Democratic Party lawmaker Lee Wing-tat yesterday urged the government to impose tighter competition standards when granting free-to-air broadcast licences, saying ATV should have to prove its worth before having its licence renewed.
Mr Lee's comments come in the wake of a survey conducted by his party that showed TVB was preferred by 67.4 per cent of the respondents compared to 14.2 per cent who preferred ATV, with 73.4 per cent expressing the view there should be greater competition between the two. There were 657 respondents in a survey conducted between February 13 and 19.
With ATV's licence up for review later this year, Mr Lee suggested a clause be included requiring the troubled broadcaster to prove it was capable of becoming competitive after a certain period.
'Our greatest concern is competition ... the broadcaster should have to show that in one, three, or five years' time it can achieve a certain competitive standard regarding viewer ratings,' Mr Lee said. 'The airwaves are a public asset ... if they cannot reach a competitive standard then they are wasting one of the two channels.'
ATV ended last year in turbulence with the entry and swift exit of Ricky Wong Wai-kay, who had been hired as chief executive but left amid controversy about inappropriate comments to a Miss World contestant and about comments on ATV's media role.
Executive chairman Linus Cheung Wing-lam then revealed to the Legislative Council that ATV was bleeding HK$1 million a day and needed a HK$1 billion cash injection to survive the next three years.