Digital radio in Hong Kong dies with bow out of RTHK channels
Broadcaster will pull plug on five channels and reassign affected programmes in reshuffle
Hong Kong’s last remaining digital radio channels will go off the air next month, public broadcaster RTHK announced on Friday, putting the final nail in the coffin for the city’s ill-fated digital audio broadcasting policy.
At the stroke of midnight on September 4, RTHK will pull the plug on five channels – DAB 31 to 35 – reassigning affected programmes to its FM channels in a reshuffle.
The move was announced weeks ahead of a six-month deadline laid down by the Executive Council in late March to end all digital radio services, which struggled for six years to find a sizeable audience.
No longer realistic: digital radio in Hong Kong gets the axe because of weak market
Three other commercial licensees – Metro Broadcast, Phoenix U and Digital Broadcasting Corporation – pulled out of the market between 2015 and 2016, making RTHK the sole operator of digital radio services.
The reshuffle will see the BBC’s World Service, now broadcast round the clock on DAB 34, reduced to an 11pm-7am slot on Radio 4.
The public broadcaster said it would “continue catering for the underprivileged, ethnic minorities and different communities”.
Head of corporate communications Amen Ng explained that listeners could always tune in to BBC programmes directly via its website, while the late-night time slot would carry more updated news due to the time zone difference between Hong Kong and the UK.