HKTV Hopes to Air Dramas on ATV Network

HKTV Chairman Ricky Wong (王維基) announced plans to air dramas and variety programs on ATV channels. Currently streaming content online, HKTV’s collaboration with ATV will allow it to reach broader demographics. Still in the midst of negotiations, the outcome of this decision could potentially boost HKTV’s viewership ratings, as well as increase ATV’s revenue.

Win-win Solution for ATV and HKTV

Struggling financially for years, ATV began selling the copyrights to their classic dramas in order to generate incremental revenue. The Hong Kong government also announced that ATV will not be granted renewal of its broadcasting license once it expires next year. With its days numbered, ATV has been struggling with its cash flow and inability to pay employee wages.

With HKTV’s interest in renting ATV’s 11 channels, ATV’s financial woes may be lessened in the next few months.

Planning to supply over 1000 hours of entertainment to the public through ATV’s channels, HKTV wants to schedule four hours of programming each day through December 31, 2015. To compensate for ATV’s digital space, Ricky Wong will offer ATV $5 million HKD per month and split the advertising revenue at 50 percent. As a result, if the advertising revenue is low during a certain month, ATV will still be compensated $5 million HKD.

Wong stated, “I’ve mentioned this idea to the reporters before. It’s a good thing – definitely worth thinking about. It’ll also allow us to compete with TVB up front. You can’t compare online viewership ratings with actual [TV] ratings.”

However, Wong indicated that if he is unable to reach an agreement with ATV by April 20, then he would ultimately withdraw his offer.

Source: Oriental Daily

This article is written by Su for JayneStars.com.

Related Articles

Responses

  1. fair deal i hope they could reach an agreement, this formula may attracts high ratings,i think they can beat tvb in ratings because the top dramas with felix and lam man lung is coming soon.hopefully hk gov will reconsider their decision and grants hktv a tv licence.

  2. This is actually a win-win solution for both companies. If their performance is good HK government may grant them a free to air license in the near future.

  3. Yay! Even though this is only a temporary solution, it means the ATV staff can get paid! And its a good way to publicise HKTV’s dramas to the HK audience who don’t watch on their phones. And maybe this will draw customers to place ads in ATV which will help ATVs finances as well. Yips Yips!

  4. A smart move by HKTV. Besides testing whether their TV-series can have reasonable TV ratings for a larger audience, other TV companies can not have the spectrum from ATV until at least end of this year.

    By then, maybe the TV license of HKTV will get approved, so the playing field is equal compared to other TV companies.

  5. I also feel it’s a win/win situation for both…but unfortunately, the bonehead management at ATV don’t seem to think so (based on their director Ip Kar Bo’s latest comments yesterday).  ATV management needs to stop being stupid – I mean, for a company that is already in shambles and can’t even pay its staff, what sense does it make for them to push away a guaranteed $5 million a month?  You would think that with Wong Ching finally out of the picture now, ATV management would ‘wise up’ for once….I guess not….

    1. @llwy12 Really makes you think what goes through the head of people in charge, they’ve tried some more extreme methods from massive ad price slashes to selling copyrights and downright delaying pay. This one is mild and a no brainer in comparison.

      Are they still waiting for the white knight or is there some ulterior motive/details prodding in the background? Its going to be funny if this deal falls through and the white knight plan doesn’t work out. I’m glad for those who got out when they could because with the ways things are going, sympathies to the employees.

      I saw the SCMP article you posted, what a lame bunch of excuses. With all the accumulated buzz and after The Menu finished airing with several more meaty titles to come, turning away guaranteed money seems like the epitome of herp derp.

      1. @sodi Totally agree!  I mean, I understand ATV having to think about the offer, which is fine – but no need to make comments such as “oh, we’re worried that their series won’t be able to sustain the ratings” or whether they’ll  be able to maintain consistent advertising, etc.   What a bunch of lame excuses from a TV station that is known for getting ‘zero’ ratings points  — honestly, even if HKTV’s series don’t get record-breaking ratings, they will definitely be higher than ATV’s standard ‘big fat zero’ for their own shows!  And why worry about the advertising piece when you already know that no matter what happens, you’ll be guaranteed $5 million a month to pay your staff and keep operations going?

        As for another “white knight” – not sure if you saw the latest article about veteran producer / actor and former ATV employee Tsui Siu Ming being in talks to buy ATV….I’m thinking this might be the reason why Ip Kar Bo is brushing off HKTV, as he probably thinks that there are other options out there (though ironically, Ip Kar Bo is only the mouthpiece of ATV and has no decision-making power, so I guess technically his personal opinion doesn’t matter).  Tsui Siu Ming said he is in talks with Wong Ching and ATV’s upper management – well, let’s see how that pans out because we all know how much of a jerk Wong Ching is…he might deliberately raise the asking price to some ridiculous amount again just to mess with potential buyers…

        Whatever the case, I also feel the most sorry for the employees who are caught up in this mess, especially the loyal ones who decided to stay on – they definitely should’ve gotten out when they could…

Comments are closed.