Hong Kong's TV industry has hardly changed since 1967, so how will it respond to the Netflix-led internet content revolution?
Vivienne Chow says the arrival of Netflix and other streaming services heralds a television revolution in the city. But can local operators adapt, and how will it affect our cultural identity?
Television is most certainly not dead. Just when many have grown tied of the lacklustre offerings and have begun switching off, a TV revolution led by a global force is about to hit town.
The arrival of Netflix, the latest Apple TV launch and mainland online platform LeTV's plans for Hong Kong - including reportedly snatching the broadcast rights for English Premier League soccer - have made headlines in the past week. To the city's TV fans, nothing is more exciting than having a choice of entertainment beyond programmes produced by the local free-to-air broadcasters, the dominant TVB and the beleaguered ATV, and pay-TV operators Cable TV and Now TV.
But while consumers may welcome the choice, the availability of these international content powerhouses will undoubtedly shake Hong Kong's television ecology to the core.
Locally produced content will go head-to-head with quality programmes from all over the world, thanks to high-speed internet access and state-of-art hardware and software. How can local players compete with these multimillion-dollar productions and retain their audiences and advertisers?
Are Hong Kong's TV policies and regulatory structure ready to embrace this change? Will Netflix in Hong Kong face a similar fate to Uber?
The other question is, how will this affect Hong Kong culturally? Television has long been seen as an integral tool that has helped construct the city's cultural identity since 1967, the year that saw the watershed riots and the inauguration of TVB.