Ratings gamble 'just a game': TVB presenter Nat Chan Pak-cheung
Nat Chan says he knew the stakes were low in his pledge to crawl home or donate to charity depending on annual gala show's viewership
Nat Chan Pak-cheung's TVB ratings gamble was just a game, the flamboyant presenter claimed yesterday.
"It is a game," Chan said, referring to his promise to crawl home on his knees if the broadcaster's 46th anniversary gala show on Tuesday night achieved just a three-point rating.
His vow triggered a campaign to boycott the annual show, and Chan later pledged that TVB would donate HK$3 million to charity if its ratings hit 30 points.
Chan won the gamble. The show's ratings peaked at 31 points, with an average rating of 29 points - equivalent to 1.856 million viewers and a 95 per cent free-TV audience share for TVB, the dominant player in the free-to-air television market.
"I never set a game in which I will lose," he said yesterday on Commercial Radio morning talk show On A Clear Day, hosted by the radio station's chief executive and former TVB general manager Stephen Chan Chi-wan.
"My motive for the game is simple. I am an artist and TVB hires me. I am obliged to protect the company even at the expense of sacrificing myself."
The quarrel between Nat Chan and disgruntled viewers came after the government rejected Hong Kong Television Network's (HKTV) bid for a free-to-air television licence.