About TVB Plus

TVB Plus

TVB Plus is a Chinese-language free-to-air terrestrial television channel in Hong Kong, broadcast on digital channel 82 in high definition from TVB City, the headquarters of TVB. It launched on 22 April 2024, formed by merging the youth channel TVB J2 with the TVB Finance, Sports & Information Channel, and TVB said the change was expected to save about HK$100 million a year. TVB Plus carries drama, variety and entertainment alongside finance and sports programming, including Hong Kong Jockey Club horse racing and the Mark Six lottery draws, and it is designed to work interactively with TVB's digital platforms, including myTV SUPER. Its history, however, is longer than its name: the channel on slot 82 began life as J2 on 30 June 2008, and TVB Plus inherits the audiences, the programme strands and the sporting rights of both of the channels it replaced.

TVB, the broadcaster behind the channel

TVB Plus is owned by TVB, the Hong Kong television network that began broadcasting on 19 November 1967 and was Hong Kong's first wireless, or free-to-air, television station. TVB's main Cantonese service is TVB Jade on channel 81 and its main English service is TVB Pearl, with the TVB News Channel completing the core lineup. Since 2003 TVB has been headquartered at TVB City in the Tseung Kwan O Industrial Estate, at 77 Chun Choi Street; the HK$2.2 billion complex came into full operation in October 2003 and houses the studios from which TVB Plus is broadcast. TVB operates under a domestic free television programme service licence regulated by Hong Kong's Communications Authority, and it was that licence — and the Authority's approval — that governed the creation of TVB Plus. Understanding the channel therefore starts with TVB's position: a long-established, licensed free-to-air broadcaster restructuring its channel portfolio for a digital audience, not a new entrant.

The J2 inheritance: a youth channel from 2008

The channel that became TVB Plus was first launched on 30 June 2008 as TVB J2, a digital channel established for TVB's new free digital network and aimed at youth and young adult audiences. J2 broadcast 24 hours a day, mostly in Cantonese, but with occasional programmes in other languages including Mandarin, Japanese and Korean; most shows were broadcast with bilingual audio and Chinese subtitles. Its transmission was upgraded from standard definition to high definition on 21 January 2013. Korean and Japanese dramas were the channel's most watched programmes, with prime time specialised by origin — dramas from Korea and Taiwan on weekdays, Japan later in the week and the United States at weekends — and Japanese anime was another popular genre. Its other programme strands included entertainment, life trends, travel and music, together with original formats aimed at younger viewers. In 2015 J2 also became the broadcaster of Hong Kong Jockey Club horse racing and the Mark Six lottery drawings, the first chapter in the channel's association with racing that continues, by a roundabout route, on TVB Plus today.

The other parent: the Finance, Sports & Information Channel

The second channel folded into TVB Plus had an equally layered history, on channel 85. It first launched on 31 December 2007 as TVB HD Jade, a high-definition spin-off of TVB Jade. On 22 February 2016, as Jade itself converted to high definition full-time, HD Jade was relaunched as TVB J5, positioned around wealth and knowledge and carrying documentaries and financial news programmes. It was rebranded as the TVB Finance Channel on 15 August 2017 and again as the TVB Finance & Information Channel on 20 January 2018. On 5 September 2022 it was officially renamed the TVB Finance, Sports & Information Channel, after it had become the broadcaster of the Hong Kong Jockey Club racing and the Mark Six drawings, taking that role over from its sister channel J2. By 2023, therefore, TVB was running two overlapping second channels: a youth and entertainment channel on 82 and a finance, sport and information channel on 85, each with its own costs, in a falling advertising and audience market for traditional television.

Why TVB merged the two channels

The merger was announced in November 2023 as part of a wider restructuring of TVB's television broadcasting and e-commerce businesses. TVB said it would combine the content of J2 and the Finance, Sports & Information Channel into a new channel, initially styled TVB+, and move to a slimmer free-to-air lineup. Most finance-related content, such as programmes about the Hong Kong stock and property markets, would be reallocated across the Jade channel and the new channel, and TVB argued the combined channel would appeal to a larger combined audience than J2 and the finance channel separately, delivering a stronger proposition to advertisers. The restructuring also involved reducing headcount by more than 300 staff across the group, and TVB said discontinuing and merging the channel was expected to result in about HK$100 million in cost savings a year. Reporting of TVB's 2024 results later confirmed the mechanical effect: in 2024 TVB reduced its self-operated terrestrial television channels from five to four by merging J2 and the Finance, Sports & Information Channel to create TVB Plus, as part of a year in which total operating costs fell by 15 percent.

Approval and launch on 22 April 2024

Because TVB's channels are licensed, the merger needed the regulator's consent. On 15 April 2024 TVB announced to the Hong Kong stock exchange that the Communications Authority had granted approval for the launch of TVB Plus on channel number 82 on its domestic free television platform, effective from 22 April 2024. The Authority also approved the inclusion of the Phoenix Hong Kong Channel on channel 85, the slot vacated by the finance channel, effective from the same date, with a temporary waiver of the subtitling requirement for that channel for three months, from 22 April to 21 July 2024. TVB confirmed it would continue to provide five programme channels under its domestic free television licence, with broadcast content complying with the Broadcasting Ordinance, its licence and the Authority's codes of practice. On 22 April 2024 J2 and the Finance, Sports & Information Channel closed as separate services and TVB Plus began on channel 82, the home J2 had occupied since 2008, broadcasting in 1080i high definition. The Communications Authority's later licence-renewal documentation describes channel 82, TVB Plus, as a 24-hour integrated entertainment and information channel with interactive linkage to TVB's digital platform.

What TVB Plus broadcasts

TVB described TVB Plus at launch as an integrated channel offering a diverse range of dramas, non-drama programmes, finance and sports programmes, with original productions showcasing the expertise of its production team. In practice the schedule combines the two inheritances. From J2 comes the entertainment core aimed at younger audiences: Asian drama, including the Korean and Japanese series that were J2's most watched output, anime, variety, travel, music and lifestyle programming, presented mostly in Cantonese with bilingual audio and Chinese subtitles where applicable. From the finance channel come finance and information programming, reallocated between Jade and TVB Plus, including coverage of the Hong Kong stock and property markets. The channel's broadcast area is Hong Kong and Macau, and its sister channels within the TVB free-to-air family are TVB Jade, TVB Pearl and the TVB News Channel. It is, by design, a broader and older-skewing channel than J2 was, while remaining TVB's second Cantonese channel rather than a flagship.

Racing, Mark Six and sport

Sport, and in particular Hong Kong horse racing, is the most distinctive part of the TVB Plus inheritance. The Hong Kong Jockey Club confirmed at the time of the channel changes that, as a result of TVB's new arrangement, all racing programmes and Mark Six draws then aired on the Finance, Sports & Information Channel would be broadcast on TVB Plus. Those rights had already travelled once: J2 had taken on Jockey Club racing and the Mark Six drawings in 2015, the finance channel took them over in 2022, and the 2024 merger brought them back to channel 82 with TVB Plus. Racing is a major television institution in Hong Kong, and the Mark Six draws are a fixed appointment for a large audience, so their presence gives a youth-leaning entertainment channel a regular, loyal, older viewership that drama and variety alone would not deliver. Together with the finance channel's wider sports programming, they explain the word Plus in practice: entertainment plus the factual and sporting content that used to require a second channel.

An integrated channel: myTV SUPER and interactivity

TVB Plus was not presented simply as two channels squeezed into one. In its stock exchange announcement TVB called it an integrated channel that provides an enhanced viewing experience by integrating free-to-air television content with interactive content on TVB's digital platforms, including myTV SUPER and TVB's social media accounts, and reporting of the approval added that the channel would also serve as a platform for experimental content and formats. myTV SUPER is TVB's streaming service in Hong Kong, listed as the channel's affiliated streaming service, and the linkage matters to TVB's stated strategy: the April 2024 relaunch came as part of cuts by TVB to focus on its digital platforms, and TVB had said it expected strong double-digit growth in digital advertising income in 2024. TVB Plus is therefore deliberately built as a bridge product — a licensed linear channel whose programmes, voting, extras and catch-up life continue on the broadcaster's own app and social accounts, rather than a purely traditional broadcast service.

TVB Plus in Hong Kong television today

TVB Plus now sits in a Hong Kong free-to-air market that TVB no longer has to itself, competing for younger viewers in particular with other licensed broadcasters and with streaming services, while its parent company works to narrow the losses that prompted the 2023 restructuring. Its significance is structural as much as programmatic. The 2024 reorganisation showed a legacy broadcaster, on air since 1967, choosing consolidation over proliferation: five self-operated terrestrial channels became four, a frequency was leased to Phoenix Television's Hong Kong channel, and one integrated channel took on the combined duties of a youth entertainment service and a finance, sports and information service, at a stated saving of about HK$100 million a year. For viewers, the result is simple to describe: channel 82, from TVB City, in Cantonese, carrying drama, variety, finance and sport, with racing and the Mark Six at its heart and myTV SUPER alongside it. That is TVB Plus.