ATV World's English channel, Rediffusion Television, began as a cable-operated and subscription-based pay television service on 29 May 1957 known on-air as Rediffusion Television English Network, 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 December 1973, Rediffusion Television was granted a free-to-air terrestrial 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 channels were renamed ATV Cantonese and ATV English respectively. The channels were again renamed on 2 February 1987 as ATV Gold and ATV Diamond, and further renamed on 13 February 1989 as ATV Home and ATV World. ATV World was a 24-hour channel with multi-lingual programmes, transmitted in NICAM in analogue version, and multiple AC-3 streams in digital version. While most of programmes were broadcast in Hong Kong English, a few were in either Standard Chinese, Korean or Japanese without Hong Kong English. It was less popular than its English-language rival station rival TVB Pearl, though by a far smaller margin than ATV Home's loss to Hong Kong Cantonese rival TVB Jade. On 6 June 2012, ATV gained access to the London 2012 Olympic Games broadcast rights, and consequently the Games were shown on ATV World.
Shows on ATV World
ATV World was one of two English-language channels that broadcast in Hong Kong. It offered a variety of programmes, mostly from the United States, ranging from popular serial dramas and films to documentaries and educational shows. Among the shows it aired were:
ATV stopped carrying the talk show Late Show with David Letterman as of 1 January 2009, but there was a grassroots movement to bring it back. Arts and sports programming were also offered. Mandarin and Korean programmes were available on ATV World at off-peak hours.
ATV World was one of two English-language channels that broadcast in Hong Kong. The network airs various shows that aired on Cartoon Network and Kids' WB, Boomerang and many more.
ATV World's flagship English news programme was the "Main News and Weather Report at 7:30" provided under the collective effort of ATV News. It also relayed the Xinwen Lianbo news programme from Chinese television channel, CCTV-1, which is the primary channel of the Chinese television network, China Central Television, in the People's Republic of China which is also available throughout Hong Kong. Given its focus on Hong Kong English-language programming in a predominantly Hong Kong Cantonese-speaking market, ATV World carried relatively little advertising and was subsidised by ATV Home. Both of the-then free-to-air television companies in Hong Kong were required by the government to provide a Hong Kong English-language service. In the face of competition from TVB Pearl, ATV World had in recent years switched its focus from the provision of drama and movies to documentaries and natural history shows, probably because such programming is less expensive to acquire. Since the Hong Kong government does not have its own television station, its agency Radio Television Hong Kong required the-then two domestic free television stations to broadcast their programmes and advertisements. One of the well known programmes is Educational Television which began in 1971. This followed the Hong Kong education syllabus, serving as a reference for primary and secondary school students of mathematics, Hong Kong English, Putonghua and other school subjects. During the thirty-two-week school year, ETV programmes were shown on ATV World from 10:00 to 12:00 and TVB Pearl from 14:00 to 16:00 each weekday.
Both ATV World and TVB Pearl were permitted by the Broadcasting Authority of Hong Kong to broadcast non-Hong Kong English programmes for up to 20% of their daily transmission time, outside peak viewing time. In fact, only 12% of TVB Pearl programmes are in languages other than Hong Kong English: 83.6% of those are in Hong Kong Cantonese. The remainder include broadcasts in Japanese, Korean, Filipino and Hong Kong Cantonese.
ATV World operated its own official website which contained information about the programmes shown by the channel, and a streamed version of ATV News in English.
ATV goes off the air
On 1 April 2015, Hong Kong's Executive Council announced that ATV's broadcast license would not be renewed. ATV ceased over-the-air transmission on 1 April 2016. ATV plans to continue its business as a satellite and online broadcaster.
