LCQ16: Office accommodation for RTHK
27.5.2020

Following is a question by the Hon Alvin Yeung and a written reply by the Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development, Mr Edward Yau, in the Legislative Council today (May 27): Question: It has been reported that on the 12th of this month, the Education Bureau wrote to the Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK) requesting it to vacate and hand back the Educational Television Centre at Broadcast Drive by September this year. Besides, it is learnt that the Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation has planned to resume the premises located in the InnoCentre at Tat Chee Avenue which is currently used as the office of the General Programmes Section of RTHK's Television Division. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council: (1) when the authorities made the decisions to resume the aforesaid properties and the justifications for that, the uses of such properties after resumption, and the estimated total amount and a breakdown of the expenditure to be incurred for the new uses; whether the authorities will give RTHK more time for making arrangements to move out; (2) of the number of RTHK staff members currently working in the aforesaid properties, and the total amount of expenditure, as envisaged by RTHK, to be incurred on the relocation, renovation of new offices and studios, as well as procurement of equipment; whether RTHK will be provided with additional funding to meet the relevant expenditure; (3) of the current locations of RTHK's offices, and set out, by property name in a table, the following information: (i) the address, (ii) the unit(s) of RTHK stationed in the property, (iii) the number of staff members (broken down by department), and (iv) the monthly rental expenses (if any); (4) whether RTHK has secured new sites for rehousing the affected staff members and equipment; if so, set out in a table the relevant information according to the items mentioned in (3); (5) of the respective current utilization rates of the various studios under RTHK (i) from 9am to 6pm on weekdays, (ii) from 6pm to midnight on weekdays, and (iii) from 9am to midnight on weekends; the impacts of handing back the aforesaid properties, as envisaged by RTHK, on the quantity, pace and quality of its programme production; and (6) of the expenditure items (including rents, repair of facilities and relocation of offices), and the amount of expenditure on such items, of the various subheads under Head 160 (RTHK) of Government expenditure, in each month since the 2016-2017 financial year? Reply: President, Our reply to the various parts of the question raised by the Member, prepared in consultation with the Education Bureau (EDB) and the Innovation and Technology Bureau, is as follows: (1) to (4) The information of properties where offices and production facilities of the Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK) are located, is as follows: Property Address RTHK Department Number of Staff Monthly Rental Expenses Broadcasting House 30 Broadcast Drive Radio and Corporate Programming Division (R&CP) Production Services Division (PSD) Departmental Administration Unit (DAU) Corporate Communications and Standards Unit (CC&SU) 328 Not applicable Television House 1A Broadcast Drive R&CP Television and Corporate Businesses Division (TV&CB) PSD CC&SU 229 Not applicable Educational Television Centre (ETC) 79 Broadcast Drive R&CP TV&CB 99 Not applicable Queensway Government Offices 66 Queensway R&CP CC&SU 26 Not applicable InnoCentre 72 Tat Chee Avenue TV&CB 119 The landlord does not agree to provide One Mong Kok Road Commercial Centre 1 Mong Kok Road PSD DAU Finance and Resources Unit Systems Review Unit 69 About $390,000 As the Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation will re-position InnoCentre as a hub for supporting financial technologies and digital commerce-related technologies as well as nurturing start-ups, it informed RTHK in July 2018 not to renew the tenancy for the offices in InnoCentre upon expiry. RTHK will move out after the expiry of tenancy agreement in March 2021, and has rented appropriate properties in the Kwun Tong District to re-provision the offices and production facilities. Furthermore, RTHK has all along been producing school educational television (ETV) programmes for EDB since 1976. To facilitate programme production, EDB has shared the use of its ETC with RTHK. Following the change in mode of production of the ETV programmes in light of the recommendations made in the Director of Audit's Report in 2018, annual financial provision is no longer allocated to RTHK for production of a certain number of ETV programmes. As a result, the original purpose and service need for RTHK to use ETC no longer exists. There is also a need for office accommodation within EDB arising from its own service development. Hence, EDB formally requested RTHK on May 11, 2020 to return the offices currently being used by RTHK in ETC, to meet its service and office space needs. RTHK is discussing with EDB on the arrangement and timetable of vacating ETC in order to meet the operational needs of both parties. The expenditure involved in the aforementioned re-provisioning plan will be absorbed by existing resources. (5) In 2019-20, the average utilisation rate of RTHK's four studios in weekday daytime, weekday nighttime, and weekend are 76 per cent, 52 per cent and 52 per cent respectively. RTHK expects that the aforementioned re-provisioning plan has no significant impact on programme production. (6) From 2016-17 to 2019-20, the expenditure of Head 160 is at Annex.