Free-to-air TV: Still question marks over whether shows will improve
The four-year wait is over. At last, Hong Kong's 2.3 million households are to get new free-to-air television options. It's the biggest shake-up in the free television market since Commercial Television went bankrupt in 1978 after three years of challenging TVB and Rediffusion, the forerunner of ATV.
The four-year wait is over. At last, Hong Kong's 2.3 million households are to get new free-to-air television options.
The decision to issue licences to PCCW and i-Cable Communications might add two new free-to-air channels within a year after the licences are officially approved and give Hongkongers an alternative to the tired roster of dated repeats on troubled ATV or the offerings of dominant TVB.
It's the biggest shake-up in the free television market since Commercial Television went bankrupt in 1978 after three years of challenging TVB and Rediffusion, the forerunner of ATV.
But expectations that the ecology of Hong Kong's television industry would be fundamentally changed may have been dashed, given the licences have gone to existing broadcasters linked to huge corporations.
While i-Cable is part of the Wharf conglomerate, PCCW is run by Richard Li Tzar-kai, son of tycoon Li Ka-shing.
Ricky Wong Wai-kay, who had hired key staff from TVB, had started producing dramas and had sold his City Telecom business, saw his HKTV bid rejected.