Govt defends cuts to RTHK’s TV production budget

The government minister who oversees RTHK on Friday defended a decision to slash the public broadcaster’s budget for TV production by almost 10 percent in the next fiscal year.

Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development Edward Yau called it a slight reduction after the switch to digital broadcasting.

According to the budget blueprint on Wednesday, RTHK faces a 4.6 percent reduction in its overall budget in the 2021/2022 financial year, with the biggest cuts to be made in TV production.

Yau explained that TV funding was originally aimed for analogue broadcasts, which stopped when Hong Kong fully switched to digital transmission in December.

“Every department, including RTHK, would usually submit their expenditure proposals based on need.

“In the coming year, RTHK’s expenses, with regard to TV and public affairs, will be seeing a slight reduction largely because we have stopped analogue services as a result of the success of going digital. So, expenses originally in that area, of course, would need to be trimmed down to reflect the real situation,” he said.

“So I don’t see any particular situation regarding that because it’s based on the actual projection of work.”

Yau also pointed out that the budget cuts were not related to a recent review on RTHK highlighting deficiencies in various areas.