Why Hong Kong’s broadcasting rules are out of date and touch

Hong Kong’s existing broadcasting regulations were introduced 17 years ago when internet access and usage was just widening and streaming media service or mobile television, if they existed would have been in a futuristic movie.

But applied to today’s rapidly changing and competitive landscape of a multimedia convergence, the rules would sit better in the archives.

Existing statutory requirements that impose heavy restrictions on domestic television licensees, have failed to keep up with technology development and do little to boost investment and innovation, according to industry players and academics. Instead, the archaic rules of the broadcasting ordinance are hurting industry players’ competitive position.

The critics have called for an update on the cross-media ownership restriction and a relaxation on foreign ownership control – major restrictions in the ordinance.

“When the broadcasting ordinance in Hong Kong was formally put in place in 2000, the industry’s regulator probably never expected that the rapid advancement in technology development over the years has overhauled the city’s media industry,” said Desmond Chan Shu-hung, an Adjunct Associate Professor of Law, University of Hong Kong.