A report released Monday by the Legislative Council's information technology and broadcasting panel recommended the government "open up the airwaves" to multiple public broadcasters to allow a wider spectrum of programs in Hong Kong.

Dismissing fears of the extra burden this would impose on public funds, the panel said allowing more broadcasters would "not necessarily require additional resources from government."

Rather, the government would fund one major broadcaster - presumably RTHK - but competitors with the means to support themselves would also be welcomed into the market.

"To ask the public to provide equal funding for every public broadcaster may be too much," said panel member Emily Lau Wai-hing.

"Perhaps the government could subsidize some of them, but not to the extent of the major broadcaster."

But the proposal was criticized by the RTHK Staff Union, which argued, subsidies or not, the arrangement spelled trouble for public broadcasting.

Opening up the market could lead to redundancy in programs, argued union chairwoman Janet Mak Lai- ching. Moreover, government subsidies for competitors could mean a cut in funding for RTHK, calling into question the "cost-effectiveness" of the operation.

Conversely, allowing competitors to run on independent funding might degrade public service broadcasting.

"We believe that a public broadcaster should be supported by public money. There's no point in some tycoon donating money and setting up a broadcaster," Mak said.

"That's not the point of public broadcasting. Public broadcasting means serving the public."

The panel's 150-page report also recommended introducing a licensing regime for public broadcasters to allow the public to "scrutinize and evaluate the performance of the broadcaster and identify areas for improvement."

Requiring that public broadcasters apply for licenses would not only place them on a level playing-field with commercial broadcasters in terms of regulation, but also provide them with "incentive" to perform well.

"We believe public broadcasters should not be allowed to seek advertising revenue, but that doesn't mean they have no incentive," Lau said.

"That's why we need a licensing regime. If they are not doing a good job, then their license will be revoked and maybe some other parties will earn the right to conduct public broadcasting."

But Mak again disagreed with the proposal, saying the 12-year licensing cycle could be used as a means to "control" RTHK and hinder its editorial independence.

Apart from the two new recommendations, the panel report failed to provide concrete proposals on two pressing issues: funding and governance for the public broadcaster.

While it recommended the broadcaster be turned into an independent statutory corporation with funding cycles of three to five years, the nine- member panel - comprising legislators from different political parties - seemed unable to provide a consensus on much else.

Panel chairman Sin Chung-kai said said the panel did not discuss proposals put forward by an independent review committee two weeks earlier because the panel had already completed discussions at that time.

In a report released Friday by the independent committee, headed by former TVB chief Raymond Wong Ying- see, it was suggested the chief executive directly appoint four of the 15 members on the governing board of Hong Kong's future public broadcaster.

It also recommended the public broadcaster be fully funded by the government for the first three years, after which it would gradually depend more on outside sources of revenue such as donations and sponsorships, reducing government funding to 80 percent after 10 years.

But the Legco panel, though claiming discussions did not touch on these specifics because of a "lack of time," did manage to agree on one point: the need to increase current expenditure for RTHK.

With only HK$440 million in funds allotted to RTHK this year - a 14 percent decrease from 2002 - funding per capita falls far behind that of other countries.

Each Hong Kong resident contributes about HK$61 a year to public broadcasting, compared with HK$718 and HK$225 in Britain and Australia, respectively, the panel found.

A spokesman for RTHK said it welcomed the report's consideration of the station as a "major" public broadcaster in the future but continued to urge more consultation on funding and regulatory arrangements.

Friday's report is expected to be debated in Legco on November 1.