RTHK plans to broaden its menu of television offerings by commissioning more programmes from independent producers next year.
'It's not to do with costs. It's to do with ideas,' RTHK's director of broadcasting, Chu Pui-hing, said in an interview with the South China Morning Post.
'I like the idea of opening RTHK up a bit and, if successful, would like to open it a little bit more,' he said.
However, Mr Chu stressed commissioned programmes would comprise less than two per cent of the station's television production hours next year, with a budget of about $4 million.
Asked to assess RTHK's internal production quality, he said staff were 'doing very well'. He had broken with Hong Kong's in-house production tradition to commission 15 Chinese-language half-hour programmes - documentaries and dramas - from independent producers for broadcast this year.
These included a series of dramas titled the Green Man on the theme of environmental protection and two documentary series shot on the mainland. RTHK planned to screen 20 commissioned programmes next year after surveying opinion on the current shows, he said.
