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The Government is proposing to revise the annual licence fees of the television programme service licences under the Broadcasting Ordinance (Cap. 562) to reflect the latest administrative cost of regulating the television industry.
The Broadcasting (Revision of Licence Fees) Regulation 2006, proposing the fee revisions, was published in the gazette today (May 12).
The fee levels of the existing four categories of television programme service licence - domestic free television programme service licence, domestic pay television programme service licence, non-domestic television programme service licence, and other licensable television programme service licence - will be revised based on the result of a costing exercise conducted by the Television and Entertainment Licensing Authority (TELA) recently. Details of the fee revision are set out at annex.
A spokesman for the Commerce, Industry and Technology Bureau said it was government policy that fees should in general be set at levels sufficient to recover the full costs of providing the services. The existing fees have been in effect since February, 2001.
¡°According to the fee revision proposal, some fees will be reduced due to reduction in the general administrative costs as a result of improvement of efficiency and streamlining of work procedure," the spokesman said.
¡°On the other hand, intensified competition in the television market and technological convergence in the communications industry have led to increased workload and complexity of regulatory issues. When dealing with regulatory matters, the Broadcasting Authority often needed to engage external consultancies to provide market and economic analyses, as well as legal and technical advice.
¡°All these have led to an increase in the administrative costs of regulating the television industry. Some of the licence fees, therefore, have to be increased accordingly,¡± the spokesman said.
The revised fees will come into effect on July 7, 2006, subject to the approval of the Legislative Council.
Ends/Friday, May 12, 2006
Issued at HKT 11:00
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