ATV Home () was a

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 ...

Cantonese Cantonese ( zh, t=廣東話, s=广东话, first=t, cy=Gwóngdūng wá) is a language within the Chinese (Sinitic) branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages originating from the city of Guangzhou (historically known as Canton) and its surrounding a ...

television channel in

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 ...

, owned and operated by

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 ...

. It was formed in September 1963 as a result of the split of the bilingual

Rediffusion Television Rediffusion Television (RTV) was the first television station in Hong Kong, making it both the first British colony and the first predominantly ethnically Chinese city to have television.Kitley, Philip. 003(2003). Television, Regulation and ...

subscription service (which was primarily owned by British company

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 ( commer ...

) into dedicated Cantonese and English-language services. In 1969, the broadcaster was granted a license for over-the-air broadcasting. Facing heavy competition from its free-to-air competitor

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

, a change in ownership in 2010 and an attempt to cut back on

dramas Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has been c ...

in favour of more current affairs, news, and talk programming resulted in further financial losses and internal conflicts. Owing to ATV's deterioration and other issues, on 31 March 2015 ATV's over-the-air broadcasting license was revoked effective 2 April 2016; the channel signed off shortly before midnight on 1 April 2016, and was replaced on analogue transmission by

RTHK TV 31 RTHK TV 31 (, formerly RTHK TV 31A for analogue TV) is a 24-hour Chinese-language free-to-air television channel in Hong Kong, owned by RTHK. It is one of RTHK's three channels alongside RTHK TV 32 and RTHK TV 33 on digital terrestrial televisi ...

History

Rediffusion Television

ATV Home, in addition to Asia Television's history, traces back to

, which was Hong Kong's first television service. The service launched on 29 May 1957, and a subscription fee of HK$25 was required to watch programming, which was considered to be expensive at the time. On 30 September 1963, Rediffusion launched its Cantonese service, and the channel was christened "Rediffusion Television Cantonese Channel" (). This would lay the groundwork for what will eventually become ATV Home. On 1 February 1967, the channel was renamed "RTV-1" (). On 10 November 1969, Rediffusion was granted a free-to-air television broadcasting license for RTV-1, in addition to its English sister channel RTV-2 (). However, RTV was beaten to launch by a competitor,

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 ...

. This late arrival would have a major negative impact on new service's viewership, up until its eventual demise in 2016.

Asia Television

On 24 September 1982, Rediffusion Television was bought out by a locally owned enterprise called Far East Group (). The new owner renamed Rediffusion to Asia Television (ATV), and consequently, the channel was renamed "ATV Cantonese" (). On 2 February 1987, the channel was again renamed, to "ATV Gold" (). Far East Group eventually sold its ATV holdings to local conglomerate

Lai Sun Group Lai Sun Group () is a Hong Kong conglomerate. It was founded by garment billionaire and entrepreneur, Lim Por-yen. Its businesses include property development, real estate investment, hotel, telecom, mass media and entertainment. Lai Sun is wor ...

, and the channel was renamed on 13 February 1989, to "ATV Home" (). In 2015, former ATV executive

Selina Chow Selina Chow Liang Shuk-yee (; born 25 January 1945) is a former Hong Kong television executive and politician. She was a member of the Legislative Council for nearly three decades, and was also a member of the Executive Council. She is honorar ...

revealed that the station's new name was supposed to be "ATV Hong Kong" (), but the station was forced to scrap the name, in favor of ATV Home (), after Secretary for Administrative Services and Information Peter Tsao opposed the name.

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 Jade, Pearl and Finance & Information Channel, also ...

program "News Magazine", in an episode that aired on 4 April 2015.

Competitive disadvantage

Due to its relatively late arrival as a free-to-air Cantonese-language TV station, lesser known actors and lower operating budgets, ATV Home struggled to compete with its Cantonese rival

. While the station's programs did, on occasions, lowered TVB's ratings, TVB always managed to eventually regain the lost ratings.

Programming

Although less popular or numerous than TVB drama series, ATV-produced dramas are still well received. Some have attained popular and critical acclaim, such as ''Crocodile Tears'' (鱷魚淚), ''Fatherland'' (大地恩情), ''The Legendary Fok'' (大侠霍元甲), ''Central Affairs I and II'' (情陷夜中環) and ''Reincarnated'' (天蠶變). Recent productions of note include ''The Pride of Chao Zhou'' (我來自潮州), ''Who is the Winner?'' (勝者為王), ''King of the Gambler'' (千王之王重出江湖) and ''The Good Old Days'' (再見艷陽天). In recent years ATV has created and hosted certain large-scale award shows, the most well-known of which would probably be ''The Annual Most Popular TV Commercial Awards'' (十大電視廣告頒獎禮). Other 'infotainment' programmes like ''Stories From Afar'' (尋找他鄉的故事) are ranked highly by public reviews, such as the ''Appreciation Index Survey Best Television Awards'' (香港電視節目欣賞指數). Some ATV programmes, such as the entertainment news show ''

Hong Kong Today Hong may refer to: Places *Høng, a town in Denmark *Hong Kong, a city and a special administrative region in China *Hong, Nigeria *Hong River in China and Vietnam *Lake Hong in China Surnames *Hong (Chinese name) *Hong (Korean name) Organiz ...

'' (今日睇真D) and ''

Who Wants To Be A Millionaire ''Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?'' (often informally called ''Millionaire'') is an international television game show franchise of British origin, created by David Briggs, Mike Whitehill and Steven Knight. In its format, currently owned and l ...

?'' (百萬富翁), have proven to be particularly popular, prompting their rival TVB to offer similar shows, such as ''Focus On Focus'' (城市追擊) and ''Weakest Link'' (一筆OUT消), respectively.

Well-known programmes

*aTV

Miss Asia Pageant ATV Miss Asia Pageant () is an annual Hong Kong-based beauty pageant organized and broadcast by Asia Television (ATV). Originating in 1985 as a local Hong Kong pageant, the contest went on hiatus from the 2000 through 2003, and was re-branded as an ...

亞洲小姐 (1985–2014) *aTV Mr. Asia Contest 亞洲先生 (2005,2011–) *

Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? ''Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?'' (often informally called ''Millionaire'') is an international television game show franchise of British origin, created by David Briggs, Mike Whitehill and Steven Knight. In its format, currently owned and l ...

百萬富翁 (2001–2005) *

Hong Kong Film Awards The Hong Kong Film Awards (HKFA; ), founded in 1982, is an annual film awards ceremony in Hong Kong. The ceremonies are typically in April. The awards recognise achievement in various aspects of filmmaking, such as directing, screenwriting, ...

香港電影金像獎 (2010,2011) * Cheers Hong Kong 香港有飯開 (2011–)

Drama series

* 1984:

Drunken Fist Drunken boxing () also known as Drunken Fist, is a general name for all styles of Chinese martial arts that imitate the movements of a drunk person. It is an ancient style and its origins are mainly traced back to the Buddhist and Daoist relig ...

醉拳王無忌 * 1984: Drunken Fist II 醉拳王無忌之日帝月后 * 1993: Fatal Love 危情 * 1993:

and Shanghai Godfather Season 1 (再見黃埔灘1之中國教父) * 1994:

and Shanghai Godfather Season 2 (再見黃埔灘2之再起風雲) * 1994: Bays of Being Parents (可憐天下父母心) * 1994: Beauty Pageant (ATV) (鳳凰傳説) * 1994: Secret Battle of the Majesty (君臨天下) * 1994: Outlaw Hero (法外英雄) * 1994: The Kungfu Master (洪熙官) * 1994:

A Cruel Lover A, or a, is the first Letter (alphabet), letter and the first vowel of the Latin alphabet, Latin alphabet, used in the English alphabet, modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name ...

(郎心如鐵) * 1995: Pao Qingtian (a.k.a. Judge Bao) (包青天之公正廉明) * 1995:

Fist of Fury ''Fist of Fury'' is a 1972 Hong Kong action martial arts film written and directed by Lo Wei, produced by Raymond Chow, and starring Bruce Lee in his second major role after ''The Big Boss'' (1971). Lee, who was also the film's action choreogra ...

(精武門) * 1995: Vampire Expert Season 1 (僵屍道長1) * 1996:

I Have a Date with Spring ''I Have a Date with Spring'' () is a 1994 Hong Kong film directed by Clifton Ko and written by Raymond To. It is originally a 1992 play with the same name by Ko Tin Lung. Synopsis The movie takes place in modern times when Butterfly return ...

(我和春天有個約會) * 1996:

The Little Vagrant Lady ''The'' () is a grammatical Article (grammar), article in English language, English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite ...

(飃零燕) * 1996:

King of Gamblers ''King of Gamblers'' is a 1937 American low-budget gangster film directed by Robert Florey. Akim Tamiroff takes an unusual featured role as a slot-machine racketeer whose bombing of an uncooperative barber shop leads to a murder charge. (The fi ...

(千王之王重出江湖) * 1996: Vampire Expert Season 2 (僵屍道長2) * 1996: Tales From The Dorms (坊間故事之甘戴綠頭巾) * 1996: The Little Vagrant Lady II (飃零燕 II 之孤星淚) * 1997: Forrest Cat Season 1 (肥貓正傳1) * 1997: Year of Chameleon (97 變色龍) * 1997: Coincidentally (等著你回來) * 1997: Pride of Chaozhou (我來自潮州) * 1997:

Gold Rush A gold rush or gold fever is a discovery of gold—sometimes accompanied by other precious metals and rare-earth minerals—that brings an onrush of miners seeking their fortune. Major gold rushes took place in the 19th century in Australia, New ...

(著數一族) * 1998:

Thou Shalt Not Cheat The word ''thou'' is a second-person singular pronoun in English. It is now largely archaic, having been replaced in most contexts by the word ''you'', although it remains in use in parts of Northern England and in Scots (). ''Thou'' is the ...

(呆佬賀壽) * 1998: The Heroine of the Yangs (穆桂英大破天門陣) * 1998: Heroine of the Yangs II (穆桂英 II 十二寡婦征西) * 1998:

I Come From Guangzhou I, or i, is the ninth letter and the third vowel letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''i'' (pronounced ), plural ...

(我來自廣州) * 1998:

My Date with a Vampire ''My Date with a Vampire'' is a 1998 Hong Kong television series produced by ATV. The story is based on the future events of the plot of '' Vampire Expert'', a similar two-season television drama aired on ATV in 1995 and 1996. It blends aspects ...

(我和殭屍有個約會) * 1999:

Ten Tigers of Guangdong Ten, TEN or 10 may refer to: * 10, an even natural number following 9 and preceding 11 * one of the years 10 BC, AD 10, 1910 and 2010 * October, the tenth month of the year Places * Mount Ten, in Vietnam * Tongren Fenghuang Airport (IATA code) ...

(廣東十虎) co-produced with the Sanlih Network from Taiwan * 1999:

Flaming Brothers ''Flaming Brothers'' is a 1987 Hong Kong crime action film directed by Joe Cheung. The film stars Chow Yun-fat, Alan Tang, Pat Ha and Jenny Tseng. The film was shot in Hong Kong, Macau and Thailand. Plot Alan Chan ( Alan Tang) and Cheung Ho ...

(縱橫四海) * 1999: Forrest Cat Season 2 (肥貓正傳2) * 2000: My Date with a Vampire 2 (我和殭屍有個約會II) * 2000:

Showbiz Tycoon ''Showbiz Tycoon'' is a 2000 Hong Kong semi-biographical television drama loosely based on the life of Hong Kong entertainment mogul Run Run Shaw, founder of film company Shaw Brothers Studio and television company TVB. The drama stars Michael ...

* 2001: To Where He Belongs * 2001:

Healing Hearts ''Healing Hearts'' is a 2015 Philippine television drama series broadcast by GMA Network. Directed by Roderick Alexis P. Lindayag, it stars Joyce Ching and Kristofer Martin. It premiered on May 11, 2015 on the network's Afternoon Prime line up r ...

(俠骨仁心) * 2002:

Mission in Trouble Mission (from Latin ''missio'' "the act of sending out") may refer to: Organised activities Religion *Christian mission, an organized effort to spread Christianity *Mission (LDS Church), an administrative area of The Church of Jesus Christ of ...

* 2004:

Asian Heroes Asian may refer to: * Items from or related to the continent of Asia: ** Asian people, people in or descending from Asia ** Asian culture, the culture of the people from Asia ** Asian cuisine, food based on the style of food of the people from Asi ...

* 2004: My Date with a Vampire 3 – the Eternal Legend (我和殭屍有個約會III之永恆國度) * 2006:

Walled Village A walled village () is a type of large traditional multi-family communal living structure found in China, that is designed to be easily defensible. It is completely surrounded by thick defensive walls, protecting the residents from the attack o ...

* 2006:

Relentless Justice (AKA No Turning Back) Relentless may refer to: Film * ''Relentless'' (1948 film), an American film directed by George Sherman * ''Relentless'', a 1977 American television film starring Will Sampson * ''Relentless'' (1989 film), an American crime film starring Jud ...

* 2008:

Flaming Butterfly ''Flaming Butterfly'' () was a drama series produced by Hong Kong broadcaster Asia Television. It was the first series to be filmed in High Definition by ATV. The series consisted of 40 1-hour episodes, but 21 of them were re-edited into 90-mi ...

(火蝴蝶) * 2008:

The Men of Justice The Men of Justice is a television series broadcast by ATV, created and produced by the Gary Tang Tak Hei. The cast includes Lawrence Ng, Amy Chan, Kenneth Chan, Pinky Cheung, Jacky Lui, and William So. Incorporating several controversial ...

(法網群英) * 2012: Heart's Beat for Love (親密損友)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Atv Home Asia Television Television channels and stations established in 1957 1957 establishments in Hong Kong Television channels and stations disestablished in 2016 2016 disestablishments in Hong Kong Chinese-language television stations