TVB Focuses on Improving Production Quality

In recent years, TVB has changed its production policy by partnering with Chinese platforms. With bigger budgets and more resources, the improved quality of TVB dramas and variety shows have also attracted wider viewership in China.

Variety shows such as Asia Super Young <亞洲超星團> Infinity and Beyond <聲生不息．港樂季> were produced in cooperation with Chinese platforms. Although there are still a small number of dramas produced entirely by TVB, the station is increasingly co-producing with Chinese platforms. Notable titles include: The Queen of News <新聞女王>; No Room for Crime <反黑英雄>; Darkside of the Moon <黑色月光>; and No Return <巾幗梟雄之懸崖>.

TVB also announced it plans to invest 100 million yuan in the filming of ten co-production dramas in the second half of the year, including: The Queen of Castle <巨塔之后> starring Ruco Chan (陳展鵬) and Jessica Hsuan (宣萱); Criminal Investigation <刑偵12> starring Bowie Lam (林保怡) and Owen Cheung (張振朗); The Queen of News 2 <新聞女王2> starring Charmaine Sheh (佘詩曼), Kenneth Ma (馬國明), and Samantha Ko (高海寧); War of the Roses <玫瑰戰爭> and Lady Justice Themis <正義女神Themis >.

All co-produced dramas with Chinese platforms will now have to go through a more stringent approval process, to ensure higher quality script and production factors, before officially starting filming.

TVB Executive Chairman Thomas Hui (許濤) said that the station has been actively seizing major opportunities due to the further integration of Hong Kong and China. Conducting internal reforms in the past three years, TVB strengthened cooperation with Mainland media and enriched its content.

Announcing interim financial results last week, TVB’s total revenue of its core TV-related businesses (excluding the e-commerce business segment) increased from 1.289 billion to 1.445 billion Hong Kong dollars year-on-year, including a 22 percent increase in revenue from the Chinese business segment.

In light of this, Thomas urgently summoned artistes back to the station for a secret meeting yesterday evening. All attendees were TVB artistes with guaranteed salary contracts. When asked, TVB executive Virginia Lok (樂易玲) clarified, “Actually, we have this meeting every year. In the past, the Chairman used to have dinner with artistes in Shanghai. The meeting was mainly for the company to discuss its future direction. Many artistes want to know about the company’s development and promotion policies for co-productions in the Greater Bay Area as it is their main target market.” She also shared the company will have many co-productions in the future, but artistes must learn and understand how to communicate with the Mainland audiences as promotion methods differ from Hong Kong.

Kenneth Ma commented, “I have a lot of confidence in the company’s future. I hope every colleague’s development will get better and better.” When asked what he thought about Thomas’ encouragement for all artistes to travel to China, he replied, “It’s all good as long as everyone is able to make money. The most important thing is everyone is healthy, can make money and take care of their family.”

Not only will TVB be focusing on their collaboration with China, they will also be working to improve their self-produced content. There are two to three self-produced dramas that have been in the works for a long time, but there was suddenly a decision to delay production further. Even ratings king Come Home Love: Lo and Behold <愛．回家之開心速遞> will need to stop filming temporarily as they work on elevating the script. However, this will not affect the broadcast as there are still many unaired episodes.

As part of the internal improvements, TVB revamped their artiste profile page on their official website. Ali Lee’s (李佳芯) contract negotiations with TVB are still underway, but her name still shows on the list of artistes. She is listed on the first page in the first row of fadans showing her importance and status. Netizens suspect the chances of contract renewal is high and are very happy and hope Ali will have more acting opportunities. Since finishing filming for her latest drama in June, she has not had any other work lined up.

Source: [1]

This article is written by Kiki for JayneStars.com.