ATV Scrounges for Money to Pay Debts
Cash-stripped ATV is heavily in debt. According to official announcements, aside from owing its workers wages, the troubled broadcaster also owes the government over $10 million HKD in broadcasting license fees and insurance. The Hong Kong Communications Authority demanded ATV to pay the debt in the next two months, setting the deadlines to February 18 and March 18.
ATV Executive Director Ip Ka Po (葉家寶) said ATV is currently in the midst of collecting money from its new investors to pay the debts. Ip Ka Po said Mainland Chinese businessmen are interested in helping ATV, expressing that they do not want Hong Kong’s oldest public broadcaster to disappear. He added that some clients who never placed advertisements on ATV were also willing to help.
In regards to ATV’s current financial state, Ip Ka Po admitted, “[The debt] is a large number. We need several ten million HKD to pay up the wages and license fee. We’ve been monitoring [ATV’s financial situation] closely. At the moment, out bank account only has enough to pay the back wages for one month. We’re still waiting for more money.” He stressed that paying the wages is ATV’s main responsibility.
Asked when ATV plans to pay its workers the wages for December 2014, Ip Ka Po said that the main reason for ATV’s current poor financial state is because it lost the support of many shareholders. “I’m sure some clients had their own reason to do what they did. We are at fault for being unable to pay our workers on time. We are now using every possible means to retrieve money; hopefully we can receive it by today or tomorrow. Our goal right now is to be able to pay the wages by the end of the month.”
Ip Ka Po said ATV is currently going through many changes and he will keep the media up-to-date with ATV’s situation.
This article is written Addy for JayneStars.com.
Sell it to TVB or fusion with them, sad to say but it’s the reality TVB is dominating in Hong Kong and will keep dominating no matter how bad or good their drama are. Face the fact, ATV won’t survive they need someone desperately to help them.
True ATV should join TVB and make it one big strong station with lots of actors and places/scenes with good scripts and editing. And then TVB won’t be as corrupted with anther big boss.
just combine tvb with atv and hktv and nowtv…work together…that will be the best for us viewers and hk television if u ask me
Yeah, one big McDonald’s. Only restaurant in town. Great food for everybody. And employee pay would be fantastic!
Are you being sarcastic there , cos I find this rather funny.
@dan all the stations can’t combine that would be corruption and audience won’t have a choice. Maybe 1 or 2 or 3 of the stations combine would make more sense and less corrupted.
the HK govt should take the broadcasting license away from ATV and give it to HKTV.
this company has made nothing but crap for last 10 years and cant even pay their worker and they have a license
meanwhile hktv is trying so hard and making very good, new, refreshing dramas, and they cant get a license
LOL stupid hk governement
You’re even more stupid. You think every tom & harry investing millions into the industry then can get you a license and disrupting the market?
HKTV is sponsored by americans. Obviously for political reason they can let bad intentions influence hk people. Look at all these tramps sleeping in HK street for months. It affects china’s reputation and hk economy. This arrange nobody except the world’s big brothers.
I think Ricky Wong is Canadian.
Oh so that’s why Hong Kong government won’t give Hktv there license because there afraid of bad intention/influence. I wonder where @alain get your info from? But does make sense.
China’s economy is about to go through some major struggles the next few years. With Taobao selling all these fake goods, I think the HKTV Mall will do very well. I’m liking the mall which will have about 40,000 premium items from some of the world’s and HK’s best brands. This is HK’s strength, real products and fair prices. Hopefully, the mall can support new HKTV shows in the next 2 years. The license will come eventually. I have no doubt about that. Quality always wins. Ricky has plenty of cash to survive long term.
I am surprised no one is helping the poor employees there. Not the government or the political parties. They might as well close the station and give the licence to another player