The Communications Authority (“CA”) considered a case of non-compliance of Asia Television Limited ("ATV") with the relevant statutory and licence requirements arising from its failure to pay the fixed fee of its Domestic Free Television Programme Service Licence ("free TV licence") and the annual fee of its Fixed Carrier Licence ("FCL") for the licence year 2014/2015 in accordance with the stipulated deadlines.
Under the Broadcasting (Licence Fees) Regulation (Cap. 562A) ("Broadcasting Regulation"), ATV shall pay to the CA the fixed fee of its free TV licence not later than 14 days after the commencement of the licence year (i.e. 15 December 2014). Under the Telecommunications (Carrier Licences) Regulation (Cap. 106V) ("Telecommunications Regulation"), ATV shall pay the annual fee of its FCL on the anniversary of the issue of the licence (i.e. 1 December 2014). ATV failed to settle the above-mentioned fees by the deadlines stipulated in the relevant Regulations. ATV did not offer any explanation on the non-payment. And, despite the issue of reminders by the Office of the Communications Authority to ATV, to date, ATV still has not made payment for the outstanding licence fees.
Having considered the circumstances of the case and the representations of ATV, the CA considered that ATV's failure to settle the licence fees by the deadlines stipulated in the relevant Regulations was a clear breach of the statutory provisions and licence conditions on licence fee payment. The CA took a serious view over the contravention of ATV, as payment of licence fee was a fundamental duty of a licensee and this had already been the second breach of ATV of the same provision in a space of three years. In view of the severity, nature and duration of the contraventions, the CA decided that -
(a) a financial penalty of $100,000 should be imposed on ATV for its breach of Condition 14.1 of ATV's free TV licence, section 13(1) of Schedule 4 to the Broadcasting Ordinance ("BO") (Cap. 562) and section 3(1) of Schedule 1 to the Broadcasting Regulation; and
(b) a financial penalty of $100,000 should be imposed on ATV for its breach of General Condition 4.1 of ATV's FCL and sections 1 and 3 of Part 1 of Schedule 3 to the Telecommunications Regulation.
The CA also decided to reject ATV's application dated 9 January 2015 for paying the outstanding licence fees by five instalments starting from 31 March 2015, and ending on 30 November 2015. Taking into account its representations, the CA directed ATV to settle the outstanding licence fees together with the interests incurred in two instalments, by 18 February and 18 March 2015 respectively. The CA has put ATV on notice that any failure of ATV to comply with the said directions to pay the outstanding licence fees and interests according to the specified timeframe would lead to the CA imposing more serious sanctions on ATV, including the possibility of the CA invoking the licence revocation procedures in accordance with the BO.
Communications Authority
Secretariat
2 February 2015