TVB shelves HK$50m plan for international channel
Fears of rising competition for advertising due to rival applications for free-television licences lead to ambitious scheme being put on hold
TVB has shelved a plan to launch an international English channel in the face of uncertainties in the free-television market, group general manager Mark Lee Po-on has revealed.
Over the past six months, the television station has held internal discussions on launching a satellite channel to target English-speaking Chinese around the world, Lee told the South China Morning Post.
The project was to have been an "international version of the Pearl channel" broadcasting to the United States, Canada, Australia, Europe, Singapore and Malaysia, he said.
TVB estimated it would cost HK$50 million to set up and expected the operation to break even after three years.
"Now we will have to reconsider the plan," he said. "We cannot guarantee that the business environment [for domestic free television] will remain stable."
According to the initial plan, the new channel was to focus primarily on news broadcasts.
It would also serve as a platform to promote aspects of Chinese culture such as kung fu and tai chi, and to introduce Hong Kong through travel programmes. Lee said an English channel, rather than a Cantonese one, could appeal more to the offspring of Chinese emigrants living in the target destinations, who tended to communicate primarily in English.