RTHK is planning to let private programme-makers take over part of its educational television production as part of an exercise to boost efficiency and cut costs.
The government-funded broadcaster will initially invite private production houses to make nine of the 175 programmes for educational television (ETV) for 2002-03. A review is also being carried out by RTHK and the Education Department to brighten up ETV programmes that the Audit Commission has criticised as being unpopular and failing to offer value for money.
Launched in 1971, ETV was supposed to allow pupils to learn in a more informal way through programmes presented in a lively manner.
But in a report released in November, the Audit Commission criticised RTHK's budget control over ETV as inadequate, with each minute of programming costing $19,000. A commission survey of secondary schools also showed students only watched 18 per cent of the programmes in 2000-01.
Each year, the Education and Manpower Bureau allocates about $52 million for the production of ETV. With contracting-out, it is estimated the production costs for each 15-minute ETV programme could be capped at about $270,000, said RTHK's head of ETV and documentaries Dominica Siu King-lo. This represents a saving of about $15,000 for each 15-minute programme.
Ms Siu said: 'Most ETV programmes are in a drama format and they use a good deal of animation. In this respect, outside production houses are usually more flexible in deploying resources.'