Hong Kong, the preferred regional location for media and multimedia companies

Hong Kong is the preferred regional location for international media and multimedia companies which range from TV broadcasting, print media, news agencies to digital multimedia production. Among the 70 largest media and multimedia companies in the world, at least 40 have a presence in Hong Kong, many with substantial investments.

A Liberal Environment

A major factor in attracting this cluster of leading companies is the freedom of information and investment that Hong Kong offers. Hong Kong is considered the freest economy in the world and enjoys the most liberal media and multimedia environment in Asia, with an open investment regime and unrestricted foreign ownership rules.

Hong Kong is the information gateway to the Mainland, which has a developing media market with tremendous potential.

A Strong Support Base

As the information hub of Asia, Hong Kong has developed a deep resource base of media-related industries. The publishing industry is backed by a highly developed printing industry that combines the most modern technology with competitively costed production. As the advertising capital of Asia, Hong Kong is also an attractive market for the media business with the second highest per capita advertising spending in the world.

Advanced Infrastructure

Our world-class, fully liberalised telecommunications has created the most competitive environment in Asia and enables media companies to reliably transmit and receive information at very low cost. International publishers can make use of advanced satellite communications to transmit text and high-quality images for the production of their Asian editions in Hong Kong, then distribute to the region through the world's largest air cargo hub.

The multimedia sector enjoys excellent infrastructure development. For instance, Cyberport's Digital Media Centre includes an audio visual production centre, video studio, file and data conversion facilities, disk farm and rendering farm. Together with high bandwidth via IPN (Internal Private Network) and the Internet, SAN (Storage Area Network) and an A/V library inside the iResource Centre, Cyberport provides an extremely favourable environment with very competitive operating costs for the development and operation of multi-media companies.

Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA)

The Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA), which took effect at the beginning of 2004, provides Hong Kong with additional and exclusive Mainland market access benefits. (1) Mainland " Hong Kong co-produced TV programmes are allowed to be broadcast and distributed as China produced programmes and are not subject to any restrictions in terms of the quantity and the time of broadcast in the Mainland. (2) Hong Kong companies engaging in the operation of cable TV network are permitted to provide professional technical services related to cable TV networks in Guangdong as a pilot area after obtaining the approval of the relevant authorities. (3) Television dramas co-produced by the Mainland and Hong Kong should be subject to the same standard on the number of episodes as that applicable to Mainland domestically-produced television dramas.

Gateway to China

Hong Kong is the information gateway to the Mainland, which has an underdeveloped media market with tremendous potential. Increased public demand for higher quality and greater cultural content in the Mainland has resulted in a significant demand in the industry.