Let us show Oscars in full, TVB pleads
And the Oscar goes to ... ETV.
It has become an annual grumbling ritual. When TVB Pearl on Monday interrupted this year's live broadcasting of the Oscars at exactly noon to run government education television (ETV), the station's main switchboard was flooded with complaints from viewers.
Yesterday the station renewed its calls on broadcasting authorities to relax rules on daily education television, which runs from noon to 4pm on weekdays.
But the Education and Manpower Bureau (EMB), and Television and Entertainment Licensing Authority (Tela) ruled that out, saying the Oscars were not an event of public interest to justify delaying ETV's daily programming.
TVB rebroadcast the full Oscars show later in the day. A TVB spokeswoman said: 'The Oscars is the most expensive programme all year on Pearl, and we can only broadcast it for one day. We desperately want to run the whole of the Oscars live but we can't.'
This year's interruption was particularly controversial because it happened before most of the main awards were announced.
Andrew Demaria, in a letter to the South China Morning Post, wrote: 'The award for most pathetic use of a live broadcast goes to ... thanks for nothing TVB Pearl. I am sure your ETV audience were relieved when 'normal programming resumed' before any best pic, director, actor or actress gongs were announced.'
A Tela spokeswoman defended the broadcasting rule. 'We have consulted the EMB. If we allowed TVB to delay ETV broadcasts, schools and students would be affected. The EMB would have to notify them ahead of time to let them arrange for alternative teaching materials,' she said. 'We do not think it is worth [going to] all this trouble for an event that we don't consider as to be of public interest.'
The broadcasting licences of TVB and ATV require both stations to run four hours of ETV programming every day from Monday to Friday.
