Another Cantonese-language television channel joined the already crowded Hong Kong market when Phoenix TV launched its new service yesterday.
The Hong Kong-listed broadcaster, which now transmits five channels in Putonghua, also plans to launch an English-language channel within two years.
Some observers see the latest moves by Phoenix - which has close ties to Beijing and is the only non-state network allowed to broadcast in Chinese on the mainland - as a sign of expansion of the political influence of the central government.
Launching the new channel yesterday, chief executive Liu Changle said the station had a responsibility to provide a service to Hong Kong's large Cantonese-speaking community. 'The establishment of the Hong Kong Channel is Phoenix's feedback to its birthplace, Hong Kong,' he said at the ceremony.
The channel, which will provide 24-hour news and commentary programmes to the Asia-Pacific region, was opened yesterday by Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen with mainland government officials in attendance.
Liu, a Shanghai-born former colonel in the People's Liberation Army with strong ties to senior Communist Party officials, set up Phoenix in 1996 as a joint-venture with media baron Rupert Murdoch.