Bilingual Kaleidoscope: Free-to-air TV license

‘Ricky Wong Wai-kay (王維基) was extraordinarily low-key yesterday after commerce secretary Gregory So Kam-leung pronounced the death sentence on his application for a free-to-air TV license.’ (The Standard)

Do you know who is Wong Wai-kay? Are you disappointed with the government’s decision on not giving the free-on-air TV license to HKTV(香港電視)? Or don’t really care about this news? I believe you must hear the name ‘Wong Wai-kay’ in these days. Maybe you have no feeling on this issue, but I would like to share some information and my feeling on this hot issue in HK.

If you flipped over today’s newspaper, I believe you must bump into the hot topic about the free-on-air TV license. To be honest, I am quite disappointed about the HKSAR government’s decision on not giving the free-on-air TV license to HKTV. Most of us know, HKTV has prepared for the operation of the free-on-air HKTV for almost 3 years, but all preparation the HKTV staff made in vain. They don’t have the license now, or maybe forever. Actually I was looking forward for the TV programs made by HKTV since he applied for the license. The government’s decision disappointed many HongKongers.

I really want to know why the government give the license to i-Cable's Fantastic Television(奇妙電視) and now’s Hong Kong Television Entertainment Company Limited(香港電視娛樂). The Standard reported: ‘Greg So Kam-leung(蘇錦良), Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development, said the application by City Telecom-owned HKTV was dismissed after the Chief Executive-in-Council had considered a basket of factors and accepted a consultancy report that the market could not accommodate five TV stations.’ What is the so-called ‘a basket of factors’? This is what all Hong Kong people, and mostly the HKTV staff, want to know.

The government’s decision on not giving the free-on-air TV license to HKTV raises public anger. People think it is unfair of the government to reject the application of HKTV for the license. The government must tell the detail of’ a basket of factors’. Maybe this can relieve public anger if the explanation is strongly persuasive.