Rediffusion in Hong Kong

IDJ sent in this advert and says ” I vaguely recall we had it in the first flat we had in HK.”

HF: Below is a brief history of Rediffusion in Hong Kong. I would be grateful if anyone can supplement this with further information on the company and/or provide images of it.

China Mail 29th May 1957

Radio Rediffusion was established in Hong Kong in 1949 featuring the wired distribution of the highly successful Rediffusion radio channels comprising one English language and one Chinese. A further Chinese Channel was added in 1956.

On 29 May 1957, a subscription Television Service was introduced using the same HF wired distribution technique as in the UK.  The service was predominantly English but a Chinese service was introduced in 1963.  By 1967 RTV had over 60,000 subscribers.  The receiving equipment was generally the Televisions and Loudspeakers manufactured by Rediffusion at it’s UK factories. There was no competition until Hong Kong Television Broadcasting Co. Ltd. (HKTVB) was granted a license to transmit an “off air” television programme  in November 1967.

On 6 April 1973 Radio Rediffusion was offered a free-to-air television broadcasting license which eventually saw the end of the cable broadcast service in the colony. The company was renamed Rediffusion Television Limited or RTV. In March 1981, Rediffusion in the sold 61% of his shares to an Australian consortium. This ended the reign of British owned RTV in Hong Kong.

In July 1982, a Chinese Enterprise called Yuen-dung Company bought part of the shares.  On September 24 Lai-dik Broadcast Limited was renamed as Asia Television Limited after acquiring the balance of Rediffusion shares.

Later, in 1984, the Australian consortium sold their holdings in the company to Hong Kong businessman Chiu Tak Kan, Deacon.  Asia Television is now owned by companies of Chinese capital. (1)

Rediffusion House, Broadcast Drive, Hong Kong 1968 Source: www.radioheritage.com

After the war, Rediffusion began operations in several of the then British colonies. These included holding the concessions for wired and over-the-air radio and television stations. A subsidiary company, Overseas Rediffusion, operated these stations and also sold advertising time and programming for them. Stations included the radio station Rediffusion Barbados,^[7] Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and the wired television service Rediffusion Television in Hong Kong, the latter later known as Asia Television. It also opened a company in Jersey in 1949, Rediffusion (Channel Islands) Limited, which obtained a licence to relay radio broadcasts from the States of Jersey in 1950. It also opened a manufacturing division in Jersey, Television Research Limited (TVR) which also provided research facilities for the wired network. This was established in 1952 and was renamed Reditronics Limited in 1976.(2)

Source:

1. radioheritage.com
2. wikipedia

This article was first posted on 16th March 2022.

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4. Proposed world-wide radio-telephonic system for Hong Kong, newspaper article 1938