HONG KONG is a forerunner in the adoption of advanced broadcasting technologies. The government’s broadcasting policy objectives are to widen program choice and diversity through competition, to facilitate the introduction of innovative broadcasting services and to enhance the city’s position as a regional broadcasting hub. To achieve these objectives, Hong Kong adopts a facilitating and pro-competition approach to promote the use of innovative broadcasting technologies. This allows the city to enter into a new era of broadcasting, with widened program choices and innovative services available to the viewing and listening public. At the end of 2015, Hong Kong had some 800 satellite and pay-television channels available in digital format, and was the world leader in deploying Internet Protocol Television technology, with more than one million subscribers.

Eighteen licensed satellite television broadcasters provided more than 200 channels for the Asia-Pacific region. The two incumbent terrestrial television broadcasters launched digital broadcasting officially in December 2007. By the end of 2015, there were 15 free-to-air television channels, comprising four analogue and 11 digital free-television channels, of which six were high-definition (HD) channels.