RTHK Annual Plan for 2009 – 2010

RTHK Annual Plan for 2009 – 2010

Following a series of consultations to receive views and suggestions from the general public and RTHK’s advisors, RTHK has set four major objectives for 2009 - 10.

1) Programme Direction : RTHK continues to uphold its highest standard of quality programming, underlined with creativity and responsibility in content creation. * The RTHK management has set the programming direction for 2009-10 as follows:

i) As 2009 is the 60 th Anniversary of the Founding of the People’s Republic of and the 90 th Anniversary of the May Fourth Movement, the Radio, Television and New Media services will produce series of related informational and educational programmes to reinforce national for the public;

ii) Radio, Television and New Media services will produce series of programmes about the history of Kong in support of the Memory Project;

iii) Radio, Television and the New Media Unit will produce programming which provide psychological and moral support to ease the stress and tension of people riding the economic downturn;

iv) RTHK will provide support to the coverage of the 2009 East Asian Games and produce related programming to promote sports in Hong Kong; and

v) RTHK’s programming will also focus on: the promotion of arts, culture as well as creative industries, and the issues facing the minorities, the under-privileged and the elderly.

2) Synergy: Internally, RTHK will synergise among its Radio, Television, and New Media services by developing multi-layered, multilingual programmes on cross-platform basis to comprehensively serve the public. Together with government and non-government organisations, RTHK will develop projects and programmes of public interests.

* Source: para. 2, RTHK Producers’ Guidelines 1 RTHK Annual Plan for 2009 – 2010

Externally, RTHK will synergise by actively taking part in regional media development through co-productions with international broadcasters and by producing programming with international perspective.

Keeping abreast with current web 2.0 technology, RTHK will produce programmes with innovative content which actively seek out public participation through two-way interactions.

3) Governance : RTHK will focus on strengthening its corporate governance and enhance public accountability.

i) RTHK will continue to enhance participation by stakeholders and the general public with a view to strengthening transparency and accountability. The annual planning process will involve a series of consultations with the RTHK Programme Advisory Panel, the holding of an annual public meeting to solicit views from the community and the use of the Channel Head’s hotlines as well as focus groups discussions.

ii) RTHK will ensure each of its units handles public funds in a prudent and cost-effective manner. The Systems Review Unit will continue to conduct internal audit to review operations and control measures.

4) Human Resources: RTHK will invest in its human resources by providing more training through hosting expert seminars and providing career development opportunities to staff, so as to groom on-air and on-screen talent as well as backend media professionals for succession and sustainable programming development.

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Radio Services

RTHK runs seven radio channels and produces weekly 990 hours of programmes of different genres in Cantonese, Putonghua and English. Other than programming in support of the major programme direction, Radio services will continue to reinforce the roles and identities of individual channels, taking into account the unique services provided by the English and Putonghua channels, Radio 4 the classical music channel and Radio 5 with elderly, cultural and education programmes.

Channel Role and identity Majority of programming and percentage Radio 1 News and Information Channel News and public affairs (46 %) and (Cantonese) general programming (40 %) Radio 2 Family Cha nnel, with emphasis on Family (35 %), music (24 %), youth (23 youth, community projects and %) and city culture (11 %) music (Cantonese) Radio 3 News and Information Channel News and information (16 %), general (English) programming (23 %) and music (58%) Radio 4 The Only Classical Music Channel Classical music and fine arts (100 % in Hong Kong except news) (Bilingual) Radio 5 Elderly, Cultural and Education Elderly (33 %), traditional Chinese Opera Channel (26 %), cultural and education (12 %), and (Cantonese) children (4 %) Radio 6 BBC World Service relay News and information (100 %) (English) Radio 7 The Only Putonghua Channel in News and information (38 %), general Hong Kong programming (17 %) and music (42 %) (Putonghua)

1. For the five major programme directions highlighted previously, Radio Division will produce related programmes accordingly:

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i) Radio 1, Radio 5 and Putonghua Channel will produce about 160 hours of programmes to commemorate the 60th Anniversary of the Founding of the People’s Republic of China.

ii) The Chinese Programme Service will produce about 60 hours of programmes on Hong Kong history.

iii) Radio 5 will produce 18 outreach projects under the ‘Cadenza Project’ to be held in the 18 of Hong Kong with focus on informing the newly-retired of issues they might face.

iv) To support people riding the economic downturn, Chinese Programme Service through various channels will launch a large-scale campaign including outside broadcast projects and produce about 100 hours of special programmes to lighten up the public.

v) Radio Division will assist in the production of programmes covering the preparations and events of the East Asian Games in 2009. Chinese Programme Service and English Programme Service will produce specials of over 40 hours starting from the second half of 2009.

2. Radio Division plans to reduce the number of rejoined hours, while at the same time increase programme output. Radio 5 and Putonghua Channel will increase its programme output per week, through providing more Chinese opera, cultural and music programmes.

3. Chinese and English news services will continue to synergise with the News service on the RTHK website, through internet audio simulcast, greater use of text, photos, video and interactive elements to ensure a wider reach of users with various receiving devices. The news service will continue to maintain and improve its quality, in particular language standards and broadcasting presentation.

4. Radio 1, Radio 2, Radio 3 and Putonghua Channels will produce specific programmes of at least 3.5 hours each week to serve the disabled, the ethnic minorities and society’s underprivileged. 4 RTHK Annual Plan for 2009 – 2010

5. Radio 2 and Radio 5 will produce new programmes for the family. Radio 5 will introduce a new programme catering to the baby boomers and related issues they might face.

6. Radio Division will produce programmes for the underprivileged children and English learning programmes for children aged between 7 and 11.

7. Radio Division will continue to improve its AM reception by introducing low-powered FM service in some areas, subject to availability of frequency spectrum.

Projection of Radio Service in 2009-10: Distribution of Radio output by programming nature

2.4% News 1.2% 16.5% Current Affairs 26.1% Information 10.2% Arts, culture and education

Music 12.9% Entertainment

30.9% Others

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Television Services

Annually, RTHK produces over 1,600 television programmes totaling 570 hours which are transmitted via the two free-to-air broadcasters and RTHK ON INTERNET. To enhance our audience reach, selected programmes are also repeated on pay television platforms and the new free-to-air channels launched via Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT). We would also explore and open up as many new platforms as possible, e.g., YouTube, mobile TV, new media etc., apart from traditional means of broadcast.

1. For the five programme directions highlighted, the TV Division will produce related programmes as follows:

i) A special series on the 60 th Anniversary of the Founding of the People’s Republic of China.

ii) Series on history and land development of Hong Kong will be produced, namely “Hong Kong History Series” and “ Lands”.

iii) Family drama and situation comedy will be produced to help ease the tension of the people riding the economic downturn and adversity.

iv) A drama “Cadenza” depicting the elderly will be produced in 2009. On arts and culture, there will be TV coverage of performances of “The First Annual Hong Kong International Chamber Music Festival” featuring Trey Lee and “Fund Raising Concert by Music First” featuring Yundi Li and Hayley Westenra. In addition, documentaries on different genres of Chinese regional opera and on cities around the world which give an impetus on the design industry will be produced.

v) The TV Division will help cover selected 2009 East Asian Games events and produce sports related programme, “Glamour Of Sports – Prelude to 2009 East Asian Games.”

2. The TV Division will continue to seek cooperation opportunities with different operators, both at the programme level and on the technical front. In line with digital terrestrial television development, RTHK plans to increase its production of high-definition 6 RTHK Annual Plan for 2009 – 2010

programmes.

3. To show our support of the creative industries, programmes about stories of renowned kung fu artistes and history of the Hong Kong film industry, in commemoration of its centennial, will be produced.

4. To continue developing synergy amongst programme staff, eTVonline and RTHK ON INTERNET, a cross media project “Hong Kong File.X” will be launched.

5. To render full support of new school curriculum, Education Television will continue to produce school programmes and non-curriculum-based programmes with supplementary teaching materials. A special “Education Magazine” covering the current development of the education sector and progress of education reform will be produced.

Projection of TV Service in 2009-10: Distribution of TV output by programming nature

current affairs 1.5% 4.5% special interest groups* 12.0% youth and children 31.0% arts and culture 10.0% civic education

continuing education

16.5% 15.0% Mainland affairs 9.5% others *special interest groups include elderly, minorities and the underprivileged

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New Media Services

The popularity and importance of RTHK ON INTERNET (www..org.hk ) have grown with time. The daily hit rate reached an average of 33 million in late 2008, of which nearly half were from overseas. The website has proven to be an effective source of information for the overseas community. It also adds value to radio and television broadcast through re-packaging the content into web-based service for archive viewing as well as interactive learning through the e-Learning Channel. RTHK has set up an official channel on YouTube (www.youtube.com/rthk ) and will further enhance its integration with other multi-platforms with a view to reaching out to young and new audience. eTVonline will continue to provide simultaneous live webcast of school programmes to primary and secondary school students and will also continue to initiate and launch various e-learning projects via our multimedia platform and network of schools and educators. eTVonline will jointly launch projects with Mainland institutes with focus on national education and Liberal Studies to serve schools, teachers, students and parents.

1. The New Media Unit launched myrthk+ (beta) in 2008, a video-on-demand service based on Peer-To-Peer technology. The new service provides users with greater control and much finer picture quality. For 2009, the New Media Unit will include CD quality live radio streaming and DVD quality live video streaming into the development of this player.

2. Through the use of internet widgets and podcasting, the New Media Unit will develop and deliver customised functions of both personalised layout and pre-subscribed content to the next generation of integrated hand-held multimedia and communications devices.

3. The New Media Unit will further open up the internet platform to allow users to share audio and video content through RTHK ON INTERNET. For projects such as “Unusual Journey”, “HK Illustrators”, and “HK File.X”, internet users from around the world are able to share multimedia content through RTHK’s interactive platform.

4. Web 2.0 tools such as tagging, sharing, Google maps, Facebook application, etc will be further integrated to encourage user interaction with and participation in RTHK’s projects.

5. The New Media Unit will continue to co-ordinate with outside parties and develop special 8 RTHK Annual Plan for 2009 – 2010

web projects for different interests and age groups. Examples are ”e-Learning Channel”, “Teen Power”, “A-Power”, “youth.gov.hk”, “Book Floating”, “The Hong Kong-Canada Career Video Conference”, “Chinese Civilisation Channel” etc.

Projection of New Media Service in 2008-09: Distribution of online projects by programming type

7 %

10 % 30 % TV projects

10 % radio projects

public affairs*

e-learning 8 % podcasting

35 % arts and culture * includes live webcast of LegCo meeting, and Chief Executive's Q&A.

Radio Television Hong Kong April 2009

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