TVB

Origins

The British Hong Kong government set up a working party in the early 1960s to study the idea of setting up a second television station in Hong Kong, where the only television at that time was the wired, subscription-supported Rediffusion Television. There was debate as to whether the second station should be set up as a Crown corporation, like the BBC; a purely commercial enterprise; or a combination of the two. Another challenge lay in procuring enough content for the new station. In 1962, Director of Information Services J. L. Murray stated that while English programming could be purchased from other countries, "no country is producing a mass of suitable pre-recorded material in Chinese". Even though Hong Kong was already regarded as a centre for film production, it was considered a challenge to source enough Chinese-language content for another television station, as most of it would need to be produced in Hong Kong.

Regardless, there was commercial interest in the concept. A government franchise for a new wireless (free-to-air) television station was opened for tenders on 6 February 1965 and closed on 6 August 1965. TVB, incorporated on 26 July 1965, was co-founded by Sir Run Run Shaw, chairman from 1980 to 2012, Sir Douglas Clague and Harold Lee Hsiao-wo of the Lee Hysan family. On 25 January 1966 it was announced that Television Broadcasts Limited had won the franchise, winning against six other bids.

At its launch, the TV station was promoted in Chinese as “wireless television” (無綫電視) to distinguish it from the cable broadcaster RTV, which later became ATV and switched to free-to-air broadcasting. “Mou Sin” (“Chinese: 無綫; Jyutping: mou⁵ sin³; lit. 'Wireless'”) remains the most common name for the station in Hong Kong, while outside the city it is generally known as TVB.

Opening

The new Television Broadcasts Limited station at 77 Broadcast Drive in Kowloon Tong, Kowloon was officially opened by Governor David Trench on 19 November 1967. The governor spoke of the potential for television to better society, stating that the new station would play a significant role in "helping and enlighting our people", calling television "one of the most potent means of disseminating information there is".

The first images shown on the station were a live transmission of the Macau Grand Prix, which began broadcasting at 9:00 am that day and was interrupted by footage of the opening of the new station. The first colour broadcast was then made, a feature called "London Calling Hongkong" which constituted greetings from former governors Alexander Grantham and Robert Black. Following this was a piano recital by Chiu Yee-ha, who had also performed at the opening of the Hong Kong City Hall.

The new station broadcast both Cantonese-language and English-language channels. The Cantonese channel, called TVB Jade, began regular service on 4:30 pm that day on Channel 21, while the English service (TVB Pearl) began at 6:00 pm on Channel 25. The inaugural programming lineup included Enjoy Yourself Tonight, a Chinese language variety show, and Meet The Press, an English current affairs programme.

Infrastructure development

Hong Kong's mountainous topography posed a challenge to TVB, which was Hong Kong's first television station broadcast wirelessly, using a terrestrial television transmitter instead of a complex coaxial cable network. A network of transmitters, built atop various mountains, helped provide coverage to the territory. The main transmitter was built at Temple Hill, above Kowloon, to reach most of the main populated centre of Hong Kong as well as parts of the New Territories. Two broadcast relay stations were came into operation on 15 May 1968: one at Lamma Island expanded coverage to Pok Fu Lam, Aberdeen, Repulse Bay, and parts of Stanley, while another at Castle Peak covered Tuen Mun, Yuen Long, and Ping Shan.

A third booster station, located on Cloudy Hill, was activated in June 1968 and brought TVB reception to Fanling, Taipo, and Sheung Shui.

Location

TVB was originally located on Broadcast Drive in Kowloon Tong, and was neighbours with RTHK and ATV. By the late 1980s, the company had out-grown the facility at Broadcast Drive, and built a new studio complex, named T.V. City, at 220 Clear Water Bay Road in November 1988. The first TVB City was in fact the old Shaw Movie Town complex used by Shaw Brothers since 1958. The old Broadcast Drive headquarters was later converted into apartments. The first TVB City is now used by Celestial Pictures.

To cope with future development and expansion, TVB began planning in 1998 to develop a replacement facility at the Tseung Kwan O Industrial Estate. The new HK$2.2 billion TVB City came into full operation in October 2003. The new headquarters are built on by far the largest piece of land ever leased by the then Hong Kong Industrial Estates Corporation and the first service-providing company in the area. It has a building area of over 110,000 square metres, 30% more than that of the previous facilities at Clear Water Bay. Studio 1 in TVB City, which can seat an audience of six hundred and thirty, is the largest television production studio among commercial television stations in Asia.

News operation

TVB broadcasts several news programmes, such as News at 6:30 (Jade) and News at 7:30 (Pearl). It also operates its own news channel, TVBN. (Chinese: TVB新聞台; Jyutping: TVB san1 man4 toi4) and TVBN2 (TVB新聞2台; TVB san1 man4 ji6 toi4), through TVB Network Vision (無綫網絡電視; mou4 sin3 mong5 lok3 din6 si6).

Subsidiaries

77 Atelier Limited (Chinese: 77工作室有限公司), rebranded from TVB New Wings Limited in 2022, is a Hong Kong-based television drama production studio and a subsidiary of TVB. The company uses a small-team, project-based production model, focusing on story-driven content and incorporating external collaborators, representing a different approach from TVB's traditional in-house production system. In addition to its in-house productions, 77 Atelier collaborates with mainland Chinese streaming platforms, including Youku and Tencent, for drama production and content distribution. As of 2025, Shu-kai Chung serves as the executive producer.

Controversy and criticism

Since the 4 June rally in 2009, TVB has been increasingly criticised for its pro-China bias. Netizens of HKGolden and LIHKG have called it "CCTVB", a portmanteau of "TVB" with Chinese state broadcaster CCTV.

During the 2014 and 2019–20 Hong Kong protests, TVB's programmes, most especially its news reports, were accused of providing biased coverage of the protests, with a pro-China slant. As a result of public boycotts, numerous brands officially pulled out of advertising contracts with TVB, including Pocari Sweat and Pizza Hut.

A group of TVB shareholders issued a public letter addressed to the board of directors of TVB in 2023, accusing TVB of misleading its shareholders on the official name of the company that holds executive power; investment failure in SMI and State Reserve Energy Bonds, which resulted in a loss of $HK1bn for the company. It also questioned the company's investment on its eCommerce platform "Ztore" as the online platform requires improvement and investment in logistics and warehouse, "Sales of 'Ztore' increased as it placed a lot of ads on TVB, however this might result in huge loss for TVB."