TVB News
 | This article needs additional citations for verification. (October 2015) |
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| Type | Journalism team |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | Hong Kong |
Parent organization | TVB |
| Website | news |
Formerly called | TVB News and Information Division |
TVB News (Chinese: 無綫新聞), formally known as the News and Information Division (新聞及資訊部), 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 the News Channel.
Its slogan is "TVB News Cares" (無綫新聞 事事關心).
In recent years, the popularity of the news broadcast has plunged and is no longer considered as a reliable source of information among the vast population of Hong Kong. This is mainly due to its political bias towards the Chinese Government and Communist Politics and partly due to diminishing broadcast quality.
History
On 19 November 1967, TVB premiered its very first 2 News Report programmes, the evening News at 7:30 and Late News/News Roundup (22:30). On 16 November 1970, Noon News and News Headlines were also added into TVB Jade's schedule. On 1 November 1976, News at 7:30 was renamed News at 6:30 as the newscast moved back by one-hour. On 1 January 1968, the first Morning Talk and News programme, Morning Assembly, hosted by the news editor Edward Ho, From 19 April 1976 to 29 April 1977, the show was renamed Morning News Report. On 19 November 1980, the Nightly News at Ten was launched. On 6 September 1981, Good Morning Hong Kong premiered and currently airs from Monday to Saturday. On 19 November 1967, the first few male news anchors: David Lee, Josiah Lau, Chu Wai Tak, Stephen Shiu. On 2 January 1978, the first female first anchor Anite Yip debuted on TVB News. On 4 January 1988, all news programmes on both TVB Jade and Pearl updated their opening sequence with the day's date and the headline sequences. On 1 January 1980, Cantonese subtitles were introduced. On 3 January 1983, TVB News News at 9:30 added subtitles and was renamed News File in 1985. News File ended on 14 May 1993. On Monday, 2 September 1996, computer subtitles was reintroduced and it has remain ever since. On 21 September 2003, TVB and its news department, along with other divisions moved to TVB City at Tseung Kwan O. Subtitles was also included on TVB Pearl on 17 October 2006.
On 13 July 2008, TVB News programmes started broadcasting in 16:9. On 2 February 2009, TVB News programmes started in High Definition permanently. On 30 June 2012, TVB iNews converted from Standard Definition to High Definition, News ticker was also modified to fit the HDTV screens and News Titles for iNews was also updated.
On 27 August 2012, tvb.com began to include more News, Finance, Weather and Information in its website.
On 15 November 2012, Weather Report began broadcasting in high definition and in subtitles for the first time. On 1 January 2013, TVB Jade, TVB HD Jade, TVB iNews and TVB Pearl modified their subtitles to fit into high definition.
On 20 May 2013, TVB iNews remodified their schedules and broadcast the news programmes live and continuously in high definition.
On 14 July 2013, TVB News updated their opening sequences to make it more realistic. On Sunday, 1 June 2014, TVB News' main news studio were given a major revamp as well as the new titles for all of its news programmes and subtitles. Good Morning Hong Kong also updated its opening sequences on Monday, 9 June 2014.
On 22 February 2016, Putonghua News moved to TVB J5.
Broadcasting and Production
TVB News Time Schedule the months anchors, first news report from Monday to Friday or Saturday & Sunday don't anchors, News at 6:30, News at 7 and News at 7:30 male and female two presenters, Good Morning Hong Kong news and finance two presenters, and other programmes. Except Noon News, Monday to Friday News at 6:30 and News at 7, TVB Jade main news with sports anchors. TVB iNews and TVBN Main News at 8 Hong Kong Stock Exchange with Finance anchors and everyday sports anchors, and other programmes. On 2 February 2009, TVB News focus changed Monday to Friday News Roundup, broadcast added special, first anchors, added focus report and first broadcasting television. Live, reporter changed head, added or anchors. In March 2015, Luk Hon-tak, former director-general of the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB), became the managing editor of TVB News in charge of political news stories.[1]
Newscasts
TVB News is broadcast at the following time slots on the company's free-to-air channels, TVB Jade, TVB Pearl, TVB Finance & Information Channel and TVB News Channel.
TVB Jade newscasts
"On News Channel": programme is also broadcast on TVBN and iNews.
| Programme | Airtime | Day | On News Channel | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| English | Chinese | Start | End | ||
| Good Morning Hong Kong | 香港早晨 | 06:00 | 08:55 | Mon-Sat | Yes |
| Earth Live | 瞬間看地球 | 06:25 | 06:30 | Monday-Saturday | |
| 07:25 | 07:30 | ||||
| 08:25 | 08:30 | ||||
| 08:55 | 09:00 | ||||
| 13:20 | 13:25 | Weekdays | |||
| 13:10 | 13:15 | Weekends | |||
| 23:40 | 23:45 | Weekdays | |||
| 23:45 | 23:50 | Weekends | |||
| Inside the Stock Exchange | 交易現場 | 09:00 | 09:30 | Hong Kong and Shanghai Stock Exchange Trading Day | No |
| 09:45 | Hong Kong Stock Exchange Trading Day | ||||
| 11:40 | 11:45 | ||||
| 12:45 | 13:00 | ||||
| 14:40 | 14:43 | ||||
| 16:15 | 16:20 | ||||
| News Headlines | 新聞提要 | 11:35 | 11:40 | ||
| 15:13 | 15:15 | ||||
| 20:45 | 20:50 | Daily | |||
| 21:45 | 21:50 | ||||
| 22:45 | 22:50 | Weekends | |||
| Noon News | 午間新聞 | 13:00 | 13:20 | Weekdays | |
| 13:10 | Weekends | ||||
| Financial News | 財經新聞 | 17:50 | 17:55 | Hong Kong and Shanghai Stock Exchange Trading Day | |
| News File | 新聞檔案 | 18:25 | 18:30 | Weekdays | Yes |
| 23:30 | 23:35 | ||||
| News at 6:30 | 6點半新聞報道 | 18:30 | 18:55 | Daily | No |
| Weather Report | 天氣報告 | 18:55 | 19:00 | Yes | |
| 23:35 | 23:40 | Weekdays | |||
| 23:45 | 23:50 | Weekends | |||
| International News File | 環球新聞檔案 | 07:40 | 07:45 | Mon-Sat | |
| 23:00 | 23:05 | Weekdays | No | ||
| News Roundup | 晚間新聞 | 23:05 | 23:30 | ||
| 23:30 | 23:45 | Weekends | |||
TVB Pearl newscasts
| Programme | Language | Airtime | Day | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Start | End | |||
| Financial Report | English | 18:00 | 18:05 | Mon-Fri |
| News at 7:30 | 19:30 | 19:50 | Daily | |
| Weather Report | 19:50 | 19:55 | Daily | |
| News Headlines | 21:30 | (1 to 2-minute duration) | Daily | |
| Market Place | 22:30 | 22:35 | Mon-Fri | |
| World Market Update | 23:30 | 23:35 | Mon-Fri | |
| News Roundup | 23:35 | 23:50 | Mon-Thu | |
| Varies start time between 23:30 to 00:45 |
(15-minute duration) | Fri-Sun | ||
| The Pearl Report | 20:00 | 20:30 | Monday | |
| 01:05 | 01:35 | Tuesday | ||
| 12:00 | 12:25 | Saturday | ||
| Money Magazine | 19:00 | 19:30 | Sunday | |
| 01:05 | 01:35 | |||
Format
All newscasts on TVB Jade are in Cantonese; Putonghua Financial Report is in Mandarin. The newscasts on TVB Pearl are in English while newscasts on TVB Finance & Information Channel are in Mandarin. Good Morning Hong Kong and Putonghua Financial Report, and other business newscasts are seen on weekdays. Also, programmes have in-vision captions for the hearing impaired, as mandated by local regulations (this was originally only used on the Jade version's News File, 新聞簡報) or News Daily (TVB Pearl). In the past, both channels aired a 5-minute News File, giving the top headlines of the day and a preview of the News Roundup; it usually aired at various times around 21:00.
The starting sequence of the news features the sound of the Morse code signal for "NEWS TODAY"
(-· · ·-- ··· - --- -·· ·- -·--), with the pitch at about 1700 Hz.
Standalone weather reports are aired after the News at 6:30 on TVB Jade, the News at 7:30 on TVB Pearl and Putonghua News on TVB J2. They are famous for Freddy (天氣先生), a cartoon figure which gives the forecast for the next day. The highly stylised and comical format is considered an institution, and is widely recognised by many Hong Kong people. (The rest of the weather forecast is read by an actual human presenter.)
After the news and/or weather is presented, Earth Live usually follows afterwards, which is produced by earthTV. However, not all newscasts on TVB Jade are not followed by that programme, but will instead return to the current programme. The only exception is Good Morning Hong Kong, which would air Earth Live first, then immediately start the morning news. Earth Live also airs a couple more times during their morning news programme.
News programmes
Investigative reports and extended news stories are often shown on three programmes: Sunday Report (星期日檔案) and News Magazine (新聞透視) on TVB Jade, The Pearl Report (明珠檔案) on TVB Pearl. Sunday Report and The Pearl Report focus more on stories involving individuals and has a softer approach, while News Magazine focuses more on social problems in general.
News channel
Additionally, TVB's news department is also responsible for the output on the 24-hour news channel, TVBN (無綫新聞台), carried on the pay TV platform TVB Pay Vision (無綫收費電視) and iNews (互動新聞台) (Start from 11 November 2008) on HK Digital TV Broadcast (Channel 83). In June 2006, another news channel, TVBN 2 (無綫新聞2台), will also be carried on the pay TV platform TVB Pay Vision.
The transmission of iNews (互動新聞台) have been upgraded from SDTV to HDTV video format on 30 June 2012.
Criticism
Due to the reporting, or lack thereof, of the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, and many other incidents where TVB ignored to report news that concerning its own interests, internet forum users have labelled TVB "CCTVB". During one live broadcast at the event of the 20th Anniversary gathering to commemorate the Tiananmen incident, a man raised a sign that reads in Chinese "無線新聞 事事旦旦", which mocks TVB, saying that they do not care. The camera shifted away quickly during the broadcast, and ever since then, camera crews have reacted to possible sign-bearers by pointing the camera away during takes. In replays of the said footage, the portion where the sign was visible was cut.[citation needed]
| External videos | |
|---|---|
 TVB News Footage of Hong Kong Police allegedly beating protestor during the Occupy Central protest, YouTube video |
During the 2014 protests, TVB's broadcast of footage of seven police officers beating a protester on 15 October resulted in significant internal conflict during the broadcast.[2] The pre-dawn broadcasts soundtrack which mentioned "punching and kicking" was re-recorded, and later bulletins said that the officers were "suspected of using excessive force".[3] TVB director Keith Yuen questioned what grounds lead the footage to say "officers dragged him to a dark corner, and punched and kicked him"?[3] Ho Wing-hong, the assistant supervisor of the news-gathering team responsible for the footage, was immediately demoted to Chief Researcher, a post with only a part-time subordinate.[4][5] Many journalists expressed their dissatisfaction with the handling of the broadcast, and some 80 TVB staff from all departments objecting to the handling sent a petition to management.[2][6] After several of its reporters were assaulted by activists attending a pro-Beijing rally, over 340 station employees put their names to a petition condemning the violence. A director of production in the non-drama department ordered all petitioners to a meeting with their supervisors, where the employees were asked to remove their signature or jeopardise their year end bonuses.[7]
In March 2015, former DAB partisan Luk Hon-tak's appointment as the managing editor of TVB News in charge of political news stories caused significant concern among the company. Although news director Keith Yuen maintained that there were no political considerations in Luk’s appointment, some TVB News staff are questioning the unusual appointment and the political nature of the role. They pointed to Luk's strongly pro-establishment background, as most of the senior management posts were filled by internal promotion.[1] There was an exodus of in late February when at least seven journalists, including Ho Wing-hong, tendered their resignations.[8]
In recent years, following continuous criticism of political bias and new competitors such as Viu TV News and RTHK News, TVB News has possessed a diminishing share of audience. This has resulted in a deteriorating fiscal revenue from advertisements and a new wave of staff departures. Moreover, selective censorship (e.g. on Taiwanese National Flags), the lack of image transmission for many news stories and the frequency of reports cited from "anonymous sources" are also major concerns, sparking numerous complaints to the Broadcasting Authority. A culture of online memes and mockery towards the company has also developed on social media platforms and discussion forums.[citation needed]
References
- ^ a b "Former DAB official hired as TVB News managing editor". EJ Insight.
- ^ a b Lau, Kenneth; Siu, Jasmine (16 October 2014). "Reporters voice anger at TVB" Archived 24 October 2014 at the Wayback Machine. The Standard.
- ^ a b "TVB boss backs news chief's handling of police 'beating'". 18 October 2014. Retrieved 18 October 2014.
- ^ "TVB何永康被調職 記協指涉嫌秋後算賬" (in Chinese). Sina Corp.
- ^ "TVB新聞部秋後算賬 主任貶做資料搜集". Apple Daily (in Chinese). 1 November 2014. Retrieved 1 November 2014.
- ^ "「TVB新聞女神」驚傳要走人 網友揣測是「被辭職」" [TVB News Goddess, Snowy Choi, suddenly rumoured to have left; netizens speculating 'forced resignation']. Liberty Times. 18 October 2014. Retrieved 18 October 2014.
- ^ "TVB leans on staff who sign anti-violence petition". EJ Insight.
- ^ http://www.ejinsight.com/20150226-media-freedom-concerns-arise-as-journalists-quit/
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