ATV World

ATV World

Country	China
Broadcast area	Hong Kong Macau Guangdong Province
Programming
Language(s)	English
Picture format	576i(PAL)4:3 576i(SDTV)16:9
Ownership
Owner	Asia Television
History
Launched	29 May 1957(1957-05-29)
Closed	2 April 2016(2016-04-02)
Replaced by	RTHK TV 33ACCTV-1Mandarin (on analogue)
Former names	Rediffusion TelevisionEnglish Network(29 May 1957 – 29 September 1963) Rediffusion Television English Channel(30 September 1963 – 1 February 1967) RTV-2(2 February 1967 – 23 September 1982) ATV English(24 September 1982 – 1 February 1987) ATV Diamond(2 February 1987 – 12 February 1989) ATV World(13 February 1989 – 2 April 2016)
Links
Website	HKatv /World (in English)
Availability
Terrestrial
Hong Kong Analogue	Varied by district
Hong Kong Digital	Channel 16

ATV World
Traditional Chinese	Quốc tế đài
Transcriptions Yue: Cantonese Yale Romanization Gwok zai tòih Jyutping Gwok3 zai3 toi4

ATV headquarters building on Broadcast Drive.

ATV World,was one of twofree-to-airEnglish languagetelevision channels in Hong Kong, the other being its arch-rivalTVB Pearl.Its sister station,ATV Home,broadcast inCantonese language.It is owned and operated byAsia Television,and was broadcast from theATV Enterprises Officeat 25–37 Dai Shing Street inTai Po Innovation ParkinTai Po,which is in theTai Po District,in the North East region of Hong Kong'sNew Territories.

History

ATV World's English channel,Rediffusion Television,began as acable-operated andsubscription-basedpay television serviceon 29 May 1957 known on-air asRediffusion Television English Network

On 30 September 1963, the channel was renamedRediffusion Television Cantonese ChannelandRediffusion Television English Channel.On 1 February 1967, the channels were renamedRTV-1andRTV-2respectively. On 1 December 1973, Rediffusion Television was granted a free-to-airterrestrial television broadcastinglicense for its two television channels, and closed its cable television channels.On 24 September 1982, Rediffusion Television was bought out by the newATV,and consequently the Cantonese and English language channels were renamedATV CantoneseandATV Englishrespectively. The channels were again renamed on 2 February 1987 asATV GoldandATV Diamond,and further renamed on 13 February 1989 as ATV Home andATV World.

ATV World was a 24-hour channel with multi-lingual programmes, transmitted inNICAMin analogue version, and multiple AC-3 streams in digital version. While most of programmes were broadcast inHong Kong English,a few were in eitherStandard Chinese,Koreanor Japanese without Hong Kong English. It was less popular than its English-language rival station TVB Pearl, though by a far smaller margin than ATV Home's loss toHong Kong CantoneserivalTVB Jade.

On 6 June 2012, ATV gained access to theLondon 2012 Olympic Gamesbroadcast rights, and consequently the Games were shown on ATV World.

On 1 April 2015, Hong Kong's Executive Council announced that ATV's broadcast license would not be renewed. ATV ceased over-the-air transmission on 1 April 2016. ATV plans to continue its business as a satellite and online broadcaster.

Shows

ATV World was one of two English-language channels that broadcast in Hong Kong. It offered a variety of programmes, mostly from the United States, ranging from popular serial dramas and films to documentaries and educational shows.

ATV stopped carrying the talk showLate Show with David Letterman(David nha sát tao) as of 1 January 2009, but there was a grassroots movement to bring it back. Arts and sports programming were also offered (e.g.local horse racing,in ChineseĐua ngựa thẳng đánh).Mandarinand Korean programmes were available on ATV World at off-peak hours.

ATV World's flagship English news programme was the "Main News and Weather Report at 7:30" provided under the collective effort ofATV News.It also relayed theXinwen Lianbonews programme from Chinese television channel,CCTV-1,which is the primary channel of the Chinese television network,China Central Television(CCTV), in thePeople's Republic of Chinawhich is also available throughout Hong Kong.

Given its focus on Hong Kong English-language programming in a predominantly Hong Kong Cantonese-speaking market, ATV World carried relatively little advertising and was subsidised by ATV Home. Both of the-then free-to-air television companies in Hong Kong were required by the government to provide a Hong Kong English-language service. In the face of competition from TVB Pearl, ATV World had 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.

Sincethe Hong Kong governmentdoes not have its own television station, its agencyRadio Television Hong Kong(RTHK) required the-then two domestic free television stations to broadcast their programmes and advertisements. One of the well known programmes isEducational Television(ETV) which began in 1971. This followed the Hong Kong education syllabus, serving as a reference for primary and secondary school students of mathematics, Hong Kong English,Putonghuaand other school subjects. During the thirty-two-week school year, ETV programmes were shown on ATV World from 10:00 to 12:00 and TVB Pearl from 14:00 to 16:00 each weekday.

Non-English programmes

Both ATV World and TVB Pearl were 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 thanHong Kong English:83.6% of those (10% of its total transmission time) are in Hong Kong Cantonese. The remainder include broadcasts in Japanese,Korean,FilipinoandHong Kong Cantonese.

Schedules

Schedules were published in theSouth China Morning Post,The Standardand in other dailyHong Kong newspapers,including Chinese newspapers. ATV World operated its own official website which contained information about the programmes shown by the channel, and a streamed version of ATV News in English.