAM in analogue version, and multiple AC-3 streams in digital version. While most of programmes are broadcast in Hong Kong English, a few are in either Standard Chinese, Korean or Japanese without Hong Kong English. It is less popular than English-language rival station rival TVB Pearl, though by a far smaller margin than ATV Home's loss to Hong Kong Cantonese rival TVB Jade.
On 6 June 2012, ATV gained access to the London 2012 Olympic Games broadcast rights, and will be played on ATV World.
Shows on ATV World
ATV World is one of two English-language channels that broadcast in Hong Kong. It offers a variety of programmes, mostly from the United States, ranging from popular serial dramas and films to documentaries and educational shows. Among the shows it has aired are:
Now Playing
ATV stopped carrying the talk show Late Show with David Letterman (大衛牙擦騷) as of 1 January 2009, but there has been a grassroots movement to bring it back. Arts and sports programming are also offered (e.g. local horse racing, in Chinese 賽馬直擊). Mandarin and Korean programmes are available on ATV World at off-peak hours.
Programmes
ATV World's flagship English news programme is the "Main News and Weather Report at 7:30" provided under the collective effort of ATV News, It also relayed Xinwen Lianbo news programme from Chinese television channel, CCTV-1 is the primary channel of the Chinese television network, China Central Television (CCTV) in the People's Republic of China which is also available in Hong Kong Island.
Given its focus on Hong Kong English-language programming in a predominantly Hong Kong Cantonese-speaking market, ATV World carries relatively little advertising and is subsidised by ATV Home. Both free-to-air television companies in Hong Kong are required by the government to provide an Hong Kong English-language service. In the face of competition from TVB Pearl, ATV World has in recent years switched its focus from the provision of drama and movies to documentaries and natural history shows, probably because such programming is less expensive to acquire.
Since the Hong Kong government does not have its own television station, its agency Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK) requires the two domestic free television stations to broadcast their programmes and advertisements. One of the well known programmes is Educational Television (ETV) which began in 1971. This follows the Hong Kong education syllabus, serving as a reference for primary and secondary school students of mathematics, Hong Kong English, Putonghua and other school subjects. During the thirty-two-week school year, ETV programmes are shown on ATV World from 10:00 to 12:00 and TVB Pearl from 14:00 to 16:00 each weekday.
Non-English programmes
Both ATV World and TVB Pearl are permitted by the Broadcasting Authority of Hong Kong to broadcast non-Hong Kong English programmes for up to 20% of their daily transmission time, outside peak viewing time. In fact, only 12% of TVB Pearl programmes are in languages other than Hong Kong English: 83.6% of those (10% of its total transmission time) are in Hong Kong Cantonese. The remainder include broadcasts in Japanese, Korean, Filipino and Hong Kong Cantonese.
Obtaining schedules
Schedules are published in the South China Morning Post, The Standard and in other daily Hong Kong newspapers, including Chinese newspapers.
ATV Website
ATV World operates its own official website which contains information about the programmes shown by the channel, and a streamed version of ATV News in English.
ATV Goes off The Air
On 1 April 2015, Hong Kong's Executive Council announced that ATV's broadcast license would not be renewed. ATV ceased over-the-air transmission on 1 April 2016. ATV plans to continue its business as a satellite and online broadcaster.