TVB Pearl is a
terrestrial television
Terrestrial television or over-the-air television (OTA) is a type of television broadcasting in which the signal transmission occurs via radio waves from the terrestrial (Earth-based) transmitter of a TV station to a TV receiver having an ante ...
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 city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...
owned by
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 ...
. Established on 19 November 1967, it shares headquarters with TVB's other properties at
TVB City
TVB City (), is the headquarters of Television Broadcasts Limited (TVB) developed by Sun Hung Kai Properties located at 77 Chun Choi Street in the Tseung Kwan O Industrial Estate, Tseung Kwan O, Kowloon.
The HK$2.2 billion facility officiall ...
at 77 Chun Choi Street in
Tseung Kwan O Industrial Estate
Tseung Kwan O Industrial Estate (, branded as ) is located in the southeast of the Tseung Kwan O New Town, Sai Kung District in Hong Kong.
Location
Tseung Kwan O Industrial Estate has an area of 75 ha (other sources mention 86 ha[Tseung Kwan O
Tseung Kwan O New Town is one of the nine new towns in Hong Kong, built mainly on reclaimed land in the northern half of Junk Bay (known as Tseung Kwan O in Chinese/Cantonese language) in southeastern New Territories, after which it is named ...]
, in the
Sai Kung District.
This channel mainly broadcasts in English (while all of its sister channels mainly broadcast in
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 ar ...
), although programmes in other languages (including
Mandarin
Mandarin or The Mandarin may refer to:
Language
* Mandarin Chinese, branch of Chinese originally spoken in northern parts of the country
** Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Mandarin, the official language of China
** Taiwanese Mandarin, Stand ...
, Japanese and Korean) are aired in non-peak hours and Traditional Chinese subtitles are available on some programmes. Since 1991, the channel has used
NICAM
Near Instantaneous Companded Audio Multiplex (NICAM) is an early form of lossy compression for digital audio. It was originally developed in the early 1970s for point-to-point links within broadcasting networks.Croll, M.G., Osborne, D.W. and Spi ...
digital audio (and later, multiple audio tracks via
digital terrestrial television
Digital terrestrial television (DTTV or DTT, or DTTB with "broadcasting") is a technology for terrestrial television in which land-based (terrestrial) television stations broadcast television content by radio waves to televisions in consumers' ...
) to transmit audio tracks in English and Cantonese when available. The channel began broadcasting in
high definition on 28 October 2012.
The schedule of this channel relies heavily on imported programmes, including foreign drama series and movies. Original English-language news and current affairs programmes (such as ''
News at 7:30'') and original lifestyle programme ''
Dolce Vita
Dolce vita or la dolce vita is Italian for "the sweet life." It may refer to:
Books
*"The experience of this sweet life" from Dante Alighieri's ''Divine Comedy'', Canto XX, lines 47–48
*''The First Intimate Contact'' (1998), also known as ''Dol ...
'' are also available on the channel.
Programmes
News and public affairs
This channel airs current affairs programmes, including ''Pearl Magazine'' (to replace both ''
The Pearl Report
''The Pearl Report'' is a public affairs programme aired on TVB Pearl from 1 April 1988 to 25 June 2018.
The show mainly deals with current affairs in Hong Kong, although there are also stories concerning wider regional and international issues, ...
'' and ''
Money Magazine
''Money'' is an American personal finance brand and website owned by Ad Practitioners LLC and formerly also a monthly magazine, first published by Time Inc. (1972–2018) and later by Meredith Corporation (2018–2019). Its articles cover the ...
'' in 2018), ''Money Matters'' and ''Straight Talk''.
According to the broadcast regulations in Hong Kong, broadcasting 2.5 hours of
RTHK
Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK) is the public broadcasting service in 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 Econo ...
programmes on commercial English-language channels every week was required. Before 2017, such requirement was fulfilled by broadcasting ''The Pulse'' (news programme) and ''The Works'' (art-related programme). These two programmes were no longer aired on this channel after 2017.
Studio 930
At 9:30 PM every night, a
Hollywood film is broadcast on TVB Pearl with a Hong Kong English Dub or with British English Subtitles before News Roundup news programmes.
Transmitters
TVB Pearl is broadcast through
UHF from its six main transmission stations at Temple Hill, Golden Hill,
Castle Peak,
Kowloon Peak
Kowloon Peak, also known as Fei Ngo Shan (literally: "Soaring Goose Mountain"), is a tall mountain in the northeast corner of New Kowloon, Hong Kong, situated in Ma On Shan Country Park. It is the tallest mountain in Kowloon, and is crossed by ...
,
Tai Mo Shan
Tai Mo Shan is the highest peak in Hong Kong, with an elevation of . It is located at approximately the geographical centre of the New Territories.
The Tai Mo Shan Country Park covers an area of around Tai Mo Shan. It is located to the n ...
, and
Lamma Island
Lamma Island, also known as Y Island or Pok Liu Chau or simply Pok Liu, is the third largest island in Hong Kong. Administratively, it is part of the Islands District.
Name
Lamma Island was named Lamma only because of a chart reading error by ...
, and two
repeater
In telecommunications, a repeater is an electronic device that receives a signal and retransmits it. Repeaters are used to extend transmissions so that the signal can cover longer distances or be received on the other side of an obstruction. Som ...
s at
Tsuen Wan
Tsuen Wan (formerly also spelled Tsun Wan) is a town built on a bay in the western New Territories of Hong Kong, opposite of Tsing Yi Island across Rambler Channel. The market town of Tsuen Wan emerged from the surrounding villages and flee ...
and
Tsing Yi
Tsing Yi, sometimes referred to as Tsing Yi Island, is an island in the urban area of Hong Kong, to the northwest of Hong Kong Island and south of Tsuen Wan. With an area of , the island has extended drastically by reclamation along almost al ...
. The Tsuen Wan repeater started service on 22 August 2003, and the Tsing Yi repeater started on 18 September 2003. The repeaters were built to enhance reception of TVB Pearl.
TVB Pearl is carried in mainland China by
Southern Television () in
Guangdong
Guangdong (, ), alternatively romanized as Canton or Kwangtung, is a coastal province in South China on the north shore of the South China Sea. The capital of the province is Guangzhou. With a population of 126.01 million (as of 2020) ...
and in
Guangzhou
Guangzhou (, ; ; or ; ), also known as Canton () and alternatively romanized as Kwongchow or Kwangchow, is the capital and largest city of Guangdong province in southern China. Located on the Pearl River about north-northwest of Hong Kon ...
by Guangzhou Television (). Due to
censorship policies, some programmes carried by the channel have been censored and substituted with different programmes.
TVB Pearl's analogue transmission ceased on 30 November 2020.
Awards
TVB Pearl has received a number of awards throughout its long history of programme production. For example, ''The Pearl Report: Outsider'' won a merit at the Hong Kong Human Rights Press Awards 2002. Also, ''2008 Olympic Image'' was awarded the Bronze Medal (Station and Image Production) in the New York Festivals.
See also
*
ViuTVsix
ViuTVsix is a free-to-air English language general entertainment television channel in Hong Kong operated by HK Television Entertainment (HKTVE), whose parent company, PCCW, also operates IPTV platform Now TV and media streaming service Viu.
Th ...
, an English-language channel in Hong Kong since March 2017
* Hong Kong International Business Channel, Channel 76, an English-language channel in Hong Kong since March 2018
References
External links
*
{{Television in Hong Kong
English-language television stations
Television channels and stations established in 1967
Television stations in Hong Kong
Pearl
A pearl is a hard, glistening object produced within the soft tissue (specifically the mantle) of a living shelled mollusk or another animal, such as fossil conulariids. Just like the shell of a mollusk, a pearl is composed of calcium carb ...