Inside the Asia Television soap opera
Struggling network faces multiple problems, including lack of cash, failure to pay staff salaries and charges that it no longer caters to Hongkongers
It was 1998 and the drama was called My Date with a Vampire. Hui, a gregarious 20-something office worker, had no interest in Hong Kong television. But My Date with a Vampire, an Asia Television production, kept her glued to the small screen. It was the only television drama series she watched in the 1990s.
The show's tales of romance between humans and vampires was ground-breaking, and a decade ahead of the vampires-in-love genre popularised by Twilight and its wannabes.
"It was a breath of fresh air," Hui recalled. "It was an obscure fantasy blending Chinese myths into the context of Western vampires set in Hong Kong."
These days, Hui has no patience for any of the station's offerings.
"ATV, please fold," she implores.
In less than five years since mainland businessman Wong Ching became ATV's "major investor", a string of woes - from protracted shareholder disputes and poor management to lacklustre programming and financial debacles - has dragged the station down. Once a trendsetter in programming, it is now the city's running television joke, scoff industry experts.