Rediffusion Television (RTV) was the first television station 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 ...

, making it both the first

British colony The British Overseas Territories (BOTs), also known as the United Kingdom Overseas Territories (UKOTs), are fourteen territories with a constitutional and historical link with the United Kingdom. They are the last remnants of the former Bri ...

and the first predominantly ethnically Chinese city to have television.Kitley, Philip. 003(2003). Television, Regulation and Civil Society in Asia. Routledge. 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 television ...

on 24 September 1982.

History

Radio Rediffusion was officially founded in 1949 as a highly successful 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 ( commer ...

company. The radio service was highly successful with 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. It was the United States′ first model of radio (a ...

. Some of the early contents included plays, stories, concerts and

Cantonese opera Cantonese opera is one of the major categories in Chinese opera, originating in southern China's Guangdong Province. It is popular in Guangdong, Guangxi, Hong Kong, Macau and among Chinese communities in Southeast Asia. Like all versions of Ch ...

s. The broadcasts were some of the main attraction in Hong Kong tea shops. One of the most famous broadcasters was

Li Ngaw Li Man-King (; 16 February 1922 – 5 May 2021) known by his nickname of Li Ngaw (李我) or Lee Ngo was the pioneer of airwave novel radio broadcasting in Hong Kong. Father: li,dit sai( 李秩西）， also called li, kwong( 李光） Mother: y ...

: another was

Uncle Ray Reinaldo Maria Cordeiro (; 12 December 1924 – 13 January 2023), known professionally as Uncle Ray, was a Hong Kong broadcaster, disc jockey and actor at RTHK Radio 3. He was named "The World's Most Durable DJ" in 2000 by the Guinness Book o ...

, the pioneering DJ. It later became a subscription cable television station on 29 May 1957, becoming the first television station in a

colony In modern parlance, a colony is a territory subject to a form of foreign rule. Though dominated by the foreign colonizers, colonies remain separate from the administration of the original country of the colonizers, the '' metropolitan state' ...

of the

British Empire The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts e ...

, 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 once again provided an outlet for the broadcasts to the working class who could not afford the subscription fees. When competitor TVB 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