Wayne Lai and Ben Wong Renew Contract With TVB To Show Loyalty
New Hong Kong television station, City Telecom (CTI) will be breaking ground on the construction of its production facilities today. Former TVB artist, Felix Wong (黃日華), even appeared in a lion dance with Ricky Wong (王維基) to commemorate the groundbreaking event! Facing a mass exodus of production staff and artists to CTI, TVB management have been separately talking to artists, even using the “friendship card” to persuade them to renew their contracts early! It was known that Wayne Lai (黎耀祥), Ben Wong (黃智賢), and Angela Tong (湯盈盈) have demonstrated their loyalty by signing renewal contracts with TVB for several years!
Wayne Lai Satisfied With His Salary
In a telephone interview, Wayne Lai admitted that he had just renewed his contract with TVB under the guidance of Catherine Tsang (曾勵珍), who had always favored Wayne. Wayne revealed, “We discussed wages and the length of the contract. I am very satisfied with the salary.” (The terms offered by outside companies did not tempt you?) “My upcoming work is scheduled until August of this year. Afterward, the work arrangements are not finalized yet. I cannot commit to others’ offers. Moreover, I will not give up the Hong Kong market. While filming in mainland China in the past, I would be facing the wall [in the hotel] after getting off from work. I have a family and such working arrangements are not very suitable for me!”
Ben Wong and Angela Tong Renew Contracts
Receiving the 2011 TVB Best Supporting Actor Award, Ben Wong signed a management contract with TVB. Indicating that Catherine Tsang and Virginia Lok (樂易玲) met with him separately, Ben received a significant salary increase. Ben said, “I have collaborated with TVB for many years. TVB expressed their sincerity. Since the offered conditions were quite good, I would like to continue to work together.” Ben also revealed that his screen time in Fight Crime <雷霆掃毒> has been increased, offering him further performance opportunities.
With her first job at TVB, Angela Tong admitted that she had renewed a management contract. “I am unwilling to leave. I know everyone here and have a sense of belonging!” (Are you waiting to get married?) “Renewing my contract, of course I will work hard instead!”
In addition,TVB Deputy Director of External Affairs, Tsang Sing Ming (曾醒明), indicated that the company will continue with its usual activities, without a need to counter Ricky Wong’s groundbreaking ceremony.
Excerpt from Oriental Daily
Jayne: Wayne Lai loves his wife and son and clearly values time spent with family, as indicated in his interviews and his family attendance of many of Wayne’s past events. It is good to hear that Wayne and Ben Wong both received good salaries under their contract renewals.
Did Ben Wong recieve more screen time because of Raymond Lam’s nerve pain? Wonder if Raymond’s screen time might be reduced?
I’m so happy for Ben Wong! 😀
Yeah, I think Raymond Lam will get less screentime…
Wayne Lai stay with TVB because of his child and for stable salary even TVB drama are junk,safety first for him i think .
Clearly it’s not just safety. He’s highly valued and appreciated these recent years, it makes no sense for him to choose otherwise.
Wayne Lai gets some of the best scripts that TVB siu sang wants. I bet you other folks are banking him to leave but glad he stayed.
The folks that signed with Ricky are the ones that are somewhat at a slump in their career or artist that are unwilling to commit the time needed to rise to the top. Example, Flora Chan – with her acting skills she can easily take over Tavia and Myolie’s current position, however, she’s not willing to. There’s no point in TVB to spend so much money on someone that can’t reproduce at such a sluggish speed. Hence, Flora more than likely will try for Ricky who is somewhat desperate.
I think safety is still a part of it since TVB has been an established company for over 40 years now, while the other companies may sound all great and nice but you never know how they will turn out and what the future will hold. TVB is still the safer bet but of course it is not just for that…
@HTS –
A contract embedded with the right money will make anyone feel safe though.
How much is enough?
Not true. If I offer you 200% return on your investment in North Korea, will you invest?
@Pandamao,
True, but like Funn said, how much is enough?? There is no limit to the amount of money people need or want.
@Nicole: Why not? North Korea is still can be safe to invest than many other places.
Wayne Lai is the best actor going atm, legend!
It hasnt been easy for Wayne to get to where he is now.
Staying put is the wise move.
Becos’ of the situation now, I’m sure Loyalty will be treasured & remembered.
Glad that Angela Tong is staying too, I like her!
Grace,
It Wayne were interested in primarily money, then other companies such as CTI will no doubt offer more money.
I don’t think money is what primarily drives Wayne. He strikes me as somewhat of a strategist, someone who analyzes and thinks out situations well. A good head on his shoulders who learned from his mistakes. I suspect his unwillingness to leave TVB is because he has worked outside of the company before and did not find the situation to be ideal.
According to Wayne himself, he is very much a loner and does not like to socialize, to the point where it gives him anxiety. He has likely gotten used to working with the same people at TVB and would rather stay because of that.
Suffice to say that the people who do not get along with TVB management have left or intend to leave, while those who get along will stay despite less money than CTI. The “friendship card” may be the best thing TVB has left now.
Yea, it is not just money only. I feel that Wayne stayed in the business for so many years because of his passion for acting. That is getting more rare with the actors and actresses of today…
Agreed. Wayne seems like a ponderer who cares about acting and the whole process going behind it. I see him as a very immersed actor.
Honestly, even for me as a viewer, I support TVB out of loyalty and hope they triumph. Even though their quality has declined, I hope for a revamp rather than them losing to CTI. So for me to feel this way, imagine all the artists who put their sweat and blood into every series.
Lychii I feel the same way! Even though their standards have dropped, TVB is still better than others. Just hope they’ll buck up soon!
Glad to see Wayne, Ben n Agnela stay with TVB. I hope TVB can succeed thru this hard time.
Makes sense for Wayne to stay as his been getting great scripts in recent years and also like indicated his loyalty to those that had faith in him early in his career.
Ben, i suppose his starting to rise but for some reason i cant see him as a lead… just supporting… i mean i like the guy but i cant see it but hey i hope im proven wrong!
Angela, i suppose its loyalty or… she prob wont get work else where… her career hasnt really gone anywhere since Life Made Simple so staying with TVB is loyalty + safety for her IMO
Well anything is possible… I used to never think that Wayne can be the lead, but look at him now…. So you never know…
“Ben, i suppose his starting to rise but for some reason i cant see him as a lead… just supporting… i mean i like the guy but i cant see it but hey i hope im proven wrong!”
I bet many said that about Wayne too before he became a leading man.
Wasn’t that the exact reason why he left TVB in the 2000s? He was almost always relegated to supporting roles.
So true Kidd. With artist, you cannot tell whether they can be lead or not based on their resume. A lot of it has to do with the dedication behind the scene that we don’t see onscreen.
I think anyone has potential to be a lead.
It is good to hear that there are still some actors staying with TVB. I thought that everyone was going to leave them due to their low pay and crazy hours. I still wonder to this day how they manage to not sleep or sleep so little and still function and work? If it were me, I would fall to the floor… I think as Jayne said, TVB only has the friendship card left now. I have a feeling that others will come back eventually because in the short term, it really seems like the newer companies offer more money and all. However, I don’t feel that it will last and everyone will probably head back to TVB sooner or later….
CTI is still a new company hence it will be associated with high risk. If TVB is willing to give its artist better condition many will stay (risk averse). Still I think many artist will leave esp. those who want better payment, sick of TVB and those TVB don’t consider of any value.
You can be correct that this might be a short run effect, but personally I hope it wont happen in the long run. Since if will cause TVB to be even more arrogant (too much market power). This will lead to once again bad conditions for its artists and further deteriorate the qualiy of its production!
I guess I’m the loner here that don’t see the high risk associated with CTI. CTI has arbitrage their high risk with a flexible contract and high pay. There are potential risk remaining, however, that is not significantly higher than TVB.
On the whole CTI/TVB situation, I find it to be very equal in terms of risk and return making it difficult for any artist to firmly accept either company without lots of discussions.
@pandamao
Isn’t it obvious that a new company like CTI will be high risk relative to TVB. TVB will be like a blue chip share and CTI a new share with alot of growth potential. Do you mean diversified its risk? I don’t get the arbitrage thing can you enlightening me?
Im more concerned with regards to whether CTI’s business model will work out in the long run since no track record exist. Obviously there will be potential profits to be made in this business otherwise new companies wouldn’t enter in the first place.
For artists with significant market value e.g. Felix joining CTI is a win-win situation no matter how you look at it. For artists of less value e.g. klfs leaving TVB will be like a bet since TVB will likely blacklist those “traitors” and slim chance of breaking the chinese market as well.
One good thing that I have noticed about TVB is they always seem to allow whomever was previously blacklisted or have had issues with them come back to them…Therefore, I don’t think many artists worry about being blacklisted by TVB. If they have already established a name for themselves, then they will not need to worry about not being able to find work.
I really hope CTI will be a success, tbh. This kind of competition is so good for the HK television market.
It’s great to hear artists being loyal to the company that has invested significant time and money and believe in them and to make them popular and well known as they are today. CTI is just reaping in the benefit from others without putting in the same effort. it will be a long time coming before CTI can produce a team of their own artists (no links to TVB). CTI should pay TVB royalties!