As the saying goes: in war there are no winners, only losers. RTHK would probably agree. Its 33rd annual Top 10 Chinese Gold Songs Awards, held last month, suffered a poor turnout due to an ongoing dispute over the level of royalties paid by terrestrial broadcaster TVB to four major record labels - Sony, Universal, Warner and EMI.
The roots of the dispute date back to 2007, when the four labels broke away from the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) to form the Hong Kong Recording Industry Alliance (HKRIA). The HKRIA asked for an increase in the advertising revenue TVB receives when its singers appear on the broadcaster's shows, from 0.2 per cent to 0.45 per cent, an amount that equated to roughly HK$10.8 million in 2008. But TVB rejected the proposal.
The battle went public in January last year when the record labels prevented their acts - among them big names such as Eason Chan Yik-shun, Jacky Cheung Hok-yau and Kay Tse On-kei - from appearing on TVB awards shows.
James Fung Wai-tong, organiser of the awards ceremony, says the local music industry has been in decline for years, and this dispute, which has dragged on for more than a year, is another nail in the coffin.
In November, the Four Electronic Media Syndicated Awards, in which the artists with the most wins at previous awards shows are crowned, was cancelled by organisers RTHK, TVB, Commercial Radio and Metro Radio because of the lack of available artists.
As sideline players stuck between two feuding sides, RTHK and Commercial Radio were left to organise their own awards shows. TVB went ahead and aired a Metro Radio awards show - minus stars from the four labels - late last year. In December, the IFPI announced another new standalone ceremony, celebrating musicians from around Asia, set for next month.