First Look at HKTV’s “The Election”
Ricky Wong’s (王維基) HKTV launched its online and mobile service on November 19, coinciding with the 48th TVB Anniversary Gala.
The station held its opening ceremony at the JW Marriott Hotel in Admiralty, where it was attended by over 100 advertisers and 60 artistes, including artistes who have ended their contracts with HKTV. Felix Wong (黃日華), Liu Kai Chi (廖啟智), Frankie Lam (林文龍), Dominic Lam (林嘉華), Sunny Chan (陳錦鴻), Ha Yu (夏雨), and Bondy Chiu (趙學而), among others, came to support HKTV.
The broadcast of the channel’s first two dramas The Election <選戰> and The Borderline <警界線>, both starring Liu Kai Chi, will be going head to head with TVB’s Come On, Cousin <老表，你好hea！> and Overachievers <名門暗戰>. The next show to broadcast will be survival reality show The Challenge <挑戰>, which features celebrities performing dangerous challenges like storm chasing.
First Episode of “The Election”
The media was treated to the screening of the first episode of The Election, a political mystery drama starring Liu Kai Chi and Angelica Lee (李心潔). The drama has a movie-like atmosphere and many scenes were shot in real sets rather than in studios. The pacing of the first episode was as gripping as American dramas.
Wai Man Hin (Poon Chan Leung 潘燦良), the husband of Yip Ching (Angelica Lee) passed away in a car accident on the night before he was to be elected as the 2017 Hong Kong Chief Executive. The other candidate Luk Wai To (Savio Tsang 曾偉權) was discovered to have had an illicit affair, and he and his wife had to hold a press conference to apologize to the public.
Sung Man Shan (Liu Kai Chi), president of the Legislative Council, originally wanted to dispose Luk Wai To from power, but he was later ordered by Mainland Chinese officials to gather all his sources to support Luk as Chief Executive.
On the other hand, Wai Man Hin’s assistant is willing to go through all means, including forgery, to push Wai’s wife, Yip Ching, to become the next Chief Executive. Remaining faithful to her husband’s mission of freedom and democracy, Yip Ching wants to compete in the elections fairly, but she finds herself tangled in a web where she is unsure who to trust.
Source: Ming Pao
This article is written by Addy for JayneStars.com.
The mobile industry is the best examples of companies that fall asleep to innovation and die in the market.
If you have idea and money, you can invest in any country and open up ur factory to produce smartphones or whatsoever. But cantanose drama, you can only get the resources from the Hong Kong market. Acting skill plus fluency in cantanose, you hardly to found it in other country. Thats why RICKY die die also have to stay in Hong Kong to produce the drama even with those TVB keh leh feh to save his skin after losing out the license opportunity. You totally have no critical analysis at all. Duh..
Might I ask how old are you? Do you work for any company, especially in a professional field? I hope that you are still in very young age.
Raymond/Star: lol lol
In 6 months, as the viewership in HKTV stabilizes, you are goings to see big stars start making their move to do HKTV dramas. That’s when it will be clear where the HK television industry is headed. I believe the future is not TVB, unless it somehow changes, but with current management, I’m afraid it’s a slow decline from here.
The ratings have been declined – that is for sure. Take a look at 2012 top 10 shows, average was 30.5, while 2013 was 28 (a loss of 2.5 points), current top 10 shows in 2014 is 26.42. Although 2014 has not ended, the comparison between ranks for these top 10 shows, 2014 shows lost around 0.5 to 2.4 points to 2013 shows.
So? Is TVB revenue’s falling each and every year? Do you even know how much is their revenue from 2010 until 2014? Sorry to say i dont judge performance based on rating rather than financial ratios.
But you dont worry, although HKTV is merely doing an online business of producing cantanose drama, but it will never affect TVB business at all because there are in different leagues. TVB doesnt mind online business of HKTV to grab their Keh Leh Feh or ex Keh Leh Feh from Tvb to film for their online production. LOL
I just stated the fact of the decline of viewingship in Hong Kong Broasting and you get. Why are you so easily to get mad?
Since you said you only judge performance of TVB based on profit.
What is TVB IRR and PE ratio over the past 10 years, has there been a decline?
Or did TVB decrease the actors and actress salary to maintain a show of profitability?
Raymond uses revenue to make conclusion about success. I know the revenue is important but when I worked in financial section I did not use it that way. There were companies we acquired which their revenue increased but struggled to earn profit as they just basically ran the business just for the sake of survival. I might miss something as I changed my career and I have worked as an engineer for a few years now – no need to travel and less stressful.
I grew up from a country where we watched Hong Kong movies/shows because they were very much better compared to what we had. Hong Kong was a financial and entertainment center of Asia but its positions in both fields has been worse. Korean shows become popular, people in country have moved away from Hong Kong stuff, only few 70s, early 80s generation still watch Hong Kong shows. Some random news about Myole Wu, Fala Chen, or Linda Chung come up on entertainment sections in our news but people do not bother to comment or if they comment, then they say – “who is this person?”. Is it because TVB monololy in Hong Kong market and it does not need to care about its position outside of Cantonese or community? and TVB does not need to improve its productions? Could TVB have done something better to gain more attention to international audiences?
I still watch TVB but in the recent years but the number of shows I watch has decreased a lot. I tried to watch the Tiger Cubs 2 but after 2nd or 3rd, I could not handle it, Come On, Cousin is much worse compared to Inbound Troubles. I hope that upcoming TVB shows become better and I can enjoy the whole series.
For HKTV, I understand that some people could not be open mind and want it to be killed off instead of hoping it comes bring new air, more competition to the market and makes the HK industry better. Then no matter what other say, there will no change.
@lkv – It is because Sir Run Run Shaw used to manage TVB. Ever since he stopped managing TVB in the 90s, TVB had been in decline. SRRS already passed away.
And no, I don’t think TVB can return to what it was before. The owner has changed. You may be better off watching shows that you like instead.
Amidst all the biased negativity towards HKTV, here is a fun fact. In the two series airing currently, one has Angelica and the other has Lawrence Chou. Both starred in The Eye, which I love. Lawrence Chou has improved by a huge margin since then.
Angelica Lee did some fantastic acting in the second episode when she speaks to here dead husband on his voice mail. Fantastic Hong Kong style television.
That’s the problem with TVB. All the best stars are leaving, going to China. The good stars will want a open contract, and HKTV provides that open contract. The quality at TVB will continue to decline if they don’t change their ways. They have already lost much of the next generation of young viewers and when quality furthur declines, they will lose even more viewers. If they continue to be asleep at the wheel, the station will drive off a cliff.
TVB needs to change badly, but nobody in their management has the vision. They can’t even cover the news in an honest way these days. They treat their stars like ****. This is because of their monopoly status. But once the best and good stars have a choice, the exodus to happen, and suddenly they will end up with an empty company.
Unfortunately, the next generation of Cantonese speakers are use to watching quality shows from around the world. 70 million Cantonese speakers, just as much an Italian speakers. And these Cantonese speakers live mostly outside Hong Kong. Less than 8 million live in HK. So to compete with all the great shows from Korea, China, Japan and other countries, the HK television industry needs to step up the quality. HKTV is doing just that! This is the key to HKTV success in the future. This is the key to TVB staying competitive, but management at TVB seems to be blind to this. If they don’t change, they will be history. Wake up TVB! Such a great company before!!! Don’t sleep away your past glory!
Amen
Hi RJ, well said.. cant agree more..
If TVB continue in this path.. they will slowly fade into the dark.. To keep -up with today’s generation.. they need to upgrage the quality of their dramas.. They have been laxed in the past due to no competition.. now with HKTV.. they need get back on their axxs..
I completely agree with you, RJ. From the beginning, when I read about HKTV’s approach to filming series, I kept saying that overseas audiences will appreciate HKTV’s series mores than HK audiences will, since overseas audiences are already used to watching high quality series. After watching 3 episodes of Borderline and 2 episodes of The Election, this sentiment has grown even stronger for me. With The Election especially, I felt like I was watching an American series (something along the lines of The West Wing for example). Unfortunately, HK audiences are already so used to “the TVB way” that I think it’s going to be very hard to change them (case in point — look at some of the comments in this thread alone from those same few die-hard TVB loyalists who keep repeating the same silly claim that “TVB rules” and “HKTV sucks” with no substantial argument to back them up).
As a long time TVB follower myself (and I still support them to this day, despite all their shortcomings), I have no problem saying that the first 2 episodes of The Election alone blows pretty much all the series TVB has done this past decade (ok, maybe the past 15 years is more accurate) completely out of the water! The quality of the series is top notch — from the visual effects to the script to the acting…let’s just say that it has been years (more like decades) since I’ve seen a HK produced series with such all around great acting from pretty much the entire cast. I’m definitely impressed!
RJ: Competition is good, this will give people more choices and different ideas to pick from.
any type of businesses can have more than one company such as music producer, retail, news paper, news tv, cars, electronic.
jus watched borderline episode 2. OMG, really couldnt stand with the Keh Leh Feh from TVB.RICKY running out of resources but no choice got to use those keh leh feh. Keh Leh Feh dream longer can surpass the acting from strong/popular actors/actresses from TVB. I am not biased. I am just telling the truth. No matter how good the storyline, without good actor/actresses, its pointless. DUH. Truth always hurt…Since its free food, viewers dont give a damn ler..Wish Ricky a successful online business. LOL
I’m all for competition, but TVB doesn’t seem to want to innovate and compete anymore. Sad to witness. how boring and single dimensioned the series has become. When will they wake up.
At least they use movie stars too. TVB being cheap… Only used one movie star and that’s Anthony Wong. He even said he doing this because of Amy Wong…
Did you mean successful or survived? Either Hong Kong has been lying, TVB has difficult time to keep up with staff and retain its actors/actresses, also with the rating for its shows.
*Hong Kong media, not Hong Kong
The purpose of business is the net profit not revenue. However, could you share in the last few years, what were the revenues that TVB had?
TVB will follow the steps of ATV
and become bankrupt soon.
I doubt they’ll be bankrupt. They don’t really need to spend any money since they film most of their shows in studio and they have their own post production facilities. They also lock talent in long contracts in which they also get a cut of the percentage if they accept other acting jobs or sponsorships. Their massive global reach also means they can easily sell their shows to other countries and create new stars without any difficulty. That’s why they don’t feel the need to change. They’re making money, they’re still a billion dollar corporation and their business model has always been viable.
That doesn’t mean what they’re doing is good for the future of the TV industry in HK though.
I grew up watching TVB, so I hoping they will wake up. But the current management is sleeping at the wheel. I think there is room for everyone in this HK television market; however, if only HKTV is willing to innovate, the TVB of yesteryear will never come back.
Borderline is one great show so far. The overall acting is strong. They actually put people the the lead roles that can act. I love Joman! She has so much range. Won awards do movie roles. And her beauty is not just skin deep.
I love the Borderline. I waited for the ep 2 since 2013 when they posted the first one on youtube. The waiting was so hard. FINALLY!
I totally agree with RJ Lee and azdoraemon, the series Borderline is 1 fantabulous series!! The script and storyline is great… RICKY WONG…gambateh…..
More series to come by Ricky Wong….
Angelica Lee is also fantastic in The Election. Her movie experience shows. She plays the widow well with her subtle femininity, and yet she can play a woman with great strength of character. Haven’t seen this range in a television series coming out of HK for a long time.
I watched ep 1 twice because it was abit different and not that interesting b/c probably i’m not into the politic type of story but I would like to try it. I agree Angelica is very good.
Sheren Tang could do something really special at HKTV. Her acting was wasted in recent years with TVB’s low quality and poor scripts. I can see her doing amazing work at HKTV. I hope it happens in some future project.
I think many great stars will do projects for HKTV once the viewing numbers stabilize and the company gets going.
I wish TVB can wise up too, but looking at the great work being down sat HKTV, my bet is on HKTV.
I absolutely agree! Given the right script and series, Sheren Tang would be amazing.
There was rumors that she was offer the lead to The Election.
Sheren would be able to play that kind of role very well!
actually he probably is working for TVB and TVB must be paying him well for sucking up to them.
I like you as a very patient and persistent person but do you think you use too much time for saying about thing that you do not like?
If you read all the comments, you will see people do not want TVB out of business but people are disappointed that TVB has not been innovative to keep up with the dynamic of market demand. They all hope that both TVB and HTKV will do well and share the market. I understand you do not consider HTKV is a station or any competitor to TVB but if that is the case – why you care so much about HKTV? Well, as I remember you said you hate Ricky Wong because he is rich and he has used his money to get people from TVB to his not-a-station. I have to say that this is very normal and you will see it in every industry. These artists had choices and they chose to work for HKTV, it was a risk but they were willing to take it.
Raymond aka Star: lol lol
Thank you Raymond for all the laughter.
Example of Keh Leh Feh is Liu Kai chi and many others. So you gonna give him how many decades more to film for drama/movie? That kind of quality wont have any chance to be leading in TVB drama. HKTV wont able to get quality/high market value actors, and just left with those Keh Leh Feh. LOL. Pitiful to the max. Trying to act like so pro in the drama but doesnt know its like sht. Truth always hurt but i am not biased. If he can act superbly i will surely agree but seriously really cannot. LOL.
LOL. You make me laugh – the fact that you think Liu Kai Chi is a ke-le-fe.
I don’t even recognize most of the TVB artist nowadays. Except the lead actors/actresses. Also from articles I mostly saw here. Its always the same people in the dramas… That’s boring. Most of the veteran either moved to mainland or switched to movies. On the either hand I see a lot of veterans in HKTV. HKTV know how to respect the veterans. They even made a dramas mainly about veterans. I think it was called Elder alliance.
Liu Kai Chi is not a kelefe. He is a veteran that is depended on to enhance the acting credibility of any productions. He is that sort of actor who will be the best supporting cast and will have a role anywhere until he drops dead. Respect to Liu Kai Chi. Others would wish to have a career like his, some may even sell their soul to have his acting prowess. I will just settle for the sight of him in any productions. By the way his wife was always to me a fantastic actress.
I mean he was a Keh Leh Feh when filming for TVB in the past. Because based on his acting, he can never become the lead, the most just supporting actor.
But because HKTV can never able to get any prominent drama actor(most of them inside TVB), so this RICKY no choice but to use him and also the others Keh Leh Feh.
@Calvin, yup sometimes Keh Leh Feh also can become famous just like Kristal Tin, because she got lots of good actors/actresses in the drama and can shine easily. But with those Keh Leh Feh in currently HKTV’s drama, i am almost bored to death. LOL
Truth is always hurt..
@raymond
Your logic is so flawed and twisted that it makes me laugh. Every time someone makes a good valid argument to counter you, you just ignore and move onto another topic and bash another member. You don’t give credit where credit is due, and you believe that your reasons are the absolute truth. I pity you! I really do.
Are we sure TVB promote actor/actress based on their acting?
Myolie? PUI
Raymond? PUI
Linda? PUI
Ron? PUI
he couldn’t become the lead for many reasons other than acting skills. actors and actresses become leads because they have good social skills at entertaining the higher ups, because they have the looks, because many dumb people are just so concerned ans mesmerised by the looks and body. So Shallow…..
Oh Yes… I think his wife can really act although not that pretty. But she was once a lead actress in the 80’s in TVB. So wish she could act again.
Well-said, Funn! Absolutely agree with you!
By the way…can everyone please stop responding to that raymond character so we can stop seeing his nonsense posts all over the place? The more you guys respond to him, the more undecipherable gibberish he spews…just treat him the same way a troll should be treated — ignore him!
I agree with Funn Lim. I think you don’t know Liu kai chi very well if you can call him a keh leh feh.
Raymond I know you’re a die-hard TVB fan. But you have to know, competition is good, for the viewers and also for the actors themself.
It’s too bad that Raymond could not see how great Liu Kai Chi is in both the series. He is an award winning actor (a testament to his acting prowess) after all. Sure, he might not be as popular as Tvb stars, but he is very good in his craft. And that is all that matters to me.
@joshua
Raymond can see that Liu Kai Chi is an excellent actor only if there’s a TVB logo instead of HKTV 😉 .
Raymond obviously doesn’t know what he is talking about — he thinks everyone who doesn’t work for TVB is a ke le fe. Even TVB’s current chairman Norman Leung has huge respect for Liu Kai Chi and has publicly praised him SEVERAL TIMES this past year. In fact, a few months back, Mr. Leung stated that after he saw Liu Kai Chi’s interview with a local media outlet about his experience at TVB vs. HKTV, it really made him (Mr. Leung) reflect on TVB’s shortcomings and motivated him to make things better.
I honestly think that raymond needs to look up what “ke le fe” means in the dictionary. Either that or he is too blinded by hatred for Ricky Wong to be able to think clearly — for him to say that award winning movie actors and actresses (such as Liu Kai Chi, Paw Hee Ching, Angelica Lee, Prudence Liew, Kara Hui, etc. — all of whom filmed series for HKTV) are “ke le fes” is utterly ridiculous.
azndoraemon says:
November 24, 2014 at 12:12 pm
Raymond – TVB is going downhill and the truth hurt. I hope they can improve though. Alot of people they promote aren’t even good. They promote the new comer so they have people to film. It doesn’t mean they are good. Even those received the award didn’t deserve one.
They keep reusing the script, same people, same scenery. TVB make people sign long term contract so people can’t have a chance to try out new television company, they might leave TVB if they end up liking the other company. We all pity you! You are the only one standing for tvb here.
@azn…Downhill ur head? Still billion of revenue , even you ignorant not even having 7 digit in your account.
Pls lar ignorant, the readers here just represent the small amount of the population. I worried not even 1% of those who watch cantanose drama. So you nonsense argument proved nothing. TVB still stay very strong and financially stable compare with your RICKY who got to use Keh Leh Feh from TVB or else no actors/actresses liao lor. hahaha
Yes, TVB is still doing well even its profit has slightly decreased. From its 2014 interim and its financial data, TVB should expect its profit to further decrease on the 2nd half of 2014. Revenue along does not tell much of the story. Interesting point was that TVB’s overseas pay TV operations profit decreased from 389M HK$ to 308M HK$. My naive guest is that TVB could no longer compete with other companies outside of its prime lands.
TVB is a public broadcasting station, its fate is very much depended on ads but how much a company should charge depends on how the ratings. In the short run, this may not be clear indicated but in the long run, it will be clearer.
Let’s assume HKTV is not a big deal, does and will do zero damage to TVB. There are other stations as well (2 more?). Unless the other stations do not know how to do their business, TVB must be more innovative and invest more to produce.
*guess
Profit dropped is a normal thing. Even Starbucks net profits dropped till 8million in 2013. But starbucks will never fall and will doing good in the near future to come. HKTV Ricky is just doing online business of course will not affect TVB at all.
Revenue does not tell much but still an important indicator in the market. Profit is depends on how you manage the fund and it can be changed. Most important TVB still is financially stable and not in any threat position. Duh..
Businesses exist for profit…Drop of profit is a BIG thing and it is not normal…Normal means you expect it and you do not react from it…Are we sure?
You used Starbucks as an example and you said NEVER…Are you sure? You said it will do good in the near future…do you have insights to their plans that will make them invincible?
I have no clever comments to your undying faith to TVB..i just find your rebutt to everyone else amusing and lacking substance
this i gotta agree with raymond. dropping profits are a norm, nothing will go up forever, it’s unrealistic to assume so. there are cycles in businesses. the fact that there are constant expectations of increasing profits, is what pushes tvb to push their ppl to work like mad with shit pay, churning out stuff after stuff compromising on quality.
Adoi! Raymond, kelakar betul kamu ni….kakakaka….tak habis2….wa lau eh! If u keep on with your antics, ……lu beh pang sai liao!!!!
I revisit this article again becos of this funny guy…kakakaka …
TVB gave birth to Raymond. lmao… Can’t we all get along? Reading Raymond comments is bad for my health.
Joman Chiang is my favorite young actress at HKTV. She has huge range as you can see from her past movie performances.
At HKTV she plays a forensics cop, a nymphomanic, and a school teacher. Not all at once, of course. And she beautiful, playful and intelligent at the same time.
Hoping to see more of the love and comedy series soon. They launch with 2 rather serious and harder to follow shows which may be harder to appreciate for simpler audiences. The other love and comedies series that they have down the pipeline should be better received by general audience.
The one episode per week wait is killing me!!!
Adoi! Raymond, kelakar betul kamu ni….kakakaka….tak habis2….wa lau eh! If u keep on with your antics, ……lu beh pang sai liao!!!!
TVB is sadly in decline. When Pixar come along, who knew they would replace Disney’s creative team?
I recently tried to watch TVB’s SWAT series and it was pretty much unwatchable.
Every year it gets worse. And the news department is currently in trouble. Moral is low.
More good stars will leave the company. What next?
I’ve only watched a couple of minutes of the first episode to see if it suits my taste and I must say I am impressed with the filming technique! There’s some great cinematography skills. It’s very different to how TVB films their dramas. I like the fact that HKTV tries to use natural lighting and real sceneries where possible as it adds authenticity. It reminds me of the way the Americans film their dramas.
I think I will watch this drama but I’m going to wait for all the complete episodes to be released first.
Even though I only watched a few minutes of it, I can already feel the suspense. Good job.