Jake's View | Protecting free-to-air TV not the answer
The old formula is not working anymore. Opening the market will produce a winner and keep the industry alive and thriving
ATV rallied its staff outside the Admiralty government headquarters yesterday for a live broadcast to oppose a "disastrous" pledge by the former administration to issue new licences for television broadcasting.
Back in the early 1980s when money was tighter and times were hard, I lived for a period on the island of Cheung Chau.
I loved the place, still do, and one of its peculiar delights back then was missing not a word of the nightly TVB variety show, Enjoy Yourself Tonight, while walking home along the narrow carless streets after a late day in the office. It came out of every door and window all the way.
Poor ATV, nary a clashing peep from its competing offerings did I hear when EYT was aired. ATV once held a television monopoly as Rediffusion Television but was brushed aside almost from the day that TVB was given a licence in 1967. Another entrant lasted only a few years in the 1970s.
ATV's continuing solvency has now been in question for more than 30 years and, it's my guess, has been sustained mostly because some people see great social standing in owning a television station.