Ricky Wong seeks new audience as HKTV goes live
Entrepreneur behind long-awaited station wants to appeal to today's generation of free-thinkers
Suddenly, Ricky Wong Wai-kay feels he knows what it is like to be heavily pregnant. After five years of struggles and detours that even saw mass protests outside government headquarters, his HKTV is born today.
The vision is somewhat different from the original plan: HKTV goes live via computers, mobile apps and set-top boxes rather than as a free-to-air television channel. But Wong still sees untapped potential outside the traditional television audience - and believes one million hits for each of his station's dramas is possible.
"If we say 20 per cent of Hong Kong's population watches [free-to-air] TVB, this means there are 80 per cent out there who are not watching TVB," Wong told the Post yesterday. An average of 1.5 million viewers watch TVB dramas, with episodes typically getting 20,000 to 70,000 hits on its online streaming service.
But Wong, who was controversially denied a free-to-air licence by the government in 2012, sparking protests, denies he is going head to head with TVB - despite the fact the launch coincides with TVB's 47th anniversary celebrations.
Instead of the housewife or the family crowded around the set, Wong sees his audience as individuals who want to control their own schedule. As well as streaming programmes on a fixed schedule, HKTV shows will be available on demand. Its website's servers can handle up to 400,000 users at once, he says
"We want to give more options to these people," he said. Citing the example of the Occupy Central protests, he added: "You can't talk to young people today in a top-down manner.