ATV is Collapsing; Struggles to Pay Staff
ATV is on the brink of collapse. Established for 57 years and known as Hong Kong’s oldest free-to-air Chinese television station, ATV has been struggling with its cash flow. The company only paid its staff half of their November wages this past week. ATV still owes its workers the remaining salaries for November and the full month of December.
With ATV’s future in jeopardy, many resignations were sent in. Despite rumors of the staff leaving en masse, ATV spokesperson Wong Sau Tung (黃守東) clarified that at least 90 percent of the staff showed up at work on January 2.
Nonetheless, many ATV programs were axed or scaled down due to staffing issues. The morning news program Good Morning Asia <亞洲早晨> was cut short due to staff shortage, and prime-time programs Asian Entertainment <星動亞洲> and Asia Policy Unit <亞洲政策組> were taken off air. Their old timeslots are currently occupied by the reruns of ATV’s 2003 drama Light of Million Hopes <萬家燈火> and the 2010 South Korean drama Definitely Neighbors <鄰居冤家>.
Yesterday, ATV actor Lau Shek Yin (劉錫賢) was seen arriving at ATV to film the new program ATV is One Family <ATV一家人>. The actor revealed that the purpose of the program is to pass over positive energy to its workers. The program will interview ATV’s current staff members as well as former workers.
Asked if low morale is spreading throughout the station, Lau Shek Yin said, “Everyone seems to be okay! Many people have gone back to work. I don’t feel like there is less staff.”
Lau Shek Yin said he still has eight months left in his contract with ATV. He will not leave the station at the moment, expressing that he must adhere to his principles and honor the spirit of his contract. In regards to the possibility that ATV may go bankrupt in the future, he said, “There’s nothing we can do about it. I can’t say that it’s a pity. If it has to happen, it will happen.”
Source: On.cc
This article is written by Su for JayneStars.com.
Really wonder how atv went down hill so bad probably due to poor management atv did produce some really good dramas
ATV actors/actresses lack talent.
“ATV actors/actresses lack talent.”
Which time period do you mean? In the hay days, even up to year 2000+, ATV still have talented artists. Even multiple award winning actor Nick Cheung Ka Fai started out in ATV.
I guess you did not watch enough ATV series or any at all to say that they lack talent. I guess you are just too young to remember that many talented actresses and actors of today came from ATV.
Here’s an article that gives a pretty good recap of how ATV got to the point of collapsing. It basically boils down to the station being very poorly managed over the years…
http://afspot.net/forum/topic/803303-ever-optimistic-asia-television-executive-ip-ka-po-believes-the-hong-kong-station-will-survive/
Actually, this one is a bit more detailed, albeit much longer (since it goes back to the RTV days)…it’s a good read though, especially for those who may not be familiar with HK television history…
http://afspot.net/forum/topic/803304-inside-the-asia-television-soap-opera/
thanks ilwy,very interesting article,it seems that the many changes in the management level and ownership was the downfall of atv.
Thanks for the articles llwy12! I just feel very sad of what has become of ATV. They are a part of my past and childhood that I just hope they do not get shut down or disappear. I will be a big pity if they do get shut down.
Shut down ATV already!
Shut hktv already
Shut up already
Shut hktv? Why? The two shows I just watched are awesome! Great actors, great story, great script, great cinemotography. What don’t you like exactly? I’m curious to hear what I might have missed.
Agree with Pete on this.
You can’t blame Pete for his reaction. Most people want ATV to fold so that HKTV can fill the gap no matter how misinformed they are.
Great actors, great script etc? I don’t know the exact figures, but all source states a lot if not majority of HKTV’s production staff and artists originate from TVB.
People bash TVB and raise HKTV to the sky, but yet they overlook the finer details…
Many of Pixar’s talent started at Disney. And Pixar took down Disney under Steve Jobs. So often it is the creative vision and management that can make a creative production company great. And HKTV programs are looking pretty great.
@GingerMessiah
“majority of HKTV’s production staff and artists originate from TVB.”
And……what’s wrong with that? I’m curious because you said it in a negative connotation.
@Anon
It’s negative in the sense that people sing praises and saying how different something is. When in actual fact same people and under a different label.
I’ll admit there is a different style between TVB and HKTV, but the core is the same.
@GingerMessiah well obviously their fans do help ratings? The lack of competition and consumer choice is the main argument for hating TVB (someone else)
fml at this.
@juz
Perfectly reasonable for disliking or hating TVB. They are not doing a great job but I can’t see things improving as well. However, I’m just highlighting the point they use the same people, unless there’s a significant contrast in their production from TVB that makes most critics give it 5/5. I just don’t buy the point they are much better than TVB.
TVB sucks but HKTV? Let’s give it sometime.
Will (劉錫賢) finally get poached by TVB? LOL
u have to be something before u collapse…atv was never anything to begin with, they suck, they have always been a failure
please give ur license to hktv, they making great tv shows rite now…love the election and that maggie cheung series
Never ever give license to the so called hktv, their drama is so so boring. Can’t bare to watch anymore of those nonsense. To be honest atv dramas are much better than those hktv dramas. I rather watch the reruns than that
if it’s boring to you then you shouldn’t force yourself to watch it
Which HKTV drama is boring? The election drama really strikes a cord with the current political condition in HK. The Maggie Cheung drama is also RIGHT ON with the current sentiments between Mainlanders and Hknese in HK. Both dramas I watched are so on target, and spot on with the issues between HKnese and Mainlanders, and the political struggles with Hknese and the so-call one country/two system bull crap.
After watching these two dramas, I can see why HKTV were denied the license by China controlled HK. There is no way they give licnese to HKTV to broadcast anything that puts China in a bad light.
Ricky should have put out some cheesy shows first, get the license, and then bomb HK TV Airspace with his agenda. LOL.
All hktv dramas are boring and uninteresting.
I also think that the HKTV dramas so far have been boring. I watched a first few episodes and just couldn’t watch anymore. The problem is that so far there series are too serious to me. I mean if Inwanted to watch the political affairs of HK or the real struggles of Mainland and HK, I can watch documentaries or the news. When I get home from working all day, I want to watch something light hearted and entertaining, something to ‘escape reality’ and relief stress from work. Why do I want to always watch something depressing and serious all the time. That’s the reason I like watching TVB drama. I don’t have to think much and I’m watch for its entertainment purpose. A lot of their dramas are light hearted and fun to watch. Is TVB perfect and are all the dramas good? No. Do they make mistakes? Sure. But who cares? When I watch a drama, I tend to not worry so much about all the little details and nick pick at every little mistake they make. I rather enjoy the drama as a whole. So TVB all the way.
“atv was never anything to begin with, they suck, they have always been a failure”
Oh wow, you must have missed out on a lot.
A lot of the readers here are probably too young to remember ATV in its early days. It used to produce some good dramas and had good actors like Damien Lau, Michelle Yim, Alex Man and Amy Chan from the late 70s and 80s. Even the late great Leslie Cheung started out in ATV. The later batch of ATV artistes like Kristal, Raymond, Elena, Ruco and Joey are artistes who can really act and are not just pretty faces.
Totally agree that many here are probably way too young to even remember RTV/ ATV during their glory days. Yes,AtV had many great actors and actresses who were not only pretty faces but were very talented. Candice Yu, Kenneth tsang, Nora Miao( who acted with the legendary Bruce Lee), the late Leslie as Soo mentioned,etc..all came from ATV. Sadly,many are just too young to remember and have missed out.
‘atv was never anything to begin with, they suck, they have always been a failure’
U suck! What an ignorant & asinine comment! Where do you think TVB got some of their actors?
“atv was never anything to begin with, they suck, they have always been a failure”
Disagree. ATV produced a lot of classic in the past.
When atv was good they could trump tvb. There was a time their writing was superb and don’t forget they gave us kong wa Esther to name a few. However mismanagement killed everything and cause the brain drain. Quite a pity really.
Well said Kidd and Funn! ATV actually made many classic series back in the days and were even better than Tvb. It is truly a pity what has become of ATV. I just feel so sad what has become of it today. I really hope they will not close down and can one day produce great series again.
It’s sad to hear that ATV stops producing dramas years ago. I enjoyed their dramas very much although back then I mostly watched TVB dramas. Light of Million Hopes started off really good but it was getting bored towards the end.
Yes, ATV had some pretty awesome productions. Some were very good. What they lacked is packaging. They don’t know how to package their artists so that sponsors will pay crazy amount of spokesman fees. Look at TVB artists. Myolie, Tavia, Linda, Him, etc etc. All these tvb artists are all about packaging. They don’t care about their craft as much as they do about their appearance.
I used to support ATV since the 80’s when I was born but over the years, ATV has been increasingly disappointing.
ATV had the artistes and most of all, the veterans to give TVB a good fight in the 90’s. They did produce some great classics but something happened in 1998 and everything went downhill since then.
The plots of the series were dropping in quality and so were ratings. Yes, their leads did leave for “greener pastures” in TVB but instead of promoting a new generation of artistes, ATV elected to pay heaps of money to use famous stars (Michael Tao, Patrick Tam, Kathy Chow, Monica Chan, Michelle Ye, Ada Choi, Julian Cheung) and shoved aside the talent that was already under their roof (e.g. Ruco, Kristal, Ricky, Pinky, Lawrence, Kenny).
I thought a lot of dedicated ATV staff waited around for ATV to improve until recent years. But still ATV preferred to buy in foreign shows rather than produce their own. I really don’t blame the stars for leaving to go to TVB or to the Mainland. ATV really did let them down by stopping production of series.
I really liked ATV series back then as it showed some originality whereas TVB ones seemed to follow a set formulae. But sadly, the path that ATV has taken in recent years has broken my heart again and again.
ATV doesn’t care for its staff or the audience with the delayed pay and compulsory history classes. And giving HK$50 McDonalds vouchers for red packets is cheap.
I wish ATV’s license to be taken away and given to another company that will least produce something and give the artistes some work and pay.
I like what HKTV had produced so far. It may be pro-democracy and anti-China. But the themes connect with the situations in HK at the moment. I think giving HKTV a go will be good for the people who don’t like watching exaggerated comedies from TVB.
To Nori: BTW, “Light of A Million Hope” ran out of money and they had to end the series fast as the artistes had other commitments in their schedule. The ones who make up stayed to make the rushed last episode which you would have noticed a lot of main characters are missing. I really wanted an ending for Raymond and Alice but oh well. I always imagined that he found her at last and she got over her low self-esteem issues due to her troubled past and they got married.
I was an avid supporter of ATV because I grew up watching ATV drama instead of TVB drama (My uncle used to operate an ATV rental store). Many of my favourite actors in the 90s are from ATV. I’m sad of what has become of ATV.
Kidd,
Great to see another supporter of ATV. I grew up watching mostly Tvb but also watched ATV as well. Many ATV series back then were great. Even my family who has always loved watching hk series love ATV series as well. My mom is truly sad to hear about what has become of ATV. She always tells me that ATV has always made better quality series than Tvb. Tvb these days is so disappointing. My mom and oldest brother just talked about this today and my brother just commented on how Tvb just turns everything into comedy which backfires. I also feel extremely sad about what has happened to ATV. Are they like a dynasty that will end?
Count me in too. I used to think that atv produced better period dramas cos Damien and Michelle were so awesome in them. They were truly the IT couple of atv at that time.
I loved and supported both TVB & ATV for many years but they have both broken my heart repeatedly with their treatment of artistes and bad management.
ATV was once a great company with talent and inspiration but those golden times have gone and will never come back.
yeh many older tvb actors now or former tvb actors have started their career at atv,damien and michelle yim are good examples,but also kong wa, man chi lung, and many of them till joey meng are all decent. actually i started watching tv dramas from atv when i was a little kid, but we switched gradually to tvb in the mid of the 80ties because of tvb’s star power and addictive drama’s. but wharever will happen to atv, they will always be a part of our collective memories.
“Are they like a dynasty that will end?”
Yeah, feel a bit like a dynasty slowly collapsing. Generations of rulers tried to save it but failed.
I rather support atv than hktv.
Agree! Go atv, tvb! Stop hktv instead
ATV’s management sucks. They don’t make new dramas. I really don’t understand why they even need actors and actresses. They only have reruns and the dramas are very old; some of them are even from the 80s! I’m surprised they even managed to make it this far.
ATV produced some good dramas back then. Some were even better than TVB’s. But it seems like while TVB struggled to produce quality dramas, ATV stopped altogether. What a pity!
its a pity that atv have to face a nearly bankruptcy,they made many classics in the past,i read atv is waiting for a white knight to save them,maybe ricky wong will buy atv? then he can have his tv license and atv is saved then. atv and hktv will become one big tv station that can be a serious threat for tvb.
Wow! You have come up with a very good imagination.
its a possibility,but the point is, will the goverment renew atv’s tv license and is ricky willing to pay all the atv’s debt.
At this point, I doubt Ricky Wong is THAT deperate for a TV license that he will pay anything for it. Ricky really doesn’t need to because the future direction of TV is the internet. Actually, Ricky Wong is now paving the future of TV for HK. 🙂
Hktv drama is really boring, they should just stop
Agree, they should just stop and keep it for themselves. VERY BORING AND UNINTERESTING
My condolences.
I’m liking what HKTV is bringing. Hopefully they can recruit some of ATV’s top artistes so that they can continue to build that HKTV brand. This is better than buying ATV outright, because Ricky would just have to absorb all of ATV’s debts on top of everything else.
That’s a good point.
I really wonder how old are these naysayers to HKTV. Feels like I’m so old to actually understand the maggie cheung drama and appreciate it.
According to some recent news, ATV’s broadcasting licence will be revoked. So it stops any chance of Ricky Wong in taking over ATV and accessing the free to view market.
The downfall to Ricky Wong’s plans…
He jumped the gun too early with all the fanfare and promotion of HKTV before the licence was issued. It’s a smack in the authority’s face.
Secondly, he revealed he was anti-government and anti-China in previous interviews.
Putting aside my dislike for him. If he wanted to really get into the HK free to view market and make a difference. Should have kept quiet and only reveal his true nature once he’s through the door.
Youngsters in HK may love HKTV and Ricky Wong, but the majority dislike him and his station for what it stands for. Division of Hong Kong.
@GingerMessiah
“According to some recent news, ATV’s broadcasting licence will be REVOKED. So it stops any chance of Ricky Wong in taking over ATV and accessing the free to view market.”
If it’s revoked, why would that limit HKTV’s possibilities? You don’t make sense.
“the majority dislike him and his station for what it stands for. Division of Hong Kong.”
Where is the stats that support this? There were 200,000 people protesting against the HK government’s decision of not giving a FTA licence to HKTV.
@Anon
If ATV keeps the licence and gets taken over by HKTV. Ricky Wong gets access to the market and can broadcast on TV. How am I confusing you?
About the 200,000…we have something 800,000 and I think it rose to 1.5m for the protesters to leave and this was a signed petition.
We can argue about the validity of the figures on both sides in question. Hong Kong is a divided society we cannot deny it. The younger generation and the older (majority). Those without a future and the majority who wants to get on with their lives or they are already “on the shore” in the Chinese phrase. This is what it’s about at the end of the day.
@Ginger
“If ATV keeps the licence and gets taken over by HKTV. Ricky Wong gets access to the market and can broadcast on TV. ”
That’s great!
“About the 200,000…we have something 800,000 and I think it rose to 1.5m for the protesters to leave and this was a signed petition.”
Correct me if I am wrong, but the protest you’re referring to is the Umbrella Revolution, which was a separate protest and with very little relations to the HKTV protest that happened during the beginning of 2014.
@Anon
I was talking about the division as in the programmes they are currently airing or aired that is further dividing HK in the midst of the recent Occupy Central. Election (Universal Suffrage debate), Borderland (Black Cops) and To Be Or Not To Be (Differences between HK and Mainland China).
Stoking the fire and fanning the flame, at the moment it’s not HK vs Mainland China, we have division between HongKongers themselves.
I wasn’t talking about the Licence protest back in 2013. According to the organisers it was 120,000 and the police said it was 20,000. Western media just stick with the thousands of protesters. I’m sure the figure would be somewhere in between.
HKTV makes their drama seriously too dark, the HK population are not ready yet for such drama, it’s not friendly for family. So far I have not been impressed with their drama, HKTV has already hired a lot of ex-TVB and ex-ATV, I don’t think there’s much known artist left in ATV.
@Vodka
HKTV dramas aren’t meant for family’s, and about the drama being too dark? That’s subjective.
what is too dark and family unfriendly? many tvb drama’s from the 80ties till now involves triade themes,bloodshed wuxia,family disputes till many rape scenes today,is this what you called family friendly drama’s? ironically the many classics of tvb are with such themes. from the bund,legend of condor heroes,moonlight resonance till linewalker its all about greed power money and revenge.
According to a news article atv ratings was not affected by hktv at all and that it even beated hktv
Wow talk about not presenting the whole story. On what medium is ATV presented? On what medium is HKTV presented?
You’re an idiot. They are both on different platforms, and HKTV is an online video-on-demand service.
ATV does have a few good dramas. My Date with a Vampire is ATV drama
ATV had their moment, My Date with Vampire & Central Affairs… but they couldn’t keep up on pace with TVB.
ATV is pretty much dead in the water. TVB is killing off the generation of viewer with their underachieving material and production values. HKTV is the best thing to happen in HK television. The only one that can save television in HK is Ricky Wong.
I have several points I want to put out as a TVB viewer, and a recent HKTV viewer.
1) As broadcasting companies, they have to be responsible and held accountable for what they project on to our television because our children watch the programs. Our children become adults and watch the programs. If we continuously feed our children’s minds with garbage, they will grow up thinking garbage is good brain food. Our children will lag behind other children in their thought process. They will be stuck in the la la land world TVB feeds them.
2) Isn’t it a known fact that TVB underpay their workers? Even if third line actors can not command high prices, you as a company who utilizes a person’s DAY hours and NIGHT hours Must pay accordingly. You can’t make someone commit their time and not pay them. These people do what they do because they have passion for their craft. BUT They have to EAT too and pay for a space to sleep and put their belongings. Some lucky artists get paid $7000, some only get paid by show, some are contract workers which means they are obligated to put in X amount of performance for their wage. If the number is not met, they have to pay back by the show. Which means they have to do a show without getting paid. It’s substandard employment condition. This is the reason why Ricky Wong as able to grab so many talent from TVB. These people were waiting to become people who can earn salary and not slaves.
3) The quality of TVB dramas in the recent years are awful! Gosh, I don’t even know where to begin on this. Let’s talk about the recent dramas. THEY ALL START OUT GREAT. First few episodes are all catchy. The next few episodes begin not to make sense. More episodes in, there’s disconnect, probably due to poor script, poor editing, poor directing, poor producing. Then finally, the last two episodes become EXTREMELY RUSHED. My EQ goes up and down with TVB dramas. Just watch first three episodes and watch last two episodes. Save yourselves.
Okay I’m done. I’m old. I’m long winded.
To add to your point, one of the reasons why HK’s entertainment industry is in decline is because the industry had relied to TVB for so long to churn out quality artist (whether they are singers or actors).
Once TVB went into decline (lacked creativity, small budget, cutting corners, promoting artist that had no potential), HK’s entertainment industry just stopped to compete.
You cannot rely on your eighties and nineties artist to fight the battles across Asia – Andy Lau, Tony Leung, Francis Ng, Anthony Lau, Chow Yun Fat,Sean Lau (aka Lau Ching Wan), Stephen Chow (all 80s TVB artist), Maggie Cheung, Carina Lau, Anita Mui, Leslie Cheung (okay he started in 70s at ATV), Jacky Cheung
In the nineties we have Nick Cheung (TVB/ATV 90s), Louis Koo, Daniel Wu, Nicholas Tse, Sammi Cheng, Miriam Yeung, Eason Chan, Andy Hui, Leo Ku, Leon Lai, Aaron Kwok, Ekin Cheng, Joey Yung, Twins
Once we hit 2000, it’s all down hill. Raymond Lam? Justin? Janice? Hins? Kay Tse?
Definitely not super asia stars.
If you look at the stars that are able to break out of HK .. the majority are still from 80s and 90s. It’s pretty sad.
That’s why you need more than one tv station to shake up the industry, cos Atv are not competitors and are just a joke.
Ricky Wong has money, talent and vision. What a treasure for HK. The 3 dramas so far are fantastic.
dunno why people complain about hktv, when all their doing is giving us more shows to watch ??? u want them to do the opposite instead?
good. The sooner they go bankrupt the better. Then ppl only have 1 free TV station to choose from. Less is always better. Givng choices is so American. Ppl in HK dont need choice, okay?!
Wow what an interestingly odd thought you got there. All people knows competition sparks innovation and creativity. I am a TVB fan, by the way, but I felt back in the glory days of ATV, TVB produced more quailty drama because there were competition. And it is quite wrong of you to make a decision for all HK people that they don’t need choice. And it is very racist to categorize having choice is Americanize. If giving people more options so that they can get the best is wrong, I don’t want to know what vision you would consider to be good for society.
I seriously wonder how anyone can root for a company that can’t even pay their own employees. HK government will become an even bigger joke if they still renew ATV’s license.
I rather support atv instead on hktv I’d watch atv when I was young and they did have good dramas
I think it’s about time ATV call it a day and give way to HKTV. I haven’t seen any of HKTV’s dramas so I can’t comment whether they are any good, but at the very least HKTV are ambitious and they have heart. Yes, ATV has the long history and may have produced some exceptional dramas in the past, but that’s the past. It’s doing very badly right now and it’s just time to go. It’S now stuck at a limbo and it’s just not right how many of its employees haven’t been paid their salaries.
ATV has been collapsing since like a decade ago. The fact it is still here is amazing. TVB!! Buy over ATV!! Monopolise EVERYTHING!
i haven’t watched a tvb drama in 5 years, and now im watching all 3 hktv shows right now, and they are really good
i just cant stand the tvb goofy stuff, light hearted themes in every show, nothing is serious, sets are all fake, and stories are all the same becus tvb is made to watch with family, im pretty sure their rating is under PG compared to USA ratings
I am exactly like you. I’ve been watching the 3 HKTV series, after seldomly watching any dramas for the past several years. I tried to watch TVB’s heart of greed, and moonlight resonance, etc…but 80% of those dramas featured yelling and screaming, I just couldn’t stand it anymore. And the plotlines were terrible and too ridiculous.
ATV is almost facing bankruptcy, since the current investors don’t want to invest more money into it, especially because of the leaked news that ATV won’t get a new TV licence that is ending this year. They are now selling assets to pay for the loans of employees.
New investors that want to buy the shares of the current investors are hesitant to do that, because who is going to buy a company at an high price at this moment since there is a lot of uncertainty about the TV license renewal.
The government should have told TVB and ATV a couple of months ago about the tv licence renewal. Since that did not happen, it is likely that ATV will get new investors and a TV license renewal. Secretly, there will be most likely talks with new investors about purchasing the shares of the current shareholders and in exchange for that they will be getting a TV license renewal with the help of the government.
Guess what? ATV has not been relevant since the dinosaurs decided it was time to take a dirt nap. All of you HKTV naysayers are clearly working for ATV (did I just write that?) or a bunch of communists looking to keep down Ricky Wong. ATV dramas look like they are filmed in the garage of Shek Sau’s Idaho home. TVB keeps on having Linda Chung pretend like she’s acting in a drama and produces filler with Johnson Lee/Li (and the forever sexy and beautiful Joey Meng who is actually the best thing to ever come out of ATV) as the lead. HKTV is not producing the best work but it is refreshing and slowly it will gain traction. The objective is not take over TVB’s reign in a short time span. Do just enough to bleed its pockets at the beginning and eventually the giant will lose more and more blood until its inevitable collapse.
ATV sucks so bad that even the Chinese government or companies from the mainland don’t want to buy it out, because they know it’s completely non profitable. TVB’s a joke, Atv sucks…no wonder why Hong Kong doesnt have any great talents coming through.
Btw, does anyone know what’s happening to the free licences that were given to i-cable and now tv last year? When are those channels gonna be launched?
I guess they are waiting for the outcome of the lawsuit, they don’t want to take any risk.
The elites from Now and I-cable are not going to use their free to air license. They have a paid TV business. They got the licenses to stop competition. They will just sit on those licenses. The government know this. It’s a form of crony capitalism. They denied HKTV because HKTV would actually shake up the industry monopoly.
@RJ
There are no clauses within the agreement that if they don’t use their licences within a time frame then it will be revoked?
If not, then that’s a joke.
Actually, i-Cable and NowTV can’t use their free TV licenses yet because they don’t even have them in their possession. Remember that the government granted the 2 companies licenses IN PRINCIPLE – which essentially means that their applications were approved and they are allowed to get licenses. The government is not going to physically issue the licenses until the whole court case with HKTV is over (the judicial review that HKTV filed against the government is still pending in court – both sides have given their arguments but the judge has not given his decision yet). Since the government’s licensing decision is being disputed, everything is on hold until all of that is resolved….
@llwy12
Thanks for the explaination.
“but the judge has not given his decision yet”
Waiting for direction from CCP?
Sorry, can’t help thinking this way. CCP seem to be tightening its control on HK.
@Kidd: I can’t help but agree with you. When the judge decided to delay his decision ‘indefinitely’ (didn’t even give a date), I’m sure a lot of people were thinking the same thing…add that to the government’s ‘delay’ in issuing a decision on TVB and ATV’s license renewals (THAT decision was due in November 2014, then got pushed to December, and now who knows when they are going to decide)….and now with the recent debacle with ATV (I mean, come on now – if it were any other company who didn’t pay their employees for 2 months straight, they would have already been shut down by now)….definitely way too suspicious!
Heck, if HKTV is entirely internet-based, it does “not” even need to be a HK-based company. If China/HK keeps bullying HKTV, just move the entire company elsewhere (that is much more cost effective). 🙂
Without the free to air license, HKTV needs the HK market, especially in the home shopping side of the business to be financially viable.
Well, HKTV better branch out and find more markets elsewhere.
Don’t put all your eggs in one unreliable basket.
The HK government is a real joke. The so called world’s freest economy is really a playground for the HK elite. HK is going to be deteriorate because of crony capitalism is their is no real democracy.
…if there is no real democracy.
agree,just look how hk gov manages the housing policy and you will know that the common hk ppl are becoming economic slaves of the hk elite and their gov.
HK has ALWAYS been a playground for the elite.
For the British expat elite before the mid-70s and then for the HK Chinese elite afterwards.
Well said msxie.
The government will give ATV a license no matter how many months they don’t pay their employees. This is how elites protect their own. This is how crony capitalism works.
ATV will lose it’s licence if it means stopping non-pro HK entities in taking advantage of it. The government wouldn’t want an unfriendly station going against it.
You have to accept the fact authorities rule. Same in UK you have BBC and ITV dancing to the government’s tune.
Ya’ll shouldn’t bash ATV, TVB did pay tribute to one of ATV’s and in my option one of the best HK drama, My Date With A Vampire, in there Come On Cousin series with Joey Meng ! Used MDWAV2’s theme song and had recreated a scene in which MDWAV was promptly focused. Also in Officer Geomancer, also another Joey Meng series, Vampire were shown too… Very cool to Joey Meng fans !
^ You have no idea what you’re saying.
Anon is clearly on drugs
@Linda
Nice rebuttal. *sarcasm*
I have only watched a few ATV productions. The most memorable ones for me were Light of Million Hopes and the My Date with a Vampire trilogy. I’m currently watching the third and last installment of MDWAV and I have to say I’m very impressed with the plot and acting. Even the CGI is so good and even managed to rival TVB in some ways! Joey Meng, Eric Wan, Kristy Yang, Pinky Cheung, Kenneth Chan, Chapman To and everyone who ever appeared in the series are so talented. They managed to keep the viewers engaged with their acting. Producing MDWAV was ATV’s smartest move ever. TVB’s loss is ATV’s gain. But looking at this piece of news I’m really sad of what it has come to. I think one of the most viable option is to merge with HKTV but I think they are too proud to do that…sad really…
The chances are very slim that buyers are going to take over the shares of the current shareholders.
The asking price is too much according to reports and there is too much uncertainty about the license renewal. Who is going to buy a company for a lot of money that has only 1 year TV license left in the worst case scenario.
Well I think that any investor that will purchase shares from existing ATV shareholders would be given the nod that their licence will be renewed from the government before the transaction completes. There’s no way that any businessmen will jump in and “rescue” ATV in the dark. Judging by how corrupt the HK government is, a heads up will be given.