ATV May Shut Down before April
Hong Kong’s troubled station ATV may be closing down as soon as the end of March. ATV has been struggling with financial problems since. Although it has managed to pay its broadcasting license fees, the station is behind in paying employee wages.
The station’s largest shareholder and creditor,Wong Ching (王征), stated that ATV is now being pushed to its last breath after negotiations with potential buyers fell through on March 21.
In February, several “white knights” came to ATV’s aid and were in discussions to buy ATV’s stock. However, Wong Ching was ultimately not satisfied with the buyers’ offered prices and negotiations fell through.
Wong Ching became ATV’s largest shareholder in September 2010 after taking 52 percent of its stake. In August 2013, after getting fined by by the Hong Kong Communications Authority for interfering with the running of the station, Wong Ching announced that he would not longer fund ATV and has been looking for buyers since.
Reportedly, Wong Ching wants to sell the broadcaster for at least $2 billion HKD. The astronomical price would allow Wong Ching to recover his investments on the station in the last three years.
ATV actor Lau Shek Yin (劉錫賢) expressed his disappointment in Wong Ching, saying, “He really played us all. It’s a pity to see ATV [go down]. We knew he was the problem all along. He was the one who turned down the white knight, not the other way around.”
Source: ihktv.com
This article is written by Addy for JayneStars.com.
It’s very unfortunate that it had to come to this. I was hoping perhaps in the near future that they release the old tv series from the 80s on DVD in the original language.
Good! I’ll be more than happy to pull the plug.
im sure HKTV will be very interested but I guess their relation aren’t that great either to discuss.
ATV was already in major decline when Wong Ching took over, so pretty much what he did was put the last nail in the coffin. But I agree that the guy is an idiot – he was the one who wanted to turn ATV into the “Asian version of CNN”, which played a huge role in the station deciding not to produce series anymore. And then to deny that he had any involvement in ATV’s decision-making (yeah, like people will believe that when both of ATV’s former directors James Shing and Louie Bin were his relatives)…such a joke! Well, whatever the case – if ATV does fold, I hope the staff at least get paid their salaries for March…and I hope it doesn’t take a drawn-out court battle to make that happen!
agree this guy is an idiot,even in the verge of death,he is playing poker with atv but in the end he will lost everything.
Can’t believe this could happen. Everyone will lose their job from ATV.
about time.
now there shouldn’t be any issue for hk gov to turn down hktv’s broadcasting license.
That’s not up for the HK government to decide. Both parties are in a legal battle right now.
TV licensing has become increasingly controversial as the decisions would benefit from a much needed reformed framework. It’s quite ironic that HKTV which wants in and has arguably produced some quality material is denied while ATV renews a license they don’t even use anymore.
In 1966, Sir John James Cowperthwaite, then Hong Kong’s Financial Secretary, noted that “in the long run, the aggregate of the decisions of individual businessmen, exercising individual judgment in a free economy, even if often mistaken, is likely to do less harm than the centralized decisions of a Government; and certainly the harm is likely to be counteracted faster.”
I’m not so sure that there’s such an easy way in.
Wong Ching sounds like an idiot. Isn’t it better to sell than to fold/shut down? Should have known that ATV would fold since Wong Ching has been turning it into an empty shell. Really feel sorry for all those ATV employees. Wong Ching is such a jerrrrk.
Not only is Wong Ching idiotic, he also has major integrity problems. He keeps insisting that he never said ATV is doomed and will cease to exist — well, the magazine that he interviewed with released a video of his interview and well, um, he DID say exactly what he claimed he didn’t say. The funny thing is, even with obvious proof, Wong Ching is still going around denying that he ever said that. What a lying bastard!
“ATV is doomed and will cease to exist”
Well, maybe it doesn’t matter whether Wong Ching said it or not because the idiot Wong Ching is making it happen. 🙂
ATV should close down now as not able to pay salaries is a joke,
HK government should step in to force closure.
License should be given to HKTV so that there is still competition in the TV market.
Wong Ching is such an idiot who tried to look smart in managing TV business but failed in the end. What a jackass!
Seriously, ATV should have sold itself years ago when they had some salvageable worth for investors to consider. Who would want to spend billions buying an empty shell with all the debt to pay?
What about the joint deal with TVB?
rename it to ATVB. 🙂
They call HK the world’s freest economy. Free from regulation I guess.