WHILE sports people are competing on court, field or track, Hongkong's television stations are engaged in a race of their own.
Sports programming, once a low priority item because there is not the same sporting tradition in Asia as there is in Europe and the United States, is seen as being worthwhile: the prospects of slim profits and an enhanced reputation are prompting ATV, TVB and STAR TV to compete for the best events.
''Competition between the stations means the distributors are playing one station against the next so they can get the most money for their product,'' said Mr Richard Read, TVB's international affairs manager. ''In the end the only two winners are the distributor and the viewer.'' But the viewer is not always the winner. During the Australian Open, distributors tried to get ATV to outbid TVB Pearl for the rights to the show, but when ATV refused and the rights were offered to TVB, the tournament was already four days under way.
On such short notice TVB could not change its schedule to accommodate the tennis so Hongkong viewers without satellite channels missed the event.
For major events such as the Olympics, stations share the rights, but these popular, multi-match spectacles can withstand the exposure and still be profitable for all the stations.
Other events, such as the World Cup Rugby, the Superbowl or Wimbledon, are not profit makers and are seen as prestige events to enhance the image of the station.
TVB, which had strong sports coverage in the 1980s, is thinking about cutting out events such as the Superbowl (which had no sponsorship this year and so ran commercial free) because advertisers are difficult to find. With 70 per cent of its viewers being Chinese, European and North American sports are not popular programmes.