MDR Technology Limited
Executive Summary
Objectives
1. The primary objectives of the survey are to collect opinions of Hong Kong Cable Television Limited (HKCTV) subscribers on the quality and acceptability of its broadcasts and to assess whether the existing licence conditions and provisions in the generic codes of practice governing its service are in line with the aspirations of subscribers.
2. In accordance with the above objectives, four major areas of information were collected in the survey from respondents including (a) their habits of watching HKCTV; (b) their views on the domestic pay television programmes and promotional materials broadcast by HKCTV; (c) their level of satisfaction with the customer services provided by HKCTV; and (d) their views on the technical aspects of HKCTV and the locking device.
Sample Design and Data Collection Method
3. A random sample of HKCTV subscribing households was taken from the list of subcribers maintained by HKCTV. From each household, one member of age 12 or above who had continuously watched any HKCTV channel at home for 30 minutes or more in the three months prior to the survey was randomly selected for interview. A total of 1 515 respondents were successfully enumerated by face-to-face interviews during household visits.
Reliability of Survey Findings
4. The sample size achieved would generally produce survey findings with acceptable levels of precision. The following cases are taken for illustration –
Variable / Sample estimate / Coefficientof variation[1] / 95% confidence interval
Proportion of respondents who considered the existing programme variety of HKCTV sufficient / 78.0% / 1.6% / (75.5%, 80.5%)
Proportion of respondents who considered the overall quality of HKCTV programmes good / 51.5% / 3.0% / (48.5%, 54.5%)
Fieldwork Period and Response Rate
5. Fieldwork was carried out between 23 June and 20 July 2003. The response rate was 77.3%.
Survey Findings
6. A summary of the key survey findings is presented below.
A. Habits of Watching HKCTV
7. The survey results indicate that respondents spent more time on watching television during weekends than on weekdays. Similarly, they spent more time on watching HKCTV during weekends than on weekdays. The average time spent on watching television and HKCTV were 3.7 hours and 1.8 hours per day on weekdays and 4.0 hours and 2.1 hours per day during weekends.
8. News 2 (26.0%) was the HKCTV channel they most often watched, followed by Movie 1 (14.4%), Entertainment channel (11.3%), CABLE sports (8.8%), News 1 (8.3%), ESPN (5.0%), Channel A (4.9%), Discovery (4.6%) and STAR Sports (4.4%).
9. They watched HKCTV mainly because “there are many programme types” (41.4%) and “it broadcasts 24 hours a day” (40.4%). Other reasons were “programmes appeal to personal taste” (37.8%), “programmes broadcast at convenient time” (29.8%), “some programmes are only broadcast on HKCTV” (25.1%), “more live programmes originated from outside Hong Kong” (24.6%), “attractive programme content” (24.5%), “a wide choice of programmes for each programme type” (19.1%), “accompany family members” (8.5%) and “more live programmes of Hong Kong origin” (4.3%).
10. 86.4% of the respondents were mostly active viewers (i.e. the HKCTV channels they normally watched were mostly selected by themselves), 5.7% mostly passive viewers (i.e. the HKCTV channels they normally watched were mostly selected by their family members) and 7.9% half active and half passive in watching HKCTV.
· Of those passive viewers, a particularly larger proportion (48.6%) of them claimed that their reason for watching HKCTV was to “accompany family members”.
11. 31.5% of HKCTV subscribing households had members aged 15 or below. Of these households, 57.3% said that the adult members (i.e. members aged 18 or above) would accompany members aged 15 or below to watch HKCTV. The time segment during which the adult members would accompany members aged 15 or below to watch HKCTV was slightly longer during weekends than on weekdays.
(a) On weekdays, the time segments during which the adult members would accompany members aged 15 or below to watch HKCTV were mainly found in the hours from 15:00 to 22:00 in particular the two hours from 19:00 to 21:00.
(b) During weekends, the time segments during which the adult members would accompany members aged 15 or below to watch HKCTV were mainly found in the hours from 14:00 to 22:00.
B. Views on Television Programmes of HKCTV
12. Regarding the television programmes and the programme promotional materials broadcast on HKCTV, respondents’ views are summarized below ¾
(a) 78.0% considered the existing programme variety sufficient while 4.0% held the opposite view.
(b) 51.5% considered the overall programme quality good while 3.1% held the opposite view.
(c) 7.8% had encountered offensive programme contents in the three months prior to the survey.
(i) The channels concerned were mainly movie channels (31.6% for Movie 1, 11.9% for Movie 3, and 11.6% for Movie 2), Entertainment channel (24.1%), AXN (3.9%), Channel A (3.8%) and news channels (3.2% for News 2 and 1.7% for News 1).
(ii) The offensive programme contents were sex (37.4%), indecent materials (36.1%), violence (32.3%), nudity (30.6%), horrible scenes (25.0%), bad language (20.4%) and triad jargon (15.2%).
(d) 58.5% of the respondents considered the current standards applied to the programmes broadcast on HKCTV appropriate while 3.7% considered the standards inappropriate.
(i) The channels concerned were mainly movie channels (41.9% for Movie 1, 15.2% for Movie 3, and 12.4% for Movie 2), Entertainment channel (12.6%) and news channels (4.7% for News 2 and 3.6% for News 1).
(ii) The programme contents concerned were sex (50.3%), indecent materials (43.7%), nudity (37.8%), triad jargon (31.1%), violence (27.3%), bad language (22.2%) and horrible scenes (17.4%).
(e) About 60% of the respondents considered the programme promotional materials on HKCTV had provided sufficient information about the programmes to be broadcast on HKCTV channels (61.4%) and programme contents (57.1%) and had made sufficient cautionary announcements on those programmes that were unsuitable for children or disturbing to some viewers (57.9%). 10%, however, held the opposite views (10.5%, 9.6% and 10.1% respectively).
(f) 11.1% of the respondents had read the “Cable Guide” in the three months prior to the survey. Among them,
(i) Over half considered the “Cable Guide” had provided sufficient information about the programmes to be broadcast on HKCTV channels (58.6%) and programme contents (52.4%) and had made sufficient cautionary announcements on those programmes that were unsuitable for children or disturbing to some viewers (50.2%).
(ii) Over 10%, however, held the opposite views (15.7%, 16.7% and 11.3% respectively).
(g) About 60% of the respondents considered that HKCTV had made clear (62.3%) and sufficient (59.9%) announcements for materials that were unsuitable for children. About 10%, however, held the opposite views (8.5% and 10.3% respectively).
C. Views on Promotional Materials Broadcast on HKCTV
13. In the survey, all the respondents were asked whether they had encountered any offensive promotional materials when watching HKCTV in the three months prior to the survey. The results are as follows ¾
(a) 15.3% had encountered offensive promotional materials when watching the Preview channel in the three months prior to the survey while 56.0% had not and 28.6% had not watched the Preview channel. The offensive materials encountered were related to sex (71.1%), nudity (53.0%), indecent materials (30.9%), horrible scenes (11.2%), violence (10.7%), bad language (5.2%) and triad jargon (4.8%).
(b) 9.8% had encountered offensive promotional materials when watching other HKCTV channels in the three months prior to the survey.
(i) The channels concerned were Entertainment channel (31.8%), movie channels (30.1% for Movie 1, 9.2% for Movie 2 and 4.3% for Movie 3), CABLE Sports (8.6%), News 2 (8.3%) and ESPN (3.4%). 24.6% had forgotten on which channel they had encountered offensive promotional materials.
(ii) The offensive materials were related to sex (65.5%), nudity (45.2%), indecent materials (40.2%), horrible scenes (20.7%), violence (13.0%), triad jargon (6.6%) and bad language (4.2%).
14. Regarding the eight categories of unacceptable products or services[2], which are currently either prohibited on any HKCTV channels or allowed to be broadcast only on the adult channels, over half of the respondents (ranging from 51.6% to 89.7%) agreed that these advertisements, except those for fortune-telling (30.4%), should be subject to the current restriction.
15. 30.4% of the respondents considered that advertisements for fortune-telling should not be allowed for broadcast while 33.0% considered that they should be allowed for broadcast subject to restriction on broadcast time or channel, and 23.7% considered that they should be allowed for broadcast without restriction.
D. Views on Customer Services of HKCTV
16. Of all the respondents, 19.0% had used HKCTV customer hotline for lodging complaints about programmes or advertisements broadcast on HKCTV or other issues in the three months prior to the survey.
17. With regard to the six aspects of customer service of HKCTV shown in the table below, those respondents who had experienced the related services in the three months prior to the survey were asked about their level of satisfaction with the services rendered.
Satisfied / Neither satisfied nor dissatisfied / Dissatisfied
% / % / % / %
(a) Time required for being connected to the Interactive Voice Response System after getting through HKCTV customer service hotline / 53.3 / 35.0 / 30.8 / 34.2
(b) Overall performance of HKCTV hotline staff / 51.0 / 49.6 / 35.8 / 14.6
(c) Time taken from making a request for on-site repair services to arrival of HKCTV maintenance staff / 35.8 / 55.4 / 29.8 / 14.7
(d) Overall performance of HKCTV maintenance staff / 39.4 / 64.2 / 28.6 / 7.2
(e) 24-hour telephone supporting service / 53.3 / 42.2 / 42.6 / 15.2
(f) Information provided or replies given in response to enquiries or requests / 52.3 / 47.4 / 38.5 / 14.0
Generally speaking, the various aspects of HKCTV’s customer service were considered satisfactory or average by most respondents who had experienced the related services, except for the “time required for being connected to the Interactive Voice Response System after getting through HKCTV customer service hotline” where the response was diversified (35.0% satisfied; 30.8% average; and 34.2% dissatisfied).
E. Views on the Technical Aspects of HKCTV Channels and the Locking Device
18. Of all subscribing households of HKCTV, 41.6% had always / sometimes encountered technical problems when watching HKCTV in the three months prior to the survey, with 36.1% having encountered video problems and 17.8% audio problems.
(a) The most common type of video problem they always / sometimes encountered was “interference” (19.8%), followed by “technical breakdowns” (19.1%), “snowy picture” (17.7%), “skew picture” (8.2%), “multiple image” (7.7%) and “colour patches” (7.3%).
(b) As for audio problems, they were mainly “fluctuation in sound volume” (13.7%) and “rustling sound / noise” (8.1%).
(c) For all the technical problems mentioned above, less than 4% of HKCTV subscribing households said that they always encountered such problems except “fluctuation in sound volume” (5.0%).
19. Regarding the video and audio quality of HKCTV channels, two-thirds of the respondents were satisfied (65.8% for video quality and 68.8% for audio quality) while less than 10% were dissatisfied (7.0% and 4.2% respectively).
20. 26.7% of the respondents said that the video and audio quality of other TV channels or closed-circuit TV had been affected after installing HKCTV, with a larger proportion considering the quality worsened (21.0%) than improved (5.7%).
21. A small proportion (2.6%) of the respondents claimed that they had received unencrypted adult channel programmes in the three months prior to the survey.
22. Of those adult respondents (i.e. aged 18 or above), 2.5% had used the “locking device”. Among them, the majority (86.0%) considered that the device could effectively safeguard against unauthorized access to adult materials of HKCTV for children aged 15 or below.
Survey on the Domestic Pay Television Programme Service of Page 8
Hong Kong Cable Television Limited (HKCTV) 2003
[1] Coefficient of variation is obtained by expressing the standard error as a percentage of the estimate to which it refers.
[2] The eight categories of unacceptable products or services are “fortune-telling (excluding publications of general interest)”, “betting (including pool)”, “organizations / companies / persons who are advertising for the purpose of giving betting tips”, “undertakers or others associated with death or burial (except columbaria)”, “vice establishments e.g. night clubs and massage parlours involving sexual activities”, “unlicensed employment services, registries and bureaux”, “escort services in general and dating services targeting at young persons under 18” and “pay-per-call information services offering adult material of sexual nature on channels other than adult channels”.