To tie in with the latest Government policy in authorising football betting, the Broadcasting Authority approved today amendments to both its television and radio codes of practice on advertising to allow the broadcast of advertisements on football betting authorised under the Betting Duty Ordinance outside the hours of 4pm and 8:30pm daily.

The broadcast of advertisements on football betting publications and pre-recorded information service on football betting would also be allowed. The proposed amendments are similar to those applicable to lotteries advertisement sand advertisement for horse racing publications and pre-recorded information services.

New CETV shareholding structure proposal wins approval

The authority today approved the proposed change in the shareholding structure of China Entertainment Television Broadcast Limited, a non-domestic television programme service licensee.

The change was required after Tom Television Group Limited, a subsidiary of Tom.com Limited, proposed acquiring 64.07% of CETV from Turner Broadcasting System Asia Pacific Inc. The authority is satisfied that the change will not affect the licensee's compliance with the relevant regulatory requirements under the Broadcasting Ordinance.

Professional surveys to gauge public views

The authority is also taking steps to improve its existing machinery to better gauge community views on television and radio programming and advertising standards. In future, the authority will appoint professional survey firms to conduct territory-wide surveys on broadcasting services at regular intervals to track the public's viewing habits and attitudes towards programming and advertising standards.

Thematic surveys will also be conducted as and when necessary. The regular broadcasting services survey and thematic surveys would better satisfy the authority's qualitative information needs.

The authority also reviewed the mode of operation of its Television & Radio Consultative Scheme. To put the scheme to more effective use, members of the scheme will be regrouped into different focus groups to conduct in-depth discussions on thematic issues.

Commercial Radio gets strong warning after complaint

With regard to complaints from the public, the programme "Close Encounter of the Political Kind" broadcast on CR 1 on June 17 from 6:30pm-8pm contained a triad expression which was prohibited from use on radio. CR was given a strong warning to observe more closely the relevant Radio Code of Practice on the use of language.

For details of the other complaints dealt with in July that are classified as minor breaches, unsubstantiated or outside the authority's remit, please refer to the website.