| World | |
|---|---|
| 亞洲電視國際台 | |
| Launched | 29 May 1957 |
| Owned by | Asia Television Limited |
| Picture format | 576i (PAL) 576i 16:9 (SDTV) 1080i (HDTV) |
| Language | English |
| Broadcast area | Hong Kong Macau parts of Guangdong Province Philippines Singapore |
| Headquarters | 25-37 Dai Shing Street, Tai Po Industrial Estate, Tai Po District, Tai Po, New Territories, Hong Kong, China |
| Formerly called | Rediffusion Television (27 May 1957 – 29 September 1963) RTV-2 |
| Website | HKatv.com/World (in English) |
| Availability | |
| Terrestrial | |
| Hong Kong Analogue | Channel 2 |
| Hong Kong Digital | Channel 11 |
| Cable | |
| Cable TV Hong Kong (Hong Kong) | Channel 2 |
| Macau CATV (Macau) | Channel 84 |
| IPTV | |
| now TV | Channel 16 |
| HKBN bbTV | Channel 16 |
ATV World (國際台), is one of the free-to-air English language television channels in Hong Kong, the other being its arch-rival TVB Pearl. Its sister station, ATV Home, broadcasts in Cantonese language. It is owned and operated by Asia Television Limited (Chinese: 亞洲電視有限公司), and is broadcast from the ATV Enterprises Office at 25-37 Dai Shing Street in Tai Po Industrial Estate in Tai Po, which is in the Tai Po District, in the North East region of Hong Kong's New Territories.
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ATV World's English channel, Rediffusion Television, began as a cable-operated and subscription-based TV service on 29 May 1957 known on-air as Rediffusion Television, and on 30 September 1963, the channel was renamed Rediffusion Television Cantonese Channel and Rediffusion Television English Channel. On 1 February 1967, the channels were renamed RTV-1 and RTV-2 respectively. On 1 December 1973, Rediffusion Television was granted a free-to-air television broadcasting license for its two television channels, and closed its cable television channels. On 24 September 1982, Rediffusion Television was bought out by the new ATV, and consequently the Cantonese and English language channel was renamed ATV Cantonese and ATV English. The channel was again renamed on 2 February 1987 as ATV Gold and ATV Diamond The channel was again renamed on 13 February 1989 as ATV Home and ATV World.
ATV World broadcasts 16-hour channel with multi-lingual programmes, transmitted in NICAM in analogue version, and multiple AC-3 streams in digital version. While most of programmes are broadcast in Hong Kong English, a few are in either Standard Chinese, Korean or Japanese without Hong Kong English. It is less popular than English-language rival station rival TVB Pearl, though by a far smaller margin than ATV Home's loss to Hong Kong Cantonese rival TVB Jade.
Transmission hours are from 6:00 am to 12:00 am in daily a day and public holidays from 12:00 pm to between 12:00 am under same time daily it plays the national anthem (was formerly plays the royal anthem).
ATV World Network starts at 6:00 am. The national anthem (was formerly plays the royal anthem) will be played, followed by the morning prayer and station ident. The first programme of the day follows thereafter.
ATV World Network closes down at 12:00 am. The last programme will be broadcast, followed by the night prayer, station ident, national anthem (was formerly plays the royal anthem) and test card was broadcast at the end.
In the closing (offair) time ATV World is broadcasting a test card complete with date to time and with the text "ATV WORLD - HONG KONG".
ATV World is one of two English-language channels that broadcast in Hong Kong. It offers a variety of programmes, mostly from the United States, ranging from popular serial dramas and films to documentaries and educational shows. Among the shows it has aired are:
ATV stopped carrying the talk show Late Show with David Letterman (大衛牙擦騷) as of January 1, 2009, but there has been a grassroots movement to bring it back. Arts and sports programming are also offered (e.g. local horse racing, in Chinese 賽馬直擊). Mandarin and Korean programmes are available on ATV World at off-peak hours.
ATV World's flagship English news programme is the "Main News and Weather Report at 7:30" provided under the collective effort of ATV News, It also relayed Xinwen Lianbo news programme from Chinese television channel, CCTV-1 is the primary channel of the Chinese television network, China Central Television (CCTV) in the People's Republic of China which is also available in Hong Kong Island.
Given its focus on Hong Kong English-language programming in a predominantly Hong Kong Cantonese-speaking market, ATV World carries relatively little advertising and is subsidised by ATV Home. Both free-to-air television companies in Hong Kong are required by the government to provide an Hong Kong English-language service. In the face of competition from TVB Pearl, ATV World has in recent years switched its focus from the provision of drama and movies to documentaries and natural history shows, probably because such programming is less expensive to acquire.
Since the Hong Kong government does not have its own television station, its agency Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK) requires the two domestic free television stations to broadcast their programmes and advertisements. One of the well known programmes is Educational Television (ETV) which began in 1971. This follows the Hong Kong education syllabus, serving as a reference for primary and secondary school students of mathematics, Hong Kong English, Putonghua and other school subjects. During the thirty-two week school year, ETV programmes are shown on ATV World from 10:00 am to 12:00 pm and TVB Pearl from 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm each weekday.
Both ATV World and TVB Pearl are permitted by the Broadcasting Authority of Hong Kong to broadcast non-Hong Kong English programmes for up to 20% of their daily transmission time, outside peak viewing time. In fact, only 12% of TVB Pearl programmes are in languages other than Hong Kong English: 83.6% of those (10% of its total transmission time) are in Hong Kong Cantonese. The remainder include broadcasts in Japanese, Korean, Filipino and Hong Kong Cantonese.
Schedules are published in the South China Morning Post, The Standard and in other daily Hong Kong newspapers, including Chinese newspapers.
ATV World operates its own official website which contains information about the programmes shown by the channel, and a streamed version of ATV News in English.
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