Government Failure: Why the Majority View is Not Heard?
Free-to-air TV Licensing
1. Policy Background
a. 1957-1998
A total of 3 free television licenses granted and 2 television stations survive
In 1957, Rediffusion Television Limited (RTV, now known as Asia Television Limited, ATV) was the first company in Hong Kong granted a television license to operate a wired subscription service. Eight years later, wireless television broadcasting was available, and the first license was granted to Television Broadcasts Limited (TVB) and it started providing free television service in 1967. Before 1973, TVB was the only operator in the free television industry but the monopoly market structure changed as the government decided to issue two more free-to-air television licenses to RTV and Commercial Television Limited respectively in 1973 and 1975. However, Commercial Television Limited ended its operation and declared bankruptcy in 1978. Since then, the government never re-issued the licenses and the whole free television market was dominated by both TVB and RTV (or ATV).
b. September 1998
Review of Television Policy
In 1998, the government started reviewing the whole television policy in Hong Kong, claiming that the objective is to encourage and promote expansion, create a fair, flexible and pro-competition environment in the free television industry.
c. November 2007
A new era of Digital Broadcasting
In fact, analogue television broadcasting was the only broadcasting method before 2007. However, digital technology changed the way of transmitting television program signal. The Commerce and Economic Development Bureau first announced in November 2007 that Hong Kong would adopt the national digital terrestrial tele...
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...n for the government to worry the market cannot sustain if a total of five licenses co-exist in the free television market. It is suggested to grant the license to those which meet the relevant requirements, for example, financial capability, expertise and transmission infrastructure.
6. Conclusion
Why the majority view is not heard? After analyzing the case of the free-to-air television policy, the major problem is we have no democracy in Hong Kong, and the Chief Executive is given too much power. Hence, Introducing universal suffrage and avoid China government blatantly intervening in the affairs of Hong Kong is the best way to correct such political system failures,
As to deal with the market failure, it is suggested that the Commerce and Economic Development bureau set up a list of criterion and grant a license to those who fulfils the basic requirements.
Although the VCR was first released to the public in 1974, it wasn’t until the early 1980’s that the public began catching on to this new invention. Still, the VCR was the most quickly adopted device of its time. In just three years, the sales of VCR’s jumped from 1.3 million units in 1981 to nearly 8 million units in 1984. The popularity of the household device was quite obvious, but the success of the VCR did not come so easily. Three years earlier, in October of 1981, after some struggle, the US court finally ruled that the home taping of broadcast signals was not an infringement. After that, the VCR quickly became a popular household device across the country (Winston 126-129). “The most common use of the VCR’s is to record TV programs fro viewing at a later date” (“VCR’s” 42). This so called “time shifting” was the foundation for the VCR’s success. Aside from its obvious TV connection, the VCR also provided a whole n...
In this paper, I will explain why public support is important, but not essential for the Public Broadcasting Service to fulfill its mission to provide alternative programming to the American public. I will show how public broadcasting would exist without the support of the federal government, and then explain why the positive externalities created by public broadcasting lead to market failure and suggest that government support of PBS is in the best interest of society.
The ‘Golden Age of Television’ is what many refer to as the period between the 1950s and 60s when the television began to establish itself as a prevalent medium in the United States. In 1947, the American Broadcasting Company (ABC), Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS), the National Broadcasting Company (NBC), and the Du Mont Network were the four main television networks that ran stations with regular programming taking place. (Television, 2003) While regular television programming was a new innovation, the television itself had been commercially available for over twenty years prior to the 50s. It was conceived by many worldly innovators and went through several testing stages before it was finally completed in the late twenties. The three main innovators were Niplow - who first developed a rotating disk with small holes arranged in a spiral pattern in 1884, Zworykin - who developed the Iconoscope which could scan pictures and break them into electronic signals (a primitive form of the Cathode Ray Tube) in 1923, and lastly Fansworth - who demonstrated for the first time that it was possible to transmit an electrical image in 1927. (Rollo, 2011) However, one of the many reasons why this medium was successful in the 50s was due to the fact that it became more accessible to the public. Television sets were more affordable to middle class citizens which created further interest in the new technology. Through an historical account of the medium, the spread of television across America throughout this particular decade will be examined.
Obviously the television isn't a new technological development; it's been around since at least the turn of the 1920’s and was readily available for public sale by the late 1930’s (Stephens). After the Second World War, the television expanded with its introduction into the commercial mainstream, and by 1955 it was estimated that roughly half of all American homes had at least one (Stephens). Although certainly impressive, this statistic would only continue to burgeon throughout the decades with the rise of color TV and cable b...
It all started back in 1981 when Vidéotron Ltée and La Presse introduce the first electronic newspaper via cable in Montreal. One year later, The Canadian Radio-television Commission licensed Canada's first pay services and 58% of home televisions were connected to the cable television.
By writing this paper, I hope to introduce the idea to the readers of how the invention the VHS as led to what TV is today. On May 10, 1975 Betamax (also called Beta) developed by Sony was released in Japan. This consumer-level analog videocassette recording format became the medium of choice when it came to making home movies as well as amateur films. “Beta was the first compact, inexpensive, reliable, and easy to use VCR” product in the market. With the introduction of the Betamax to the market, its existence was short-lived. Later in that same decade, the Victor Company of Japan know throughout the word as JVC introduced the Video Home System.
In the early 1970s, the FCC continued it's restrictive policies by enacting regulations that limited the ability of cable operators to offer movies, sporting events, and syndicated programming. The freeze on cable's development lasted until 1972, when a policy of gradual cable deregulation led to, among other things, modified restrictions on the importation of distant signals.
...hat is wanted by the consumer, as opposed to the use-value (ideology) that is needed by capitalism. These two obligations may--but need not--overlap. They may--and probably will--come to contradict each other. Characteristically, it may be precisely when capital and the accumulation of capital become the dynamic of cultural production that the ideological functions secured by that production escape social control and become problematic. In conclusion, we can expect greater possibilities within commercial television than within state-controlled television: the BBC.
The ‘Golden Age of Television’ is what many refer to as the period between the 1950s and 60s when the television began to establish itself as a prevalent medium in the United States. In 1947, the American Broadcasting Company (ABC), Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS), the National Broadcasting Company (NBC), and the Du Mont Network were the four main television networks that ran stations with regular programming taking place. (Television, 2003) While regular television programming was a new innovation, the television itself had been commercially available for over twenty years prior to the 50s. It was conceived by many worldly innovators and went through several testing stages before it was finally completed in the late twenties. The three main innovators were Niplow - who first developed a rotating disk with small holes arranged in a spiral pattern in 1884, Zworykin - who developed the Iconoscope which could scan pictures and break them into electronic signals (a primitive form of the Cathode Ray Tube) in 1923, and lastly Fansworth - who demonstrated for the first time that it was possible to transmit an electrical image in 1927. (Rollo, 2011) However, one of the many reasons why this medium was successful in the 50s was due to the fact that it became more accessible to the public. Television sets were more affordable to middle class citizens which created further interest in the new technology. Through an historical account of the medium, the spread of television across America throughout this particular decade will be examined.
As Munizaga details, the first legal regulation of the Chilean television industry was approved in 1970 in spite of the few existing channels have been already operating for almost two decades. Indeed, the law No. 17,377 passed by the Congress in October, 1970, formalized what was previously operating de facto through rather administrative and executive decisions than actual legal regulations. However, whether it was administrative or legal, the organization of television reserved operations exclusively to the State and some specific universities, despite the –by then- ongoing pressures in order to allow private actors to participate in the novel industry (Munizaga, 1981).
Before television existed people had to depend on Radio stations to receive their little bit of entertainment and news. But in 1878, the invention of TV began. The first TV made didn’t look anything like the way TV’s look today. It was a mechanical camera with a large spinning disc attached to it (Kids Work). But as over the years, of course, inventions of different TV’s progressed and by the 20th century about 90 percent of our population had a TV in their household (MGHR). Television today is mainly used for people take a break from their life by relaxing and enjoying some entertainment.
There has always been controversy as to whether there should be regulations on reality tv shows or not It would be a positive gesture to hold regulations on reality tv. Although having regulations on reality tv limits violence, decreases bad ratings, and makes the show more family oriented, it can make the show less intriguing because it wouldn’t be as melodramatic, it wouldn’t be real if it had rules, and it limits the freedom of the people on the show.
It is said that Universal suffrage which can be also called as universal adult suffrage, general suffrage or common suffrage consists of the extension of the right to vote to adult citizens, it also means extending that right to minors like woman and non-citizens. Where universal suffrage exists, the right to vote is not restricted by race, sex, belief, wealth, or social status. Although suffrage has two necessary components, the right to vote and opportunities to vote, the term universal suffrage is associated only with the right to vote and ignores the frequency that an incumbent government consults the electorate. Our role for this issue is Beijing government whose stance is allowing “Hong Kong people ruling Hong Kong” is under the condition of ruling by patriotic people in the "one country, two systems". and we insists that it should develop by a "gradual and orderly progress".
At just a quarter of a century in governing regulations, listening to complains and making recommendations, while maintaining the standards of the laws of Jamaica as it is concerned with the media. There is one inevitable aspect the Broadcasting Commission has to continuously keep abreast with, and that is change.