Ordinary Gweilo

Today is the day when digital terrestrial TV (DTT) comes to Hong Kong.  But only in some parts of Hong Kong (apparently covering 50% of the population, but excluding most of the New Territories).  And only if your building has the right equipment installed.  And only if you have the right type of set-top box.

So it seems I am going to miss out on the delights of digital TV, such as they are. 

These apparently include an HD version of Jade but not Pearl, which is kinda odd given that many of the shows on Pearl are from US and are available in HD.  It’s hard to see what HD is going to add to the wooden sets and wooden acting of the average Jade “drama”. 

That’s not all.  According to Saturday’s SCMP, ATV is going to launch a ‘cultural’ channel:

Plus TV will showcase RTHK television classics – including Below the Lion Rock, Chinese opera shows, as well as documentaries on museums and collective memories – on weekends from 10pm to 11pm. It will also feature at other times documentaries and music programmes produced by the BBC, CCTV and the Discovery Channel, and will be launched by Asia Television and RTHK.

RTHK assistant director Cheung Man-sun said he was glad to have the opportunity to provide the public with more choice.

And I bet ATV is glad to have lots of cheap content.

Today both English language newspapers report a Friends of the Earth “survey” about people replacing their TV sets for digital TV.  Hong Kong’s first FREE English newspaper has the funniest  headline (Half a million sets likely to be dumped in HD-TV frenzy) and a story that is equally, er, splendid:

Nearly half a million television sets are set to be junked after the launch of digital television tonight. The enhanced sights and sounds of high-definition TV will be broadcast free by Asia Television and Television Broadcasts from 7pm.

Those living in Kowloon peninsula, the northern part of Hong Kong Island, part of Sha Tin and eastern areas of Lantau will initially be able to receive HDTV broadcasts.  This will allow better viewing of next years Beijing Olympics, including Hong Kongs equestrian events.

But there is a negative side to HDTV, Friends of the Earth said yesterday. The group fears nearly half a million TV sets may be junked in landfills next year amid the craze for HDTV.

Of the 2,075 people polled by the group between July 23 and December 19, nearly one-fifth said they will buy an HDTV set to watch the new broadcasting channels.

Er, well, I’m not so sure that people of Hong Kong are really going to go crazy for the “enhanced sights and sounds of high-definition TV”. Love the clichés, though – keep up the good work.

To be fair the SCMP also had a badly-written story on the subject:

Three-quarters of households will be able to enjoy better-quality television images of the Beijing Olympics next August after the city’s two free-to-air broadcasters said they would speed up the provision of digital services.

The government announced in June that digital terrestrial television would be introduced on December 31 for 50 per cent of the population through the first transmission station at Temple Hill. It would be extended to cover 75 per cent of households by the end of next year with the opening of five more stations.

By this point in the story, I was getting very confused.  I thought they had said it would be brought forward to August?   No, it’s just a badly-written piece.

But there was criticism at the time that this was too slow.

Frederick Ma Si-hang, the secretary for commerce and economic development, said yesterday: “We do want to speed up the progress in opening another five transmission stations in August next year so as to meet the opening of the Beijing Olympics.”

Television Broadcasts (TVB) and Asia Television (ATV) are official broadcasters for the Olympics and will air programmes in the new high-definition format. They will each invest HK$400 million in the transmission stations.

The five transmission stations to be opened in the second phase will be located on Lamma Island, Castle Peak in Tuen Mun, Golden Hill in Kwai Chung, Kowloon Peak in eastern Kowloon and Cloudy Hill in the New Territories.

The story was accompanied by a map that was worse than useless, as it failed to show the areas covered by each of the transmitters.

If the target date for the second phase of transmitters to be online is August, how many buildings will have all the equipment in place in time for the Olympics?