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 List of cities in China, city and Special administrative regions of China, special ...

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 haTseung Kwan O, in the

Sai Kung District Sai Kung District is one of the 18 districts of Hong Kong, a special administrative region of China. The district comprises the southern half of the Sai Kung Peninsula, the Clear Water Bay Peninsula in the New Territories and a strip of ...

. 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 a ...

), although programmes in other languages (including Mandarin, 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

digital audio Digital audio is a representation of sound recorded in, or converted into, digital form. In digital audio, the sound wave of the audio signal is typically encoded as numerical samples in a continuous sequence. For example, in CD audio, samp ...

(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'' 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'' 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 g ...

'' in 2018), ''Money Matters'' and ''Straight Talk''. According to the broadcast regulations in Hong Kong, broadcasting 2.5 hours of RTHK 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 film is broadcast on TVB Pearl with a Cantonese Dub or with Traditional Chinese Subtitles.

Transmitters

TVB Pearl is broadcast through

UHF Ultra high frequency (UHF) is the ITU designation for radio frequencies in the range between 300 megahertz (MHz) and 3 gigahertz (GHz), also known as the decimetre band as the wavelengths range from one meter to one tenth of a meter (on ...

from its six main transmission stations at Temple Hill, Golden Hill, Castle Peak, Kowloon Peak, Tai Mo Shan, 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 fl ...

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 Southern Television was the ITV broadcasting licence holder for the South and South-East of England from 30 August 1958 to 31 December 1981. The company was launched as 'Southern Television Limited' and the title 'Southern Television' was co ...

() 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 Chinese postal romanization, alternatively romanized as Kwongchow or Kwangchow, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Guangdong Provinces of China, province in South China, sou ...

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.

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 ...