Communications in Hong Kong includes a wide-ranging and sophisticated network of radio, television, telephone, Internet, and related online services, reflecting Hong Kong's thriving commerce and international importance.
Television Broadcasts Limited (TVB) is a television broadcasting company based in Hong Kong. The company operates five free-to-air terrestrial television channels in Hong Kong, with TVB Jade as its main Cantonese language service, and TVB Pearl as its main English service. TVB is headquartered at TVB City at the Tseung Kwan O Industrial Estate.
Television in Hong Kong is primarily in Cantonese and English. It is delivered through analogue and digital terrestrial, cable, IPTV, and the Internet. Satellite TV is not common, although many housing estates have dishes and re-distribute a limited number of free channels through coaxial cables. The dominant broadcaster is TVB, ViuTV and HOY TV.
Star World is an English language entertainment television channel originally launched on 15 December 1991 by Star TV in Hong Kong as the old iteration of Star Plus. Originally available in Southeast Asia and Hong Kong, as well as India and South Asia, since 2024 it is only available in the Middle East and North Africa after the closure of the Indian and Taiwanese feeds.
Disney Networks Group Asia Pacific was a Hong Kong-based commercial broadcasting company operating multiple specialty television channels. The company was founded in 1991 by Hong Kong businessman Richard Li.
TVB Jade, or simply Jade, is a Hong Kong Cantonese-language free-to-air television channel owned and operated by Television Broadcasts Limited (TVB) as its flagship service, alongside its sister network, the English-language TVB Pearl. Broadcasting started on 19 November 1967. It is headquartered at TVB City at the Tseung Kwan O Industrial Estate in Tseung Kwan O, in the Sai Kung District. Primarily broadcasting entertainment programming, TVB Jade has historically been the most dominant television channel in the region in terms of viewership, with its closest competitor having been the now-defunct ATV Home.
Channel [V] is a Chinese and former Asian pay television musical network originally launched by Star TV Hong Kong. It was part of the unit of Disney International Operations, and was launched in September 1991 to replace the first incarnation of MTV's Asian operation before it was shut down on October 1, 2021.
Television in Singapore began on 15 February 1963. The public broadcaster, MediaCorp TV, has a monopoly on terrestrial television channels and is fully owned by government holding company Temasek Holdings. Local pay TV operators are StarHub TV and Singtel TV. The private ownership of satellite dishes was previously forbidden.
The BBC is forbidden under its charter to directly undertake any commercial operations on-air within the United Kingdom; however, no such restriction applies to operations in other countries. Therefore, the BBC exploits its massive television archive by operating a number of commercial television channels outside the UK through its BBC Studios subsidiary.
Star Hub TV is a pay television service provided by StarHub in Singapore. It has been a subsidiary of StarHub Limited since StarHub acquired Singapore Cable Vision (SCV) in 2001, and was the sole pay-TV operator in the country until 2007 when mio TV, an IPTV service from its competitor, Singtel, was launched.
Best News Entertainment is a New Zealand television, radio and print media company specialising in media for Asian migrants and Asian language communities. It operates TV32, a free-to-air television channel on the Freeview platform and three 24-hour radio networks through terrestrial radio.
Star Chinese Channel was a Taiwanese general entertainment television channel operated by The Walt Disney Company (Taiwan) Ltd. Its programming features drama, variety, lifestyle, and talk shows in Mandarin. Launched on 21 October 1991 at 16:30 Hong Kong Time by its predecessor Star TV, the channel originally targeted audiences in Greater China broadcasting in both Mandarin and Cantonese, before it reduced broadcasting area to just Taiwan and began broadcasting only in Mandarin on 30 March 1996. Both Star Chinese Channel, along with its sister channel Star Entertainment Channel, closing down on January 1, 2024, as Disney further enrolled Disney+ streaming platform.
Star Chinese Movies was a Chinese language pay television channel owned by Disney Networks Group Pacific Ltd. It features Chinese films.
The television industry in China includes high-tech program production, transmission and coverage. China Central Television is China's largest state-run national television broadcaster. By 1987, two-thirds of people in China had access to television, while today, over 3,000 channels are available in the country.
Hub E City is a cable television StarHub TV channel 825 which belongs to StarHub. Its programming consists solely of drama series and hot entertainment programmes from Taiwan, Japan and Korea, dubbed into Mandarin for dramas and also airs highly rated Taiwanese variety shows presented by popular hosts. There are commercial breaks during programmes on every 30 minutes. Starhub CableTV's channel 826 is E City +2 channel, showing programmes they air 2 hours before at a 2-hour later timeslot, which is still under the Chinese Entertainment Basic Group together with its Start Over and Catch Up TV buttons. Now Starhub also has added Starhub CableTV's channel 111, a simulcast of E City channel 825. Initially both of them are complimentary only on for one and a half years from 25 April 2011 to 31 December 2012, however, the complimentary viewing extended for two more years, which ends on 31 December 2014
Fox was a pan-Asian pay television channel, owned and operated by Fox Networks Group Asia Pacific, a subsidiary of Disney International Operations.
RTM TV2 is a Malaysian free-to-air public television channel owned and operated by the Radio Televisyen Malaysia, a broadcasting department of the Malaysian Government. Launched on 17 November 1969, TV2 is the second and second oldest TV station in Malaysia. The channel features mostly English, Mandarin and Tamil news and talk shows, the latter two languages were mainly produced for the dominant minority Chinese and Indian communities, whilst the English news functions for the nation's multiracial population whose dominant lingua franca or first language is the latter. It also offers some in-house, local and international entertainment programs, including reality shows, films and dramas as well as sports programming.
Fox Sports Asia was a pan-Asian pay television network broadcasting in Asia, operated by Fox Networks Group Asia Pacific, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company Pte. Ltd. It also oversaw a version of Star Sports available in Mainland China and South Korea. Originally launched in early 1990s as Star Sports and ESPN by Satellite Television Asian Region and ESPN International respectively, both parties agreed to combine their operations in Asia in October 1996. News Corporation took the full control of the venture in 2012, and relaunched the channels in two phases in January 2013 and August 2014, respectively.
The distribution of cable television around the world:
Hub Drama First is a Hong Kong drama channel co-established by TVBI and StarHub. While broadcasting the newest HK drama on the same time HK does, it also plays TVB dramas that are firstly released overseas. This channel was officially launched on 2 June 2014.
