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Home
Programming
Language(s)Cantonese
Ownership
OwnerAsia Television

ATV Home (Chinese: 亞洲電視本港台) was a free-to-air Cantonese television channel in Hong Kong, owned and operated by Asia Television. It was formed in September 1963 as a result of the split of the bilingual Rediffusion Television subscription service (which was primarily owned by British company Rediffusion) 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, a change in ownership in 2010 and an attempt to cut back on dramas in favour of more current affairs, news, and talk programming resulted in further financial losses and internal conflicts.[1] Owing to ATV's deterioration and other issues, on 31 March 2015 ATV's over-the-air broadcasting license was revoked effective 2 April 2016; the channel signed off shortly before midnight on 1 April 2016, and was replaced on analogue transmission by RTHK 31.[2][3] [4]

History

Rediffusion Television

ATV Home, in addition to Asia Television's history, traces back to Rediffusion Television, 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" (Chinese: 麗的映聲中文台). This would lay the groundwork for what will eventually become ATV Home.

On 1 February 1967, the channel was renamed "RTV-1" (Chinese: 麗的一台).

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 (Chinese: 麗的二台). However, RTV was beaten to launch by a competitor, Television Broadcasts Limited. 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 (Chinese: 遠東機構). The new owner renamed Rediffusion to Asia Television (ATV), and consequently, the channel was renamed "ATV Cantonese" (Chinese: 亞洲電視中文台).

On 2 February 1987, the channel was again renamed, to "ATV Gold" (Chinese: 亞洲電視黃金台).

Far East Group eventually sold its ATV holdings to local conglomerate Lai Sun Group, and the channel was renamed on 13 February 1989, to "ATV Home" (Chinese: 亞洲電視本港台). In 2015, former ATV executive Selina Chow revealed that the station's new name was supposed to be "ATV Hong Kong" (Chinese: 亞洲電視香港台), but the station was forced to scrap the name, in favor of ATV Home (Chinese: 亞洲電視本港台),[5] after Secretary for Administrative Services and Information Peter Tsao opposed the name.[6]

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 has struggled to compete with its Cantonese rival TVB Jade. While the station's programs have, 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 (今日睇真D) and Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? (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

Drama series

A list of drama series produced by Asia Television was import programmes by RCTI:

References

  1. ^ Chow, Vivienne (29 March 2015). "Wong Ching, the leading man in ATV's sorry drama". South China Morning Post. Retrieved 3 April 2015.
  2. ^ "Farewell ATV as its survival fight ends". The Standard. Retrieved 11 April 2016.
  3. ^ "ATV, World's Oldest Chinese TV Channel, Closes Down". Variety. Retrieved 11 April 2016.
  4. ^ "Hong Kong Government Strips ATV of Broadcast License". Variety. Retrieved 18 March 2016.
  5. ^ In Hong Kong parlance, the word "本港" is a way to say "香港". Literally, "本港" means "this Hong Kong", referring to the city as a whole.
  6. ^ TVB News program "News Magazine", in an episode that aired on 4 April 2015.
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