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The following is issued on behalf of the Broadcasting Authority:
Regarding the public complaints received by the Consumer Council on broadcasting services, a spokesman for the Broadcasting Authority (BA) made the following statement today (January 11):
"BA was concerned about the large number of complaints against broadcasting services, mainly against the marketing malpractices of pay TV licensees.
"Pay TV licensees were required to comply with the terms and conditions of their domestic pay television programme service licences under the Broadcasting Ordinance. In particular, they were required to prepare their own codes of practice for customer service, receive and handle complaint cases and formulate working guidelines for their staff. They had already put in place mechanisms to strictly prohibit their staff from adopting dishonest sales practices.
"Although the BA is not empowered by law to investigate alleged malpractice in marketing pay TV services, it will refer complaints received to the operators concerned for follow-up. The BA has also written to the operators to remind them to take heed of such complaints. So far, the BA has not received any complaints about the operators' handling of such referrals."
Ends/Thursday, January 11, 2007
Issued at HKT 19:03
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