Hyped-up Harbour Fest video flops in US

The row over the controversial Harbour Fest was reignited last night after it was revealed that only 300,000 people in the United States watched the $6 million television special on the event when it was broadcast on MTV.

Touted as a key to improving Hong Kong's international image after the Sars outbreak, Harbour Fest organisers InvestHK and the American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) had claimed the one-hour video would reach more than 100 million American viewers.

But the segment, entitled Hong Kong Rocks - broadcast at midnight on February 8 - only drew an estimated 314,000 viewers when it was broadcast on the main MTV cable channel in the US, media monitors Nielsen Media Research said.

Its share of total household television sets was just 0.2 per cent, while the 46th Grammy Awards, which were telecast a few hours earlier on the free-to-air CBS network, drew a national audience of 26.9 million.

'Not only are the viewer numbers incredibly disappointing, it was also broadcast on the wrong channel, at the wrong time of the year. It's a complete mismatch,' said Democrat legislator Fred Li Wah-ming, arguing that MTV was mainly watched by teenagers.

Initial proposals suggested the video would be shown in the US during the 'holiday peak viewing season', and could reach 500 million households worldwide.