Hong Kong’s largest provider of free television was on Friday fined HK$300,000 (US$38,200) by the city’s broadcasting watchdog for using four programmes to promote a mobile app developed by its subsidiary.
The penalty was immediately condemned by Television Broadcasts Limited (TVB), which called the decision by the Communications Authority “biased and unfair”.
The authority said TVB had breached the television programme code by indirectly advertising Big Big Channel in programmes screened between last June and October. The mobile video app is the work of TVB’s indirectly owned subsidiary BBCL.
Some 37 complaints had been received about the advertising, the authority said.
Indirect advertising – the mingling or embedding of adverts into programme content, inadvertently or otherwise, with or without a fee – is currently not allowed. But the authority has in recent months been gathering public opinion on whether it should be permitted in specific types of programmes.
