The Broadcasting Authority has imposed a financial penalty on Television Broadcasts and TVB Pay Vision each for $50,000 for contravening the law and their service licences.

Both companies allowed their principal officers and/or director to exercise control in the capacity of disqualified people without the requisite approval of the Chief Executive in Council from November 2004 to January this year. More details of the companies' contraventions can be found here. 

Apart from the financial penalty, the authority considered it necessary for TVB and TVBPV to put in place a compliance mechanism to prevent similar breaches in future.  Both companies have been ordered to submit proposals to boost their internal monitoring systems to the authority within a month.

In July, the Commissioner for Television & Entertainment Licensing handled 92 cases involving 204 complaints, of which four cases involving five complaints were classified as minor breaches and 76 cases involving 178 complaints as unsubstantiated.