TVB’s Low Salary for Miss Hong Kong Winners
TVB has been scouting for new actresses to promote through its annual Miss Hong Kong pageant. Despite the glamor associated with the pageant, TVB reportedly offered this year’s contestants meager salaries of only $7,000 HKD per month for seven years.
With the exception of Miss Hong Kong winner Veronica Shiu (邵珮詩), who has confidence in breaking out in the entertainment industry through TVB’s support, many Hong Kong contestants are unwilling to sign management contracts and are looking for other options.
Veronica, who is from Vancouver and comes from a wealthy family, has the support of TVB executives and is willing to sign a contract despite the low pay. Since winning the pageant, Veronica has also been appearing in many talk shows and promotional events, earning appearance fees in addition to her TVB salary. Veronica may also replace Skye Chan (陳倩揚), who is on maternity leave on TVB’s The Scoop <東張西望>.
First runner-up Erin Wong (王卓淇) and popular favorite Sofiee Ng (吳凱欣), however, have not been receiving the same treatment and are considering to leave TVB. Sofiee’s boyfriend has ties to the film industry and she may focus on developing her film career instead.
With the exception of Sofiee, this year’s Miss Hong Kong contestants were not very popular with the public. The pageant’s prestige has been in a steady decline, as winners were often criticized for possessing plain looks.
In addition, the salaries of Miss Hong Kong winners have also been dropping every year. Miss Hong Kong 2005 winners were given $15,000 HKD per month in their first year. Miss Hong Kong 2011 winners received $10,000 HKD per month. Last year, the salaries for Miss Hong Kong winners dropped to only $8,000 HKD per month.
This article is written by Addy for JayneStars.com.
Wow tvb is so cheaap! No wonder all of the female artistes leave tvb as soon as their contract ends!
DEFINITELY CHEAP TVB.
CHEAP STATION.
KUDOS TO ALL THE STARS THAT LEAVE THE STATION.
Nowadays, the market is for free lance employment.
There is not more trusts on permanent employment anymore. This is because there is no guarantee of the business can survive in the economy.
Like any job applicants, they are not worth much as they have not prove in their acting skill yet.
Many Miss Hong Kong contestants normally go into the movie career or become TVB movie queen..eventually it pays off at the end.
agree
NOT NOW.
EVEN THE ESTABLISHED VETERANS LEAVING IN DROVES.
THIS NEW OWNER IS THE WORSE KIND.
Maybe in the 90’s. Name JUST ONE former TVB actress in the last 10 years that is an established A-list movie actress.
I can answer for you now.
NONE!
Nick Cheung has his last series appearance in 2005 and in TVB in 2004, within 10 years.
Ah actress, then ok.
michelle yeh was the last actress who left tvb and became quite succesful as a moviestar.she thought she left tvb in 2004 or 2005 i dont exactly remember when actually.
Michelle Ye gained fame in her roles in Chinese drama series, NOT as a movie actress. Furthermore, she’s NOT even a mainstay movie actress. Her career is focused on Chinese drama series. On top of that, when she is IN films, she’s not even an A-list actress, but a supporting cast, at best.
its true that she play many supporting role in movies but she has also played some lead roles in movies. one of them was the film accident in which she was nominated for the venice filmfestival best actress,haha.and i think her acting is quite better than many so called A-list actresses,who is more impressive with their bodies than their acting,lol.
@kenzo
Michelle Ye is not an established leading movie actress.
Many of these actresses in China left their continuity of drama services were because there was no demand for them. This is because they are many more come to replace them.
Actress like Michelle Yeh is not an established actress. She has not more than like another ordinary actress trying hard struggling to find a good scripted drama or movie to act in it.
They can pay off fast by going to bed with some rich people.
None of the past actresses and actors had ever made the top grade of AAA quality.
Only those actresses and actors in the 150 to 1980 have those AAA grade standard.
The current group of actors and actresses is a load of bull-shits.
I’m kiki, and I dropped out of acting after some years of poor market condition, and now the competition is high, and so now, I have no work.
However, I found a rich man who became my boyfriend and now I became his wife, actually I’m his concubine.
HK men like to have concubines and these becomes a good business former actresses to retire with them early.
If not, there is no chance to find a man made-ready for you.
I sense a troll.
Typical TVB… they treat their actors like crap, except for high profile ones… with other TV network joining the fray, they need to start to show some respect with their talents… they need new blood and blood that know how to ‘act’ and not ones who only know how to spread their legs or bend over to get on top. They need to re-structure their management…
TVB is a “lean and trim” company, like other employers, they want only new bloods to supplement their other actors and actress. They also want them who have not been doing or acting well for the company.
They also removed those who had created a bad image for themselves that have affected the image of the company.
even someone who wash dishes in hk restaurants earns more than miss hk,and that for 7 years? this is modern slavery.
Normally, even when they won the pageant, they are just like anyone else having to find a job.
In their job applicants, they were lucky to be employed immediately without any interview.
This was because they won their beauty contest, and the contest got them a automatically employed without any job interview.
But their pay is low is because their job experience is zero.
For their zero experience, they are paid like anyone who has not experience in their job.
Since they still have to go for acting class and training, their pay should be enough for their work effort.
This is because they should know they have got free classes and trainings that are paid by the company.
They should know they might not even make the passing grade in the acting class and training to be a movie star.
In any case, if they want to earn more, they still have to win the audience first in the acting in their movies.
In ant case, the market pay for a movie is determined by how good and popular is the audience on their drama or movie.
Their income also have to depend on the projected income by the company earned from the movie or drama.
The company also draws income from advertisers who agree to advertise to support the broadcast of the drama or movie.
At the end of the day, if the movie or drama stars are popular, she has a chance to make more money through brand marketing of products for those product owners.
TVB is not Sir Run Run Shaw era anymore…
New owner seem very cheap now….
Even though the company’s share holding is not entirely belonged to Run Run Shaw family anymore, but the entire decision making of the day to day functions of the company is still under the care of Run Run wife, Mona Fong.
We should know that now they are many more actress and actors than movies or drama scripts.
When they are plenty of actress and actors to choose, they will have t compete. The movie or drama company will have choice to bring in more actresses or actors to widen their acting experiences.
This means some have to accept a lower salary when the budget for the production of drama or movie is shared out to more actress and actors instead.
In any case, they should take the cheap pay than doing nothing in the company which is paying them a monthly a modest pay anyway.
If they don’t take the low paying drama or movie, then they might lose their “stardom” opportunity, if the drama or movie became successful and popular, and is making a lot of money for the company.
TVB gives you the exposure, so don’t count on the salary. But, 7k/month for a 7 year contract? Yikes!
Yes, the company is giving them a exposure to make money for their own. If they did well, advertisers will look for them, and pay them highly, if they are good.
7k/month for 7 years is just a base salary for which their income will also rise if their drama or movie is making money for their company.
that is a ridiculous salary…is that even allowed in hk?
$7,000 HKD is about £570 and about £140 a week!
Definitelt! How can the MHK survive with 7000 HKD a month?
They can survive, more than survive. Majority will eventually become someone mistress or prostitutes.
They have wealthy background they will survive how would they even become miss hk with ugly features
The living expenses in Hongkong is lower than in UK. That salary is enough if they live with family.
Except they don’t live like an average citizen. They are celebrities, and they have a lavish lifestyle.
You can make more money flippin burgers at McDonald’s than being a TVB actress. What a joke! No wonder no entertainment company respects TVB outside of HK.
The celebrities still eat on street restaurants. You may feel surprised at how much a newbie in Korea ent. circle earn. Even the rising stars such as EXO members claimed of how little they have each month.
Sure, but the growth potential and fame is MUCH higher than TVB, your ROI is much better and greater even though you must suffer in the beginning through the Korean entertainment industry than your measly TVB.
When was the last time TVB had produced an international movie star/singer that’s recognizable outside of China?
None! Not in this century.
Why?
Cause TVB doesn’t care to produce talent, they are short-sighted, they only care about making money off the local market (HK/China), nor are they recognize as an organization that can produce great talent. No one knows or cares about TVB outside of China. Get real people! It’s not Japan or Korea.
Ya lor, all last century.
“No one knows or cares about TVB outside of China. ”
But that’s when you’re wrong. Where there’s Chinese, they watch TVB. TVB has huge fanbase in SEA and some don’t even understand Cantonese. Ok maybe they don’t have huge stars or great marketing skills like Koreans but you know, TVB has its huge fanbase and distributorship. Wayyyyy beyond China. And conquering China alone is enough to generate those ka chings anyway. Some even think they don’t need to go beyond China, much like Japan feels Japan alone is enough unless you’re Korean, you will need to boy band your way to every household who likes a bit of K-drama.
Funn, I was referring to NON-CHINESE OVERSEAS. Go ask your average white, black, hispanic, latino on the street and see if they’ve heard of TVB. They’ll just give you a blank stare.
Funn, in addition, I hate to say this, but your so-called large chinese fanbase overseas is an overwhelming majority of middle-age to seniors. Hardly ANY millenials of Chinese descent that lives overseas actually care about TVB, myself included. I’m only on this board so that I can keep myself posted on how my friends are doing at TVB, otherwise I wouldn’t care.
that so called oversea fanbase is not really a fanbase,its just that they watch tvb years ago and they still do because there are no other choices,like the hk citizens.and what anon say is true its also mostly audience from middle age or above,the younger generations prefer korean or japanese or western drama’s than tvb.
It is delusional to think TVB has such large audience worldwide. Even within China itself, TVB is unknown to 99% of her population as only regions around HK can and are interested in watching its broadcast.
As far as the claim that wherever there are Chinese they would watch TVB, this statement just reeks of provincial ignorance. There is a sizable Hokkien immigrant population in NY and trust me none would tune in to TVB. Instead, they would watch Taiwanese broadcast which they find to have more dialectic commonality.
@Terminator not necessarily true. Most of my international classmates from Mainland China actually love TVB dramas, they just don’t watch every series. The mainland girls in my class are in love with Kenneth Ma from the On Call series, whilst the boys like Nancy Wu and Tavia Yeung. The only series they had no idea what I was talking about was When Heaven Burns, which of course was censored in mainland China. This year they loved watching the Ultimate Addiction and Line Walker. TVB dubs their series to mandarins for a reason.
Also, don’t underestimate TVB’s popularity. Back in Australia we have quite a lot of young Australian born Chinese who watch TVB series every night, and even some of my friends discuss with me about the storyline. I even have a Vietnamese friend who watches TVB and doesn’t understand a bit of Cantonese (thanks to dubbing). TVB also has people managing their overseas distributions with offices all over different suburbs. As for other countries I am not so sure but in countries such as Malaysia and Singapore even host their own TVB awards ceremony, surely there must be a dedicated fanbase there.
@Anon actually young people quite like TVB as well. Yes nowadays teenagers are glued to Korean dramas and all but TVB dramas are still highly popular. Whether if you look at online blogs about TVB series or online forums, quite a large proportion of the commentators are high school students or at a young age.
And of course not much non-Chinese people watch TVB but the Chinese community in itself is enough to generate revenue for TVB to keep on making dramas continuously. (Btw there are now 5 different dramas being viewed; Love Come Home, Overachievers, Come On Cousin, Tiger Cubs 2, Shades of Life)
@Anthony
I was not saying that TVB has no overseas (beyond HK) viewers at all; I merely challenged the assertion that it is an international juggernaut.
BTW the mainland students in your class hardly represent a cross section of all TV viewers in China therefore I would refrain from extrapolating any statistical significance about the popularity of TVB in China.
@Anon: In Korean industry, not really that great ROI. For example, amongst about 1000 bands established in 2011 to 2013, only 5 or 6 bands became well-known. The other stuck with small shows, small income, small home and then disappear.
I dont recall many people from Korea established a blooming career in Hollywood. I think you are going to name Rain or LBH, but are they the artists of 90s? Not the 2000s.
@Alluka
Korean singers and actors still fair way better in opportunities than any TVB artists ever will. You cannot deny that.
There is a reason that Korean entertainment is the world’s 2nd greatest cultural export, behind Hollywood.
Obviously, Anon. But not all of them are benefitted from the Halyu wave. Actually only the artists of old generation (before 2010) are really famous, the later generation has difficulties and the current generation of Kpop, fame is something far from their reach. Can you name a newly famous Kpop group? Those members are even less famous than the TVB artists. So everything has its period. There were time TVB dominated Asia and Hongkong leaded the wave after Hollywood, then Halyu wave took over. Now the Halyu wave is fading, perhaps a new wave will coming up next.
7000 hkd per month is a messenger / courier/ delivery staff salary.
How is it enough for Miss HK !!
The sum is small. It is an allowance and not a salary. If they have not given a job by TVB, they might even have a job.
So they cannot complain and cannot argue too much of their right. They have not produce any movie or drama for TVB.
Thus, they should be pleased with their chance to be given the job by TVB.
TVb give u exposed and fame! Earn more later if you have acting talent
that’s if they give you any opportunities to shine….
That is just base salary, not including appearance fees, product endorsements, and drama per episode fees.
If you had to live on this only, that means you have nothing going and should quit.
Agreed.
HK $7000 its like $909 for a month here worst then mexican labor here in NY
The pay is peanut but they have to know the pay is allowance for their jobless condition while in the contract of employ by TVB.
Which company has such as nice pat when their employees have not been trained and have not produced anything to earn revenue for the company?.
Wow!! Seriously??? This Year’s miss HK is just horrible and it is just awkward I thought that sofiee would be the winner but then this Veronica was the winner!!!!!!
They don’t care about their measly salaries. The rich ones always win.
Key word is that it is an “offer” – they certainly don’t need to accept it.
If true, it’s a pretty ridiculous offer.
Wow this is almost embarrassing. TVB is struggling this much?
I can definitely see Veronica replacing Skye temporarily. They give off a similar vibe and seems very approachable. I can’t remember if Veronica is as fluent as Skye in terms of Cantonese, however.
Of course, TVB keeps the majority of the appearance and endorsement fees that they make as well.
Omg what a rdiculous offer. Super cheap TVB!
the real money is made when they escort….tvb gives them exposure to advertise themselves….that’s why its not about the 7000…they would probably pay tvb to become famous.
True but being escort means lowering your class
If they don’t want to lower their class, they have to set standard on their class, such as they only go to the high end activity like charity or to class musical show or high class restaurant.
And yet droves of people signup for the pageant every year.
It attracted droves of them because they think the best option to speed their career is to join beauty pageant.
Even a drop-out from the early stage of the pageant selection would still stand a chance to getting recruited by advertisers for their appearance jobs in their advertisements.
no wonder most pageant and actresses hang onto the first ugly/old rich man they get their hands on
It is low pay.
But seriously this year winner is worth about that much anyways.. To me that is. Lol…
i can work part time flipping burgers and still make more than that…
That’s ridiculous! I’m a 15 year old student who hasn’t found a job yet and I still make more money
Then you are pretty lucky. I believe a new university graduate in Hong Kong only makes slightly over HKD12,000 a month, i.e. around USD1,700 a month.
HKD7,000 a month is a bit too little for a TVB beauty winner in Hong Kong, but her chance of getting famous and making big money is enormous and unlimited!
that’s only if they wants to promote you not all miss hk have this luck.
Lmao I was only joking with the comment I’m not actually a jobless 16 year old XD
but seriously $7,000 HKD per month is really less for miss Hong Kong, I really thought their salary would be higher /:
How did you make more money when you did not have a job?.
You open your leg?
Yes, it is low, but as pointed out above, given that university graduates are struggling to get well paid jobs, then comparatively it is not actually that bad. The earning potential and exposure explains why so many still dream of instant fame and celebrity. Such is the sad fact of the society we live in today
For HK university graduates to get good pay is to get rid of those foreigners who have taken away their jobs.
For ordinary HK people, they have to get rid of those foreigners or Chinese nationals who come to HK to snatch their jobs.
Because they want to live in HK, they lowered their expectation of salaries.
This makes the Hong Kong people angry of them.
Well gotta start somewhere. You just started there so technically your wage should be lowest. Plus point is they will have sponsorships and sugar daddies. Imagine the writers, assistants and etc.
I do like this comment. Yes, they are CHEAP and yes they are low but hey, YOU GOTTA START SOMEWHERE. Who says our first job makes big bucks? haha..and you have to understand TVB Ms. HK’s unlike americans or some other, they have ZERO acting training basically all wooden starts all of them are actually so that’s really a base salary. This isn’t the first time we heard TVB is cheap anyways. I remember that Ah Wong dude had been struggling for years until the ah wong breakthrough or else he will still be a cameo supporting kind of base salary. Not surprising at all.
yes its true that ppl have to start somewhere,but who say all miss hk will be promoted? many runner up miss hk never have the chance to act,most of them can only do some variety programmes and have no endorsement and ads income,so how can they develop and become famous like ah wong?
No wonder most of them had to participate in dinner functions attended by rich men to make ends meet. Tee Hee.
They will earn extra income if they go to bed with them.
They can also work like social escort going out with them for private companion dinners.
They can also travel with them to overseas as companion for their private holiday.
During their holidays, she can, in return, get a branded handbag, and some pocket money to shop.
If she can, give him an open leg, she can get to become a “private companion pay” from him on a monthly basis.
This will help increase her income, too.
Sounds like Little Karena Ng. LOL 🙂
Why is everyone complaining about the low salary. It’s the price of fame. Take it or leave it… No one is forcing them to sign it. I highly doubt that’s the only money that they are getting or how are they able to survive.
Agree totally.
Rich people ripping off the honest and hardworking people in this world. They will have their karma.
MG! How u ppl survive in HK getting dat kinda meager pay huh!
TVB is not a high-pay-savvy company. They are like Hollywood film company which do not have permanent employees. What they do is to be the producer of the production instead.
The best Is for these HK beauty girls is to find a man who can be her ‘quiet” partner to stand behind her and to be her “boyfriend” when she need to bed with him.
The problem with HK is the men there like to use HK pageants as resource to find new actresses.
In other countries, there was no one in the making use of beauty queens as actresses.
This proves that HK men have been in the past many years under their colonial master were very “Hum Sup” – a dirty word in Cantonese that is given by the HK girls and women on their men and boys.
It is the fault of the HK society where men in the early times dominated their wealth on beauty queens.
This kind of beauty pageant in Hong Kong should be abolished and stopped making the girls like “open leg” girls waiting for the rich HK men and Chinese nationals to glue at them, and to book them as their future bed partner at their home when he goes to bed.
Chinese men love to flirt and keep mistress. It is like holding up a trophy and also a personal social escort.
Beauty queens do not have to rely on the small salary from their company.
They can get “companion fee” from their rich men who can partner them as employer to them, too.
Remember, even “companion love” needs money to oil the relationship.
Love needs money to survive well.
My friend was a drama actress some years ago in one of the movie company, and she is now working as a sales girl in a department store.
Actress is not long-lasting job.
When there is no acting work, and, as an actress, you have to accept a small pay as living allowance only.
My friend eventually found her rich man had dumped her, and she then became poorer.
So, she decided to find a job as a sales girl in a department store.
The pay is poor and she has to work hard in order to get commissions from her sales.
But she is happier now as she has no more rich men to “open her leg” for them.
I was a beauty queen and yet I have not been doing well in my drama career, as there is not enough jobs to fill my income.
My parents are not rich, and thus, I have to look for other source of income.
There are not many rich men in HK but there are lot of them in China.
But I don’t like the Chinese as their rude behaviour is poorest.
I was a former drama actress. As a former beauty queen, I became like a “on-call” queen to another man. He gave me a lot of money and a apartment as well.
But I am always “on call” to wait on him whenever he comes to me for dinner and love-making.
I’m now fat and old, and he now becomes a bloated fat man. We have no children.
Is this money and apartment worthy of having and keeping him?
Low pay is purposely meant for them to find new income from selling their beauty and shapely body to rich men.
These rich men are eagerly waiting every year for their Miss HK to be their mistresses.
Even they cannot get the winner, they can still choose from any of the top 20 candidates.
In Hong Kong, the demand for concubine or wife or mistress is very high.
The low pay is to give them a motivation to find alternative income like becoming a lover, or mistress, or wife of the rich man.
Low pay is for you to find more pay.
More pay is for you to choose which one is worth more pay.
More pay means more sex.
Find your lover or rich man is up to you to choose.
They are all ugly. They deserve nothing the 2014 winners
Love is cultivated but money is not.
Money is earned, but love is not.
So the best way is to ensure it is true in your love to the person in order to earn your money.