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The Hong Kong TV industry has been eventful for the last couple of months. This was because the Executive Council decided against renewing the free-to-air license of Asia Television (ATV), one of the two free-to-air TV stations in Hong Kong.
Since November last year, ATV has failed to pay wages to its employees on-time as investors refused to pump money into this failing business. The news department has since suffered from staff shortages, which led to the shortening of the main news programmes and cancelling the morning news altogether. The station has since been searching for new investors and a deal was even announced just hours before the Executive Council announced their decision.
This is the news from ATV's competitor, TVB, on the day the decision was announced. (Brief history of ATV at 5:15)
The TV industry has been a hot topic for the last few years as the government planned to give out more free-to-air licenses as part of the digital switchover. Initially, three companies applied for a license, two of which (PCCW and i-Cable) already runs a subscription TV service; the third, HKTV, gained a lot of publicity from its PR campaigns. In 2013, the Executive Council granted licenses to PCCW and i-Cable but rejected HKTV's application, which caused a huge public uproar. Ever since then, the public has been voicing their dissatisfactions of the two existing stations. Recently an opinion poll suggested that only 20% of viewers was satisfied with the service provided by ATV, which was the main factor to the decision not to renew its license.
Compliation of TVB's News opens
The Hong Kong TV industry has been eventful for the last couple of months. This was because the Executive Council decided against renewing the free-to-air license of Asia Television (ATV), one of the two free-to-air TV stations in Hong Kong.
Since November last year, ATV has failed to pay wages to its employees on-time as investors refused to pump money into this failing business. The news department has since suffered from staff shortages, which led to the shortening of the main news programmes and cancelling the morning news altogether. The station has since been searching for new investors and a deal was even announced just hours before the Executive Council announced their decision.
This is the news from ATV's competitor, TVB, on the day the decision was announced. (Brief history of ATV at 5:15)
The TV industry has been a hot topic for the last few years as the government planned to give out more free-to-air licenses as part of the digital switchover. Initially, three companies applied for a license, two of which (PCCW and i-Cable) already runs a subscription TV service; the third, HKTV, gained a lot of publicity from its PR campaigns. In 2013, the Executive Council granted licenses to PCCW and i-Cable but rejected HKTV's application, which caused a huge public uproar. Ever since then, the public has been voicing their dissatisfactions of the two existing stations. Recently an opinion poll suggested that only 20% of viewers was satisfied with the service provided by ATV, which was the main factor to the decision not to renew its license.