Public TV broadcasters hope high-definition TV draws viewers back to watching free TV, but academics are not sure if that will happen.

Digital terrestrial TV broadcasting began in Hong Kong on December 31.

About half of Hong Kong's population can now watch high-definition broadcasts if they have a set top box or a TV integrated with a set top box.

The two free terrestrial TV broadcasters, Television Broadcasts Limited and Asia Television Limited (ATV), provide at least two hours of high-definition programs daily.

ATV said digital broadcasting provided an opportunity to lure people back to free TV.

Kwok Hoi-ying, ATV's senior vice president of programming, corporate development & external affairs, said that the number of free TV viewers dropped from 3 million 10 years ago to 2.8 million today.

"The audience loss in recent years has been worrying free TV operators," he said.

Some of the viewers switched to pay TV like Cable TV and NOW TV, he said.

He hoped more viewers would be attracted to free digital TV with more channels.

But according to a survey, a quarter of those polled said they would not watch digital terrestrial TV.

Conducted by the University of Hong Kong and commissioned by ATV in December, the survey said 23 percent of 514 interviewees chose not to watch digital terrestrial TV.

And half said they were most attracted to "more free channels" in digital TV.

Cheung Wai-kit, vice president of programming at ATV, said viewers need time to understand digital TV.

Some broadcasters are going to work harder to convince viewers to watch their free digital TV, such as by providing more diversified programs, he said.

Academics, however, are doubtful that high-definition TV can make viewers come back for free TV.

Leung Tin-wai, head of Journalism & Communication at Shue Yan University, said it isn't likely that people will return to free TV for its high-definition programming.

"Twenty years ago, people did not have many choices for entertainment, so they always watched TV, but now people have more pastimes," he said, specifically noting video games and the internet.

He also said the content of free TV programs were not attractive for some Hongkongers, so they switched to pay TV.

"People will only return to free TV if the programming is more attractive," he said.

Edward Yung Kai-ning, director of the Wireless Communications Research Centre at City University of Hong Kong, noted that digital television prices are also dropping quickly as technology gets better.

The price drop, coupled with peer pressure, are going to result in a lot more people going digital.

He estimates that 90 percent of viewers will switch to digital terrestrial TV within five years.

(HK Edition 01/16/2008 page1)