Portal:Hong Kong/Selected article/2007/February
Television Broadcasts Limited, commonly known as TVB, was the first over-the-air commercial television station in Hong Kong. Founded on November 19, 1967 with a staff of about 200, it is now one of two free-to-air television broadcasters in Hong Kong, the other being its arch-rival in business, ATV.
TVB is the first free-to-air (FTA) television broadcaster in Hong Kong. at the time TVB starts to broadcast, to distinguish it from the only cable television broadcaster, Rediffusion Television, it was commonly known as "Wireless Television" (無線電視) in Chinese. Although there is more than one wireless television station now (the other is Asia Television, the succeeder of Rediffusion Television), TVB is still known as "Wireless Television" today.
TVB is now the largest commercial Chinese program producer in the world, with a staff of about 4,500, including contract artists and staff in overseas subsidiary companies. The company's current chairman is Sir Run Run Shaw.
It owns two free-to-air channels in Hong Kong, namely TVB Jade (Cantonese) and TVB Pearl (English and foreign languages). TVB Jade enjoys the largest audience share in Hong Kong, and is often referred to simply as TVB. TVB is also involved in Hong Kong's pay-TV market, providing twelve channels for its associated company, TVB Pay Vision Limited. TVB have also decided to launch a free-to-air HDTV channel in 2007 Q1, offering general entertainment programing with more than 14 hours of high definition programs per day.