{{short description|First television station in Hong Kong}} {{about|the Hong Kong station|the defunct ITV contractor in London|Associated-Rediffusion|Rediffusion in general|Rediffusion|its successor|Asia Television}} {{for|Indonesian television network known as RTV|RTV (Indonesian TV network)}} {{Infobox broadcasting network | name = Rediffusion Television<br />RTV<br>{{lang|zh-Hant-HK|麗的呼聲}} | logo = | logo_size = 150 | logo_alt = | logo caption = | image = | image_size = 150 | image_alt = | caption = | type = Subsidiary | branding = | country = British Hong Kong | airdate = 22 March 1949 (radio)<br>29 May 1957 (television) | available = | founded = | founder = | motto = | slogan = | tvtransmitters = British Hong Kong | license_area = | headquarters = Broadcast Drive, British Hong Kong | broadcast_area = British Hong Kong | area = | nation = | regions = | owner = BET, Broadcast Relay Services | parent = | key_people = | established = | launch_date = | dissolved = {{end date and age|1982|9|24|df=y}} | former_names = | Picture format = | affiliation = | groups = | former_affiliations = | webcast = | website = | language = English<br>Cantonese | replaced = | replaced_by = Asia Television | subsidiary = | footnotes = }} {{Chinese | t = 麗的電視有限公司 | s = 丽的电视有限公司 | p = Lì de diànshì yǒuxiàn gōngsī | j = Lai6 dik1 din6 si6 jau5 haan6 gung1 si1 | y = Laih dīk dihn sih yáuh haahn gūng sī }}
'''Rediffusion Television''' ({{zh|t_hk=麗的呼聲}}, '''RTV''') is a defunct television station in Hong Kong. It was the city's first broadcaster and the first in any British colony or majority-Chinese city.<ref name="Kitley">Kitley, Philip. [2003] (2003). ''Television, Regulation and Civil Society in Asia''. Routledge. {{ISBN|0-415-29733-8}}</ref> It began as a radio station in 1949 and became Asia Television on 24 September 1982.
==History== Radio Rediffusion was officially founded in 1949 as a wired radio station run by the Rediffusion company. The radio service was highly successful against its main competitor, Commercial Radio. Some of the early contents included plays, stories, concerts and Cantonese operas. The broadcasts were one of the main attractions in Hong Kong tea shops. One of the most famous broadcasters was Li Ngaw: another was Uncle Ray, the pioneering DJ.
It later became a subscription cable television station on 29 May 1957, becoming the first television station in a colony of the British Empire,<ref name="standnews">{{cite web|script-title=zh:由麗的到亞視 一個電視台的終結|trans-title=From Rediffusion To ATV: The End of a Television Station|url=https://atv.thestandnews.com/|website=Standnews|access-date=5 April 2016|archive-date=20 April 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160420085358/https://atv.thestandnews.com/|url-status=dead}}</ref> as well as the first television station in a predominantly Chinese city. It initially offered a four-hour-per-day English-language and Chinese-language service. The installation fee during its launch was HK$25, with an equipment rental fee of $45, and a monthly subscription charge of $36.<ref name="standnews"/>
The charge was considered expensive, at a time when the average worker in Hong Kong earned HK$100 per month.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Ye|first1=Jingsi|script-title=zh:新聞背景：過不了60大壽的香港亞洲電視|trans-title=News Background: An ATV That Did Not Live To Celebrate Its 60th Birthday|url=http://www.bbc.com/zhongwen/trad/china/2016/04/160401_profile_hongkong_atv|access-date=28 April 2016|publisher=British Broadcasting Corporation|date=1 April 2016}}</ref> Hong Kong tea shops again provided an outlet for the broadcasts to the working class who could not afford the subscription fees.
By 1962, 150,000 viewers were Rediffusion Television subscribers.<ref>Rediffusion overseas, ''Fusion'', Nº 27, November 1962</ref> The figure for households was 110,000 as of 1971. The cable system was selected in order not to be received in mainland China.<ref name="TV70s">{{cite book |title=The Universal Eye: World Television in the Seventies |date=1972 |author= Timothy Green |publisher=The Bodley Head |url=https://www.worldradiohistory.com/BOOKSHELF-ARH/Business/The-Universal-Eye-Green-1972.pdf |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20241221080341/https://www.worldradiohistory.com/BOOKSHELF-ARH/Business/The-Universal-Eye-Green-1972.pdf |archive-date=21 December 2024}}</ref>{{rp|247}}
When competitor TVB made its first free-to-air broadcast on 19 November 1967, RTV had 67,000 subscribers. It was renamed Rediffusion Television Limited (RTV; {{zh|t_hk=麗的電視有限公司|labels=no}}) on 1 June 1973 when it was granted its free-to-air terrestrial broadcasting license. Cable television broadcasts were ceased thereafter. On 24 September 1982 it was renamed as Asia Television (ATV; {{zh|t_hk=亞洲電視|labels=no}}).
==See also== * Television in Hong Kong * Commercial Radio Hong Kong
==References== {{Reflist}}
{{Television in Hong Kong}} {{Authority control}}
Category:Defunct television networks Category:Television stations in Hong Kong Category:Television channels and stations established in 1957 Category:Asia Television Category:Defunct companies of Hong Kong Category:Television channels and stations disestablished in 1982