Maggie Cheung, Felix Wong, Kenix Kwok, and Frankie Lam Bite TVB, Signing With City Telecom
Maggie Cheung Offered 7 Times Her Salary
TVB’s leading artists continue to leave the company. Following Bowie Lam (林保怡) and Charmaine Sheh (佘詩曼), Maggie Cheung (張可頤), who worked for TVB for 17 years, also decided not to renew her contract since it expired in December 2011. It was understood that TVB offered to pay nearly double her original salary in order to retain Maggie for 3 more years; however, TVB placed many restrictions on filming in mainland. At the same time, Ricky Wong’s (王維基) City Telecom offered Maggie 7 times her old TVB salary, at the price of $140,000 HKD per episode and custom-tailored roles. With the difference in the contract terms, Maggie decided to leave TVB and sign with City Telecom.
Currently filming in Hengdian for new mainland drama, Female Phase <女相>, Maggie was originally slated to film Big Eunuch <大太監> for TVB at this time, starring oppose TV King, Wayne Lai (黎耀祥) once again. In August last year, TVB executives, Virginia Lok (樂易玲) and Chan Fai Kwong (陳輝光), discussed contract renewal terms with Maggie. They offered to increase her wages from $10,000 to $30,000 HKD per episode. TVB also made it clear that she will be the female lead of Big Eunuch and Producer Lee Tim Shing’s (李添勝) upcoming Legend of Empress Lu <呂后傳>, in which the role was a tailor-made for Maggie.
An insider revealed, “Maggie was a bit uncertain. At this time, several mainland production companies offered her roles, while Ricky Wong’s City Telecom asked her to work for them. In terms of money, TVB cannot be compared to their rivals. The mainland series were confirmed to be broadcast on Hunan TV station, the highest rating station in China. Maggie considered her options for a lengthy amount of time. She heard that Producer Lee Tim Shing will retire after filming Detective Columbus <神探哥侖布> and will not produce Legend of Empress Lu. Since TVB intended to sign Maggie for 3 years, there will not be a chance for her to renegotiate her fees in that period. Otherwise, Maggie will not be assigned to film any ‘big productions.’ Thus, Maggie did not wish to be bound by TVB’s terms.”
After Maggie decided not to renew her TVB contract and instead filmed mainland series, Female Phase, the company implemented an emergency cast change and asked Michelle Yim (米雪) to take on the role of Empress Dowager Cixi in Big Eununch instead.
Felix Wong in Discussions With City Telecom
Recently, Felix Wong (黃日華) had an exchange with Ricky Wong of City Telecom on his Weibo blog, in which Felix indicated his interest to discuss partnership opportunities. Ricky quickly replied that he would fly to Yunnan, China to dicuss with Felix. On the other hand, Felix replied that he understood Ricky was a busy businessman, thus Felix offered to seek out Ricky when he returned to Hong Kong.
Joe Ma, Kenix Kwok, Frankie Lam, and Bernice Liu Confirmed Signing With City Telecom
Earlier, Ricky Wong’s City Telecom announced that they invested $600 million HKD to recruit talent for their newly established free television broadcasting operation. Numerous TVB artists were highly sought after by TVB. Joe Ma (馬德鐘), Kenix Kwok (郭可盈), Frankie Lam (林文龍), and Bernice Liu (廖碧兒), and Janet Chow (周家怡) confirmed they had signed with City Telecom. Allegedly, Amy Kwok (郭藹明) was also tempted by the money City Telecom offered. In addition, City Telecom were also interested in signing veteran actors such as Elliot Ngok (岳華), David Chiang (姜大偉), and Yuen Wah (元華).
Offering double the amount TVB paid, City Telecom successfully recruited 31 scriptwriters, 20 producers and directors, and nearly 500 experienced production staff members. Golden script editors, Cheung Wah Biu (張華標) and Chu Keung Kei (朱鏡棋) have also accepted City Telecom’s offer. It was expected that City Telecom will start filming series in March. The first two productions will be modern dramas, which will likely be broadcast in Hong Kong in September.
Excerpt from Next Magazine # 1140
Jayne: Ricky Wong seems to have endless pockets in offering to pay artists and production staff such hefty wages! Let’s see what will be their first drama productions, which will start work in March.
omg this is extremely exciting. finally, an opportunity to fix the mess tvb made.
Yah an opportunity for CT to fix up the mess in HK tv caused by TVB.
You mean save the City from dying caused by the most obvious rigged award show, LOL
“The city is dying” b/c of a tv station? Didn’t know tvb was to blame for all of society’s problems.
The HK population works hard and lives a stressful life. Watching good TV series is one of the cheapest way for them to entertain themselves.
When TVB produces rubbish series that people don’t understand especially for the housewives this will have an indirect effect. E.g. housewives gets irritated at rubbish TVB series and deny their husband intimacy. This cause problems in the long run and ends up breaking the family. This cause problems for the children being properly raised and for the “husband/wives” as well.
So more TV stations which produce quality series and fair awards can save the city from dying u know! hehehe…
@ exoidus
LMAO.
lol more like these new tv stations like Now TV and CTI will save HK entertainment from years of TVB monopoly. Let the battle begin. I hope all these new tv stations can flourish that would be the most healthy and provide audience with most variety of dramas, music shows, game shows, etc
Well, who knows if these new TV stations will help or not?? I don’t think it is that simple. Even though TVB pays their artists little money and overworks them, I really do wonder if that was how they made all of those big profits and survived all of these years??? ATV paid their artists more and I think treated them better, but now look at them.. They are going bankrupt… These new TV stations may sound promising and beneficial to the artists, but will they really make a profit for themselves as well as survive in the long run?? You really wonder about that….
Totally agree with you HeTieShou. They can pay more (in writing) but whether they can cough up the money is another matter. Since the first series wouldn’t come out till Sept this year, there’s quite a bit of lag time on ROI. Most of those artist listed above were so so anyway except for Charmaine, I certainly wouldn’t miss them. How many of them can survive without $$$ in the meantime (between out of contract with TVB and getting their first pay check from City Telecome)… only those with contract in China might be okay… but like Jessica H, who found out the hard way, the grass is not already greener on the other side. They will be begging to go back to TVB sooner than later and they will have to accept a lower offer. Good luck to them.
@jayne: does city telecom produce cantonese drama’s? Like TVB?
Loekie,
Since City Telecom is HK based and their dramas will be aired in HK, they should be in Cantonese. Probably dubbed in Mandarin for release in other markets.
everyone is leaving tvb….hopefully that it won’t affect tvb
Everyone leaving because working in TVB is slaving and paid little.
And not to mention TVB always riggs the awards.
It is a lost situation to TVB. Even TVB can have majority of viewers, it has already increased its employee’s salary. Also less ads contracts for sure
Yes, really looking forward to watch City Telecom series. Im sure newbies will be given alot of chances to shine unlike TVB.
The fact that CT is able to offer such good terms is a indication of how stingy TVB really is. Too bad the monopoly is broken 🙂
Why do you think newbies will be given a lot of chances to shine in TVB? City Telecom use hire salary to entice TVB first line artists and veterans to their station. Who do you think will fill up the lead and major roles in their series? Established actors or newbie actors?
Newbies will be given more chances in CT not TVB!
In order for CT to “beat” TVB it needs to take on greater risk i.e. give newbies more important roles for instance give them a leading role with veteran artists as support.
TVB did this in the past i.e. with the five tigers!
Ya CT can do this. Make open casting to find pretty newbies who can act and has x factor and make them the leads while the veterans can help train and support them. The Koreans and mainland have been doing this for years!
@ exoidus.
Sorry, I mistype. I mean to say ‘Why do you think newbies will be given a lot of chances to shine in CT? ‘
But, my arguments still hold.
CT spend so much money to get TVB veterans and established artists into their stable. You think they will not make goood used of this artists and instead promote newbies?
I think you guys have too high opinion of CT. You think CT is this new revolutionary station that will be just, righteous and stuff. But, from my look of it, CT is just using TVB’s old staff.
I also don’t think that newbies will be paid much or treated that well, but lets see… These new companies sound sweet and all since they are still new. It’s just like a new store/business that is having a grand opening. At first they offer discounts and all this other great stuff, but after awhile… not anymore. You really do wonder if they will continue to pay their artists so well in the long run, especially if they themselves don’t even profit at all..
@Kidd
Spending money on well known artist is one important factor to draw the attention from the audience.
The objective off CT is like any other i.e. create shareholder wealth fot its owners. Never said CT was doing any charity work.
That being said i wouldn’t call it “use” more like a win-win situation for both parties. TVB have “used” these artists with low salary and not even showing them proper respect by giving them recognition in the form of fair awards!
Respond from TVB to the threats is to play it safe i.e. sequels, sequels, sequels. And even with so many artists at disposal it choose to cast the same artists in leads over and over again without questioning the individual artist suitability. TVB is all about favorism these days!
CT on the other hand has to take risk i.e. pay high wages to lure artists to work for them. There will be much less well known artists and therefore they are also “forced” to promote less known and newbies by giving them important roles. This is common sense.
With regards to their sustainabilty it depends on many factors like quality of series, distribution, marketing etc etc. You can look at the high fees as a one time investment whereas the future cash outflow will be lower.
Why would CT spend so much money enticing veteran TVB actors with an established record and take a chance on newbies? If they were taking a risk on newbies then there would be no need for CT to dish so much money getting everyone from TVB.
All the newbies will be flocking to TVB. IMO the quality of TVB shows has declined substantially because there are no good actors or leads. You have people who used to be kelafeh who are now taking on support or leading roles.
I don’t think that TVB series are deteriorating because of the leading actors and actresses only since there is WAY more to a series than just the cast. The storyline, script and so many other things are more important. Even though a lot of the good actors and veteran actors all returned to TVB, without the good producers, directors, scriptwriters and other staff members, TVB series will still not be very good at all…You have to take into consideration all of the people that work behind the scenes too, not just whoever you see onscreen.
“All the newbies will be flocking to TVB. IMO the quality of TVB shows has declined substantially because there are no good actors or leads. You have people who used to be kelafeh who are now taking on support or leading roles.”
Definitely part of the problem. Newbies can be nurtures, but TVB doesn’t bother. Instead they also overwork their artistes, whether it’s newbies or fa dan/siu sangs, so much that people can’t perform their best.
Others are script writing. Scripts have been very poor quality too. Also very little innovation and creativity. Everything is either a sequel or a rip-off of a different show.
I believe Ricky Wong was once a majority shareholder at ATV, thus he is not new to the operations of a television broadcasting company. That is perhaps why aside from the money, HK artists, producers, scriptwriters etc. have confidence in Mr. Wong.
wow, maggie’s wage was originally $10,000? is that per episode or something? cause it’s really not much since she’s been working for so long
I don’t know if this is a good step for City Telecom. They have not even producer any series or variety show yet, but, they already offered such high salary to the artists. Can they sustain?
ATV did this before and they still could not fight TVB. In the 90’s ATV use high salary to hire a lot of TVB artists and behind the scene people, but, they still lost to TVB. At that time, ATV series have good actors and good script. But, still could not beat TVB.
Can City Telecom beat TVB using the same method?
ATV always sucks. At least now there are 3 more TV coming to compete with bad station TVB and suck station ATV. This Ricky Wong also seem to have recruited strong veterans and golden scriptwriters and producers.
ATV does not always sux. ATV produced good series in the 70s, 80s and 90s. They used to have a strong group of veterans and golden writers too. Even Chik Kei Yi and Chow Yuk Ming (producer/writer team for WAB and WHB).
In fact, ATV was more daring than TVB in the past. Chan 13 tried to see his idea to TVB, but, they rejected it. But, ATV bought his idea and ended up producing the ATV cult series ‘My Date With a Vampire’.
I agree that ATV does not always suck. They had many many great series… Ricky Wong must be really wealthy to be able to offer such high fees for his artists, scriptwriters, producers and directors.
But that is the past. ATV sucks period, right now.
The management is really to be blame, and they have really not effing idea to steer ATV a competitor to TVB neck by neck in the 90s to early 2000s. or even right now, how to get at least a 10 point rating in ATV produce shows; excluding their news department were it is really the highest rated show on entire ATV networks. The news department is averaging around 6 to 8 points comparing to TVB news at 15 to 20 points.
@ Vivien
Not true.
The new networks probably need to work on making sure the audience knows what channels they are on and produce some good series that get people’s attention. If the audience doesn’t switch channels and stick with TVB, then it’s not really valid competition.
There was a new network station couple years back in the US (the CW) that seems like people just didn’t know what channel it was on (prior it was the WB). It never really got known until it had more popular series that caught people’s attention.
Then making popular series is also the key. More people know and want to watch popular series more people tune in
Yes, but the popular series at the WB still can not fight in ratings with any of main networks. It’s just more popular with the younger audience, which is what I think one of the newer hong kong channels should try doing.
I think TVB have the main weapon like Aaron Kwok and Leon Lai which liked by most younger girls in 1990an ,the popular heaven King at the time to beat ATV ,TVB also have other pop star like Ekin Cheng ,Louis Koo and Julian Cheung ,ATV shall hire some pop star at the time to beat TVB and some of those pop star sing the TVB theme song.
ATV series were really good in the 70’s and 80’s but in the 90’s it started to decline. C’mon, the actors would get what, one or two wardrobes. It’s pretty bad when an actor wears the same outfit for the series.
I agree with Kidd. I think that just because you spend a lot of money paying the artists and staff members does not guarantee that you will succeed in the long run… I guess TVB has established itself well in spite of how they overwork their artists and staff and not pay them well… I wonder if that is why they may have survived all these years???
City Telecom is doing a good job to make their employees feel appreciated by paying them a good amount! Double than TVB!
For now, but who knows about the future??
What is Ricky Wong’s business? He sounds like a very wealthy man and has a lot of money to offer all these high salaries!
Let’s embark towards better HK TV series with all these new company coming to submerge down TVB!
TVB still has the upper hand since it has been in business this long. TBH artists and scriptwriters jumping ship might not be bad for TVB since it will lead to newbies getting more chances and new scriptwriters with some original ideas.
I want to see more newbies too since tired of seeing the big 5 fadans everywhere. We need younger pretty faces who can act too. The mainland keep producing good young fresh faces every year so TVB should train some real youngsters too.
not really since they are recruiting people that have already left tvb. the hot tvb actors right now don’t dare to leave.
Sooo is Wong Hei joining Ricky Wong’s company too? 😀
Tammy both Wong Hei and Bowie Lam joined a management company affiliated with NowTV. So technically they will be filming for NowTV.
Hopefully, Ricky Wong’s City Telecom is not overextending themselves in paying too much to lure actors, actress, scriptwriters & producers. If so, they will go bankrupt before the first show ever airs. Please realize that the world-wide economy has not picked up and consumers who are feeding the advertisers to pay for ads on different shows are still watching their spending. Whichever company has a long-term spending plan to account for this coupled with programs which viewers are interested in will be the winner.
Why don’t they start filming right now and start broadcasting right away when they get the right?
So excited for 2012. Been waiting for TVB to wake up for years.
wow why maggie pay so low.. thought she was quit famous
I think they’re probably making up the salary stuff since no one knows for sure. Also, the math is off. If they’re saying Ricky offered 7X her old salary, then her current salary would be $20K, not the $10K figure they’re using for TVB’s new offer.
There’s no way her salary at TVB is 10K. That must have been her salary 15 years ago. ROFL!
That is her salary per episode. Everyone popular gets 10k per episode at TVB. like Charmaine also got 10k per episode.
@ Nicole
I read many years ago that Kenix’s salary is 35K/episode.
@Nicole:
I read it somewhere that TVB first line artists got 30K each.
10K is way to low, especially for Maggie.
10k = 10.000HK$. It’s too low. 10K is for C-list actress not like Maggie Cheung.
Oops, I misread the numbers, as I think Charmaine got around 10k USD per episode, then i realised it’s HKD…
This is good for everyone.
For those who are sick of TVB now, I don’t get why it would be a happy thing? They’re basically using tvb’s actors, writers, producers, etc except it would be on a different channel. Also, if you’re tired of seeing the same faces at tvb, they’re going to be doing the same thing at city telecom since they have very limited actors as well.
I think people are sick of TVB because of its ridiculous scripts and atmospheres, not the actors/actresses per se. I’m sick of TVB partially because it over-promoted some untalented actors/actresses while neglecting the good ones.
One prime example is Nancy Wu. I hope she can get promoted properly, doesn’t matter if it is TVB or other stations.
You’re right. But at least the actors & actresses over at city telecom gets a high salary, more rest time, is allowed to film in China. And lastly TVB doesn’t appreciate their actors & actresses unless they are favored by TVB.
I agree since the terms at City Telecom sound so much better, who wouldn’t want to work for them??? They get paid more, more rest, the freedom to film elsewhere,etc… Since the terms are so good, even Felix Wong wants to work for them…
As for a tvb fan all my life, I’m quite glad that there is going to be another station as that means more dramas and new actors!
But I do wonder how their series will be??? I am more into Mainland China, Taiwanese and other series anyways,but still watch TVB from time to time… Lets see how City Telecom fairs against all of the other companies, including TVB.
hopefully they will have better series than tvb. because last year it didnt seem as good.
i really do love mainland dramas though. they are heaps good
They may or they may not, who will know until some of their series come out. I have a feeling that these new companies will be like ATV but lets see… Yea, I love the ancient series from China but as for modern series, HK series are better.
I think that he shud have his tv awards show for his new tv station
hope that the new station mean it will push tvb for better quality series and variety shows
Is this the same station that was referred to as Now TV?? Or is it a different one?? TVB has even more competition heading its way….
No, it’s different. HK is granting 3 more licenses.
Thanks for the info! So are there going to be some more television companies to be established?? ok, things are getting even harder for TVB. I am sort of shocked that it took this long for other companies to be established because before it was just TVB and ATV for the most part in HK….
@ HTS
After Commercial Television (佳藝電視) went bankrupt, HK Broadcasting department allowed onlt 2 free TV to be in operation because they believed that HK market cannot support more TV stations. Only now they granted more licenses. That’s why has it been just TVB and ATV for the most part of HK.
@Kidd,
Thanks for the info! I did hear about Commericial TV going bankrupt and all back then. I wonder why they are now suddenly allowing more licenses for more TV stations to open?? Do they now think that HK can handle a lot more TV stations??
I also wonder if the producers, scriptwriters and other staff members that are leaving TVB will join this new station or not???
Does City Telecom have a big filming studio like TVB??? If they are also going to be based on Hk, then I really wonder where they will find the space and land to build their studios and facilities??Will it be close to TVB??
Good questions. HongKong is really tiny. Their buildings will be close to each other in some ways. LOL!
For the filming, just go to Hangdien (is that how you spell it?) or some established Chinese studios. That’s what HongKong audience need nowadays anyway. New filming sceneries.
You mean HengDian. Well, going to film in China for only a few scenes would get expensive. For some series, TVB does do that but most of it is filmed in HK. I don’t think it is a good idea to film in HengDian because there are many many other companies from China already using those studios. Also with the poor conditions in China and all of the restrictions, it is better to film in HK. Since these new companies will be based in HK, what is the point of going to film in China(unless it is only for certain scenes just like what they have been doing in the past).
Even though this new company sounds really promising, whether they will really succeed or will depend on how successful their series will become… TVB has already established a name for themselves and have produced many classics. They have made their mark over a period of more than 40 years, so TVB still has an edge over these other new stations, but time will tell how they will all do…
I don’t expect the new stations to beat TVB in the first 3 years or ever. What I want is a wake-up call for TVB. Be fair, TVB!
Hope they will bring the HongKong filming industry back to the golden area by competing among each other.
It’s good for everyone!
Well, who knows and only time will tell.. I am looking forward to series from these new companies…
My question is How did he got so much of MONEY to be spent on these ARTISTS?? New and Veterans?!
I wonder the same thing…
Which means all the actor/actress who signed up on CT will never get low salary since their 1st paid is so high.. it is not possible for Ricky to lower down their salary after they have sign the contract..it will only be keep higher n higher or remain the same amount after the contract end..
City Telecom has no chance as a competitor to TVB. TVB will still be the king.
nowTV is the potential, their content is building up and have some of former TVB personal that has the brains; unfortunately they are sort of “partners”
For your info, City Telecom is owned by Richard Li(who is a drop out harvard grads) who also make a mess in main board PCWW for release of 3G. He will spend few billion and only make few million.
FYI, who can not forget Richard Li & Isabella Leong . . . K-I-S-S-I….. nevermind. 🙂
Ricky Wong is being too cocky to lure these former TVB artists, workers, staffers,etc. so $pending more money is the answer…. (cough) ATV (/cough) and look what happen to them.
Oh yea, that is true… But who really knows?? Time will tell if these companies will last or can they fair against TVB.You bought up a good point though Larry 3… They are paying the artists so much and spending so much on them and others, so we do wonder if they will make a profit or not?? If not, then they can easily go bankrupt too…
My opinion on ATV is that they don’t have a good top management level. As far as I know, they changed their top management council so many, many times. That’s what caused the down-hill of ATV. If the the top doesn’t work well, how can the lower level works well?
These new stations have only one boss so I don’t think they will change the boss every 5 years or so. This way whatever their long-term plan will at least get executed well, unlike ATV.
ATV spent a lot of money on artists and production, and when they did, they had great series. Their ideas were original, unlike TVB.
I hope the new stations will learn from the mistakes of both ATV and TVB.
Hello Jayne and everyone ,what is City Telecom mean ,is this company new name for ATV or mainland TV section?
I think is good they hire Felix Wong,why not hire some younger actor from TVB like Sammuel Chan ,Kenneth Ma ,Ron Ng ,Eric Li etc?
Why not hire superstar like Ekin Cheng ,Nick Cheung ,Julian Cheunf etc?
Moses,
City Telecom is a newly formed broadcasting television station in Hong Kong, which will be a rival TV station to both TVB and ATV. Since ATV is going bankrupt, City’s Telecom new formation will pose as a big threat to TVB.
Here is an old article describing why TVB’s monopoly in the HK public broadcasting market has been broken:
http://www.jaynestars.com/news/tvbs-faces-mass-resignations-and-talent-drain-monopoly-over-hong-kong-free-tv-market-broken/
I have a feeling City’s Telecom and Now TV will be the next ATV. Good luck to them.
@Jayne
Hi, Jayne, I am little confused. So Ricky Wong owns City Telecom and Richard Li owns Now TV? Right?
So Bowie Lam, Wong Hei and Charmaine Sheh, which company did they signed to? I forgot.
hope it wont mess up like tvb. if it will, then audience will crawl back to the tvb cage trap.
Although I grow up watching TVB series and they did produced some great and classic dramas in the past but TVB definitely have deteriorate the quality of their series in recent years. Not to mention the annual TVB award show. Like the music industry, the tv industry (which is TVB itself) is sinking. Like they said, it is good to have competition so there are more choices for us (viewers). I can not wait to see City Telecom’s first production. I think we will see many familiar faces.
pretty cool news, hopefully they train some newbies to an acceptable acting level along with all these veteran signings.
omg all these news reports worry me about what would become of tvb in the future :[
i grew up with tvb and no matter how sucky some of their dramas are i still love them.
but then again think about how the rival stations use tvb ppl so wont they have sucky quality too o.o?
sighs. all the best to come…
The future for TVB is merge with ATV and CCTV to form CCATVB limited. 😀
How creative Larry 3… I don’t think anyone wants to merge with anyone, but wants to be their own boss…
Competition is generally always good, but the question is if the HK market can sustain more than one station i.e. TVB. ATV was not always miss-managed, yet it could not compete against TVB.
Furthermore, HK entertainment is facing far more competition from other regions nowadays like Taiwan, Japan, Korea and Mainland is also gaining strength. Not to mention, from the Western world, and the Internet.
It will be very interesting to see if Ricky can manage the business (since he evidently wasn’t particularly lucky with ATV) and has an actual strategy that goes beyond poaching established artistes from TVB.
So far the winners seem to be actors, scriptwriters etc. – both people who jumped ship for a bigger pay, but also loyal TVB talent who may benefit as it puts pressure on TVB to work for retaining their talent. Especially after how much work they put in making them “red”.
So did Ricky manage ATV in the past??? There is a lot of pressure for TVB to compete in not only HK, but the other regions too…I wonder what will become of them??
According to Jayne, he was once a majority shareholder of ATV. Seems likely he was heavily involved in the management of ATV, if not personally, then indirectly through the board.
I wrote HK entertainment. That includes TVB.
TVB will be fine since they have a huge advantage and monopoly. They only need to worry if any of the new TV stations can gain a foothold in the market which is dubious due to its small size and the simultaneous entrance of several new stations.
Clarification: Yes, of course TVB also competes in other markets. But as I’ve been told many times every time I try to point out ratings for some shows are far more favourable in China – it’s the HK market that counts.
with freedom and popularity, these artists can work for Mainland stations and still survive. Look at Frankie’s family, they are okay without filming series for TVB.
Artists are business people, they do not make decision without considering all the facts. I do not believe there many artists think “glass is greener” but “more chances”
What if only TVB survives? Does not matter, they may film for TVB again or Mainland or retired… Will TVB blacklist them? A few, not all.
Life is hard. Lot of people live in much more extreme conditions and still survive. Why can’t artists?
I hope it’s not like another ATV where they pay well for a few big stars but everything else like directors/stories /sets etc sucks BIG TIME!
From what I heard from Ricky Wong’s interview on the radio with Cha Siu Yan, it seems like he wants to make more high-brow content as opposed to the low-brow, housewife oriented dramas TVB films. Basically a free HBO to TVB’s CBS. He also mentioned investing more in the behind the scenes staff and technology to give them a leg up in making more quality programming. Very encouraging words, but I’m not sure if this will work.
WOW! Where are they getting all this money? 140,000 per episode?! I’d leave TVB too for that!
Egad!!
Ricky Wong is a busine$$ man.
Felix isn’t aging very well. Perhaps he needs some pointers from Michael Miu? Haha.
Yes! Can’t wait to see Bernice again!
There is an article on City Telcom hiring spree:
http://www.thestandard.com.hk/news_detail.asp?pp_cat=30&art_id=119181&sid=35235635&con_type=1&d_str=20120130&isSearch=1&sear_year=2012