ATV Home
Encyclopedia
ATV Home also call aTV1, is one of the free-to-air Cantonese language
television channels in Hong Kong
, the other being its arch-rival TVB Jade
. Its sister station, ATV World
, broadcasts in English
. It is owned and operated by Asia Television Limited
, and is broadcast from the ATV Enterprises Office at 25-37 Dai Shing Street in Tai Po Industrial Estate
in Tai Po
, which is in the Tai Po District
, in the North East region of Hong Kong's New Territories
.
, began as a cable-operated and subscription-based TV service on 29 May 1957 known on-air as Rediffusion Television, and on 30 September 1963, the channel was renamed Rediffusion Television Cantonese Channel and Rediffusion Television English Channel. On 1 February 1967, the channels were renamed RTV-1 and RTV-2 respectively. On 1 June 1973, Rediffusion Television was granted a free-to-air television broadcasting license for its two television channels, and closed its cable television channels. On 24 September 1982, Rediffusion Television was bought out by the new ATV
, and consequently the Cantonese and English language
channel was renamed ATV Cantonese and ATV English. The channel was again renamed on 2 February 1987 as ATV Gold and ATV Diamond The channel was again renamed on 13 February 1989 as ATV Home and ATV World.
ATV Home is broadcast 24 hours per day with many programmes carrying simultaneous dual-language audio tracks, through NICAM
in analogue version, or multiple AC-3 streams in digital version. While most of the programmes are broadcast in Cantonese, a few are in either Mandarin
, Korean
or Japanese
.
In recent years, ATV has created and hosted certain large-scale award shows, the most well-known of which would probably be The Annual Most Popular TV Commercial Awards (十大電視廣告頒獎禮).
Other 'infotainment' programmes like Stories From Afar (尋找他鄉的故事) ranked highly in the Appreciation Index Survey Best Television Awards (香港電視節目欣賞指數), as reflected by a public review.
Some ATV programmes, such as the entertainment news show Hong Kong Today (今日睇真D) and Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? (百萬富翁), have proved particularly popular, prompting the usually far more popular TVB to offer similar fare.
Hong Kong Cantonese
Hong Kong Cantonese is a form of Yue Chinese commonly spoken in Hong Kong. Although Hongkongers largely identify this variant of Chinese with the term "Cantonese" , a variety of publications in mainland China describe the variant as Hong Kong speech...
television channels in Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
, the other being its arch-rival TVB Jade
TVB Jade
TVB Jade is a flagship TV channel in Hong Kong, established by Television Broadcasts Limited, and is one of the free-to-air Cantonese language television channels in Hong Kong, the other being its arch-rival ATV Home...
. Its sister station, ATV World
ATV World
ATV World , is one of the free-to-air English language television channels in Hong Kong, the other being its arch-rival TVB Pearl. Its sister station, ATV Home, broadcasts in Cantonese language...
, broadcasts in English
Hong Kong English
Hong Kong English may refer to two different yet interrelated concepts. The first concept refers to the variation or dialect of the English language used in Hong Kong. The second concept refers to the accent and elements as a result of its use by Cantonese speakers.For the first meaning, Hong Kong...
. It is owned and operated by Asia Television Limited
Asia Television Limited
Asia Television Limited is one of the two free-to-air television broadcasters in Hong Kong, the other being rival Television Broadcasts Limited . It launched in 1957 under the name Rediffusion Television as the first television station in Hong Kong...
, and is broadcast from the ATV Enterprises Office at 25-37 Dai Shing Street in Tai Po Industrial Estate
Tai Po Industrial Estate
Tai Po Industrial Estate is an industrial estate on the reclamation in Tai Po Hoi, surrounded by villages of Yue Kok, Kau Shi Wai, Tin Sam and Ha Hang on the former shore, in Tai Po District, New Territories, Hong Kong. It is at the northeast of Tai Po Market and connected by Ting Kok Road. Its...
in Tai Po
Tai Po
Tai Po is an area in the New Territories of Hong Kong. It refers to the vicinity of the traditional market towns in the area presently known as Tai Po Old Market or Tai Po Kau Hui and the Tai Wo Town on the other side of the Lam Tsuen River, near the old Tai Po Market Station of the...
, which is in the Tai Po District
Tai Po District
Tai Po District is one of the 18 districts of Hong Kong. It covers the areas of Tai Po, Tai Po Kau, Ting Kok, Plover Cove and the northern part of Sai Kung Peninsula on both shores of Tolo Channel. It is located in the New Territories...
, in the North East region of Hong Kong's New Territories
New Territories
New Territories is one of the three main regions of Hong Kong, alongside Hong Kong Island and the Kowloon Peninsula. It makes up 86.2% of Hong Kong's territory. Historically, it is the region described in The Convention for the Extension of Hong Kong Territory...
.
From Rediffusion to ATV
ATV Home's Cantonese channel, Rediffusion TelevisionRediffusion Television
Rediffusion Television was the first television station in Hong Kong, established on May 29, 1957, making it both the first British colony and the first predominantly Chinese city to have television...
, began as a cable-operated and subscription-based TV service on 29 May 1957 known on-air as Rediffusion Television, and on 30 September 1963, the channel was renamed Rediffusion Television Cantonese Channel and Rediffusion Television English Channel. On 1 February 1967, the channels were renamed RTV-1 and RTV-2 respectively. On 1 June 1973, Rediffusion Television was granted a free-to-air television broadcasting license for its two television channels, and closed its cable television channels. On 24 September 1982, Rediffusion Television was bought out by the new ATV
Asia Television Limited
Asia Television Limited is one of the two free-to-air television broadcasters in Hong Kong, the other being rival Television Broadcasts Limited . It launched in 1957 under the name Rediffusion Television as the first television station in Hong Kong...
, and consequently the Cantonese and English language
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
channel was renamed ATV Cantonese and ATV English. The channel was again renamed on 2 February 1987 as ATV Gold and ATV Diamond The channel was again renamed on 13 February 1989 as ATV Home and ATV World.
ATV Home is broadcast 24 hours per day with many programmes carrying simultaneous dual-language audio tracks, through NICAM
NICAM
Near Instantaneous Companded Audio Multiplex is an early form of lossy compression for digital audio. It was originally developed in the early 1970s for point-to-point links within broadcasting networks...
in analogue version, or multiple AC-3 streams in digital version. While most of the programmes are broadcast in Cantonese, a few are in either Mandarin
Standard Mandarin
Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Chinese, also known as Mandarin or Putonghua, is the official language of the People's Republic of China and Republic of China , and is one of the four official languages of Singapore....
, Korean
Korean language
Korean is the official language of the country Korea, in both South and North. It is also one of the two official languages in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture in People's Republic of China. There are about 78 million Korean speakers worldwide. In the 15th century, a national writing...
or Japanese
Japanese language
is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...
.
Competitive disadvantage
Partly due to its relatively late arrival as a free-to-air Cantonese-language TV station compared with its rival TVB Jade, its less well-established name and its lower operating budgets, ATV Home has struggled to compete with TVB Jade. The lack of well-established stars, far fewer new series, less compelling dramas or entertaining variety shows, has also made it very difficult for ATV to overhaul TVB's large ratings lead. However, the channel has made considerable efforts in recent years to gain a larger audience share, and a few shows now out-rate those of TVB Jade.Programmes on ATV Home
Although far less popular or numerous than TVB drama series, ATV-produced drama is still quite well regarded, and some have attained popular and critical acclaim, including Crocodile Tears (鱷魚淚), Fatherland (大地恩情), The Legendary Fok (大侠霍元甲), Central Affairs I and II (情陷夜中環) and Reincarnated (天蠶變). Recent productions of note include The Pride Of Chao Zhou (我來自潮州), Who is the Winner? (勝者為王), King Of The Gambler (千王之王重出江湖) and The Good Old Days (再見艷陽天).In recent years, ATV has created and hosted certain large-scale award shows, the most well-known of which would probably be The Annual Most Popular TV Commercial Awards (十大電視廣告頒獎禮).
Other 'infotainment' programmes like Stories From Afar (尋找他鄉的故事) ranked highly in the Appreciation Index Survey Best Television Awards (香港電視節目欣賞指數), as reflected by a public review.
Some ATV programmes, such as the entertainment news show Hong Kong Today (今日睇真D) and Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? (百萬富翁), have proved particularly popular, prompting the usually far more popular TVB to offer similar fare.
Drama series
A list of drama series produced by ATV:- 1993: Shanghai Godfather II (再見黃埔灘 II 之再起風雲)
- 1994: Bays Of Being Parents (可憐天下父母心)
- 1994: Beauty Pageant (ATV) (鳳凰傳説)
- 1994: Secret Battle Of The Majesty (君臨天下)
- 1994: Outlaw Hero (法外英雄)
- 1995: Vampire Expert (僵屍道長)
- 1995: Pao Qingtian (a.k.a. Judge Bao) (包青天之公正廉明)
- 1996: The Little Vagrant Lady (飃零燕)
- 1996: King Of Gamblers (千王之王重出江湖)
- 1996: Vampire Expert II (僵屍道長II)
- 1996: Tales From The Dorms (坊間故事之甘戴綠頭巾)
- 1996: The Little Vagrant Lady II (飃零燕 II 之孤星淚)
- 1997: Year Of Chameleon (97 變色龍)
- 1997: Coincidentally (等著你回來)
- 1997: Pride Of Chaozhou (我來自潮州)
- 1997: Gold Rush (著數一族)
- 1998: Thou Shalt Not Cheat (呆佬賀壽)
- 1998: The Heroine of the YangsThe Heroine of the YangsThe Heroine of the Yangs is an ATV series aired in Hong Kong in 1998.-Story:The story is about the Yang warriors going to wars and the power struggle between two countries Song and the Liu...
(穆桂英大破天門陣) - 1998: Heroine Of The Yangs II (穆桂英 II 十二寡婦征西)
- 1998: I Come From Guangzhou (我來自廣州)
- 1998: My Date with a VampireMy Date with a VampireMy Date with a Vampire is a 1998 Hong Kong television series produced by ATV. It was followed by My Date with a Vampire II and My Date with a Vampire III . The drama starred Eric Wan and Joey Meng in the leading roles. The plot is based on future events of the story in Vampire Expert, a similar...
(我和殭屍有個約會) - 1999: Ten Tigers Of Guangdong (廣東十虎) co-produced with the Sanlih Network from Taiwan
- 1999: Flaming Brothers (縱橫四海)
- 2000: My Date with a Vampire 2My Date with a VampireMy Date with a Vampire is a 1998 Hong Kong television series produced by ATV. It was followed by My Date with a Vampire II and My Date with a Vampire III . The drama starred Eric Wan and Joey Meng in the leading roles. The plot is based on future events of the story in Vampire Expert, a similar...
(我和殭屍有個約會II) - 2000: Showbiz Tycoon
- 2001: To Where He Belongs
- 2001: Healing Hearts (俠骨仁心)
- 2002: Mission In Trouble
- 2004: Asian Heroes
- 2004: My Date with a Vampire 3 - the Eternal LegendMy Date with a VampireMy Date with a Vampire is a 1998 Hong Kong television series produced by ATV. It was followed by My Date with a Vampire II and My Date with a Vampire III . The drama starred Eric Wan and Joey Meng in the leading roles. The plot is based on future events of the story in Vampire Expert, a similar...
(我和殭屍有個約會III之永恆國度) - 2006: Walled VillageWalled villageA walled village is a type of large traditional multi-family communal living structure found in China, that is designed to be easily defensible. It is completely surrounded by thick defensive walls, protecting the residents from the attack of wild animals and enemies. Usually, people living in the...
- 2006: Relentless Justice (AKA No Turning Back)
- 2008: Flaming ButterflyFlaming butterflyFlaming Butterfly was a drama series produced by Hong Kong broadcaster Asia Television. It was the first series to be filmed in High Definition by ATV. The series consisted of 40 1-hour episodes, but 21 of them were re-edited into 90-minute episodes, making it the second "Drama90" series to be...
(火蝴蝶) - 2008: The Men of Justice (法網群英)