2 April 2016 marks a new milestone in the Broadcasting history of Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK). RTHK will extend the transmission hours of RTHK TV31 from 0630 to 2530 and commences simulcast with its new analogue channel RTHK TV31A.

Kirindi CHAN Man-kuen, Assistant Director of Broadcasting (Television and Corporate Businesses) announced today (23 March) in a press conference that the two new analogue television channels will be named as “RTHK TV31A” and “RTHK TV33A”respectively. “A” indicating “Analogue”.  These two channels are the analogue version simulcasting the programming of the RTHK’s digital terrestrial television (DTT) channels “RTHK TV31” and “RTHK TV33” (relay of CCTV-9 Documentary Channel) respectively.  In general, audience with television sets including traditional ones, digital ones or set-top boxes are able to access to RTHK’s TV programmes from 2 April onwards provided that theselocations are being covered by our transmission stations.

LEUNG Chi-wah, Head of Engineering of RTHK, pointed out that analogue transmission would provide a lower picture quality broadcast than the digital one due to some technical restrictions.  TV programmes appearing on RTHK’s DTT channels in 16:9 screen ratio will be transferred to 4:3 format for analogue channels, hence a black-framed screen will be seen on the latter.  He added that the analogue TV signals will be transmitted from 11 stations, namelyTemple Hill, Kowloon Peak, Castle Peak, Cloudy Hill, Lamma Island, Golden Hill, Mount Nicolson, Brick Hill, Chai Wan, Hill 374 (Yuen Long) and Piper’s Hill at the initial phase, covering a total of about 80% local population.  It is expected that the signal transmission will reach about 99% by the end of June this year.

To cater for the different needs and preferences of audience, RTHK has been preparing a vast variety of TV programmes.  In the press conference, Kirindi CHAN Man-kuen and Liane CHENG Wai-fong, Controller (Television) of RTHK, introduced the upcoming programmes.   The brand new programmes include: “This Morning” – Hong Kong’s first-ever live programme with simultaneous sign language interpretation that provides latest news, newspaper commentaries and editorials, traffic and weather reports, as well as outdoor relays; “Talkabout” – live broadcast the widely recognized radio phone-in programme “Talkabout” produced by RTHK Radio 1, helping audience keep abreast of the current affairs; “Hong Kong Today” – a half hour video news report produced by RTHK Newsroom, presenting precise analysis and reports on the local and international hot issues every nights; “Hong Kong Stories” – the first local documentary enabling local ethnic minorities knowing more about the neighbourhood with the aid of Indonesian subtitling.

Focusing on the diversified viewing patterns and needs of the audience, the programmes on RTHK TV31 will be categorized in various thematic timeslots, such as elderly time, women’s time, education and learning time, kids’ time, English-medium time, prime time and classic repack timeslots.  In addition to RTHK’s long-running signature programmes “LegCo Review”, “Police Magazine”, “Headliner”, “Hong Kong Connection” and “Hong Kong Stories Series”, latest productions including “Hong Kong Geographic”, “Artspiration”, “This Week”, “Pet & I”, “Green Journey 3”, “Different Lives”,“Science with You 2”, “China Stories”, “Women with Dreams 5”, “Sign Language 5-Minuter”, “Social Affairs Drama” will be aired during the prime time slot everyday.

RTHK TV programmes will be broadcast on both RTHK TV31 and RTHK TV31A starting from 2 April. Live webcast and programme archive will also be available on RTHK website (tv.rthk.hk) and mobile app RTHK Screen.