HKTV Artistes Protest Against License Ban

[MomoMoon115]

Many artistes from HKTV joined in The People Lifts TV Ban Movement last weekend.
 

Artistes from Hong Kong's new television station HKTV gathered outside the Hong Kong Broadcasting authority building last Sunday to contest a decision made by the government. This was done after the station failed to obtain its free broadcast license. In an attempt to safeguard their careers, artistes such as Dominic Lam, Yoyo Mung, Maggie Cheung and Frankie Lam joined production crew members in making a stand last weekend.

Despite their efforts, there is no official response from the government yet and there are speculations going around that some HKTV artistes are planning to return to their previous company, TVB.

When reporters contacted TVB executive Virginia Lok about the rumour, the latter did not deny the truth in said rumours. She said, TVB has always kept a friendly relationship with all artistes in the entertainment industry.

Meanwhile, word has it that HKTV top actress Maggie Cheung is worried about her slim chance of regaining TVB's favour, after her rift with the station last year. The 44-year-old actress apparently demanded for a Queen (Ah Jie) title in exchange for contract renewal but was turned down.

Of course she is anxious! She has spent a huge sum of money in property investments since signing to Ricky Wong (founder of HKTV). What's more, she is aware of her age and knows that she does not want to return to film period dramas in China anymore, said an insider.

On the other hand, her colleague Frankie Lam did not deny the possibility of returning to TVB in the near future and was said to be in talks with the competitor's management side recently.



Source

Cr.AF

[GGMOO]

ricky wong really should have had a plan b rather than just invest everything into starting film production even before the license was granted. if things really turn bad, hopefully some of these artists will be able to return to tvb considering they are still quite popular. im a fan of maggie and yoyo so hopefully i'll be able to see them on screen again.

[Lightning]

Its quite sickening really. There was no reason not to grant HKTV a license apart from keeping TVB and ATV happy. The worst part is how obviously corrupt the government is showing itself to be. HKTV was and still can be the best thing to happen to HK entertainment in a long long time. Not only would it give artists more choice and freedom in their careers, but it would improve the quality of shows across the board through competition. From a business standpoint, TVB is doing whats right for them in the short term, but in the bigger picture they are killing HK entertainment. IMO their shows are getting progressively worse, and they are not building the same calibre of new stars. If they had competition from a young new station like HKTV it would force them to up their game and start fixing their problems.

 

I disagree about Ricky needing a plan b. He done everything right and by the book. The government announced you could apply for the licenses and if everything was ok they would be granted. Everything was ok and it should have been granted, until TVB started lobbying for it to be rejected. There is no blame on Ricky at all, this is completely down to corrupt government people and TVB.

 

I really my hoped there was going to be a happy end to this situation but all this has showed is how deep TVB have their claws in high places.

[GGMOO]

Its quite sickening really. There was no reason not to grant HKTV a license apart from keeping TVB and ATV happy. The worst part is how obviously corrupt the government is showing itself to be. HKTV was and still can be the best thing to happen to HK entertainment in a long long time. Not only would it give artists more choice and freedom in their careers, but it would improve the quality of shows across the board through competition. From a business standpoint, TVB is doing whats right for them in the short term, but in the bigger picture they are killing HK entertainment. IMO their shows are getting progressively worse, and they are not building the same calibre of new stars. If they had competition from a young new station like HKTV it would force them to up their game and start fixing their problems.

 

I disagree about Ricky needing a plan b. He done everything right and by the book. The government announced you could apply for the licenses and if everything was ok they would be granted. Everything was ok and it should have been granted, until TVB started lobbying for it to be rejected. There is no blame on Ricky at all, this is completely down to corrupt government people and TVB.

 

I really my hoped there was going to be a happy end to this situation but all this has showed is how deep TVB have their claws in high places.

i agree that the hk government is corrupt. they did announce they were planning to grant 4 licenses and then reduced it to two; and it just happens that the most vocal and competitive company was the one left out of the final decision. however, any smart business man always have a plan b considering the fact that this was never a done deal. ricky wong jumped the gun and invested large sums of money into a venture that was never approved of in the first place. i agree that hktv should have been granted the license since they seem to have large public support and funds to create quality programs. nevertheless, no businessman should go all in without a plan b. as a result of no backdoor plan, over 300 people lost their jobs.

Edited October 23, 2013 by des99

[Lightning]

Well he can still sell the shows they've made to other channels or go through the courts to try and overturn it (though I doubt that would bring any kind of successful outcome), so there are other options. I dont know what other kind of plan b there can be. Sometimes in these types of ventures you have to put all your eggs in the basket, it was still those artists choices to sign with hktv when they knew there wasnt a license yet. The government and TVB are to blame for any people who lost jobs, not Ricky.

[GGMOO]

Well he can still sell the shows they've made to other channels or go through the courts to try and overturn it (though I doubt that would bring any kind of successful outcome), so there are other options. I dont know what other kind of plan b there can be. Sometimes in these types of ventures you have to put all your eggs in the basket, it was still those artists choices to sign with hktv when they knew there wasnt a license yet. The government and TVB are to blame for any people who lost jobs, not Ricky.

well right now there is public outrage overd the matter and thousands are protesting, not necessarily for the television issue but a protest against government intervention. hktv is going to challenge the rejection by the license, so we'll have to wait and see if they will succeed. if it doesnt pan out, he'll prob end up selling the rights of those shows over to the other broadcasting companies. im just hoping that those who lost their jobs will be able to jump to the other companies that got the license since they prob need some manpower to produce their own shows.