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Asia Television Limited (logo "aTV") (traditional
Chinese: 亞洲電視有限公司; pinyin: Yàzhōu Diànshì
Yǒuxiàn Gōngsī) was Hong Kong's first television
station under Rediffusion. It was bought out, renamed and restructured to
"Asia Television Limited" in 1982.
Today ATV is one of two free-to-air broadcasters in Hong Kong, the other being its arch-rival Television Broadcasts Limited (TVB). It operates two channels: the 24-hour Home
channel, which broadcasts in Cantonese, and the 22-hour World channel, which
broadcasts primarily in English. The channels are accessible in North America via
satellite. In 2002, ATV gained approval from China's State Administration for Radio, Film and Television to beam its two channels
to the Guangdong Pearl River Delta region.
ATV has also established a close relationship with Guangdong TV to ensure their stable
cooperation in programme productions, advertising and sales.
ATV has received numerous awards for its programmes. One of its successes is the local version of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire (百萬富翁), a game show originally launched in the
United Kingdom in 1998. In 2001, ATV bought the production rights for the Hong Kong
market, and subsequently enjoyed an upturn in its viewing figures. TVB responded by producing similar game shows.
Ownership history
Previous ATV logo modified in 1989, and was phased out in October 2007
The predecessor to ATV was Radio Rediffusion, which began as a wired radio
broadcasting service in 1949.[1] It launched its subscription based TV service on May 29,
1957.
In 1981, Rediffusion in the UK sold 61% of its shares in RTV to an Australian consortium. In July
1982, a Chinese enterprise called Far East Group (遠東機構), owned by
the Chiu family, took a stake in the company, such that Far East Group and the Australian consortium each held 50% of
RTV's shares. The move marked the first time that a Chinese enterprise had played a role in RTV.
RTV was renamed Asia Television Limited(ATV) (亞洲電視有限公司) on September 24, 1982, since Rediffusion no longer held a stake in ATV.
The company that operated ATV frequently recorded losses, and in January 1984, following the
withdrawal of the Australian enterprise, the Chiu family bought all of the shares.
In August 1987, the shares of ATV were put up for sale. One year later, Asia Television Limited,
the Lam family (led by Lim Por Yen) and the New World Group each owned one-third
of the shares. At that time, the members of Board of Directors included Deacon Chiu (邱德根), Lim Por Yen and Cheng
Yu-tung.
On January 30, 1989, the Chiu family sold its shares of ATV
to New World Group and Lai Sun Group (麗新集團) for HK$237.5 million. The New World Group held half of the shares, while the Lam family owned one-third and
Lai Sun held one-sixth. At the same time, Sociedade de Turismo e
Diversões de Macau (STDM) joined as a minority shareholder. As announced by the Board of Directors, the new Chairman was
Cheng Yue-tung and the Vice-Chairman was Lim Por Yen. The Administrative Director was Selina
Chow.
In November 2002, Lai Sun Development, which was heavily indebted following the HK$7 billion acquisition of the Furama Hotel
at the height of the property bubble in 1997, announced that it would sell its 32.75% stake to the company's chief executive,
Chan Wing-kee (陳永棋), for HK$360 million in cash[2]
In June 2002, Chan, along with Liu Changle (劉長樂), chairman of Phoenix Satellite
Television Holdings Limited, established a company that later bought most of ATV's shares. Afterwards, Chan Wing-kei took
the post of Administrative Director General. With the change of shareholder, there was innovation in the direction of production,
marketing strategy and human resources. One of the significant changes is the increasing purchase of foreign programmes such as
the South Korean Drama Autumn In My Heart/Endless Love(藍色生死戀).
Location
ATV is currently located at 81 Broadcast Drive in Kowloon Tong. However, the company plans to build a new facility in Tai Po.
The new Tai Po studio will be ready around the year 2006 and 2007.
Programmes
ATV provides a range of television programmes, including news, infotainment, drama and variety shows. As well as producing its own shows,
ATV has acquired popular TV programmes from overseas markets to cater to changing audience tastes. Of note, ATV has bought
in popular TV dramas from South Korea and Mainland
China for broadcast in prime time.
Programmes from ATV Home
ATV has produced numerous classic TV dramas, including Crocodile Tears (鱷魚淚), Fatherland (大地恩情), The
Legendary Fok (霍元甲), Central Affairs I and II and Reincarnated (天蠶變). Recent productions of note include The
Pride Of Chao Zhou (我來自潮州), Who is the Winner? (勝者為王), King Of The Gambler (千王之王重出江湖) and The Good Old
Days (再見艷陽天).
In recent years, ATV has created and hosted certain large-scale award shows. The most well-known would probably be The
Annual Most Popular TV Commercial Awards (十大電視廣告頒獎禮).
Other infotainment programmes like Stories From Afar (尋找他鄉的故事) ranked highly in the Appreciation Index Survey Best
Television Awards (香港電視節目欣賞指數), as reflected by a public review.
Some ATV programmes, such as the entertainment news show Hong Kong Today (今日睇真D) and
Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? (百萬富翁), have proved particularly popular, prompting local rival TVB to offer similar fare.
Programmes from ATV World
ATV World is one of two English-language channels that broadcast in Hong Kong. It offers a variety of programmes,
mostly from the United States, ranging from popular serial dramas and films to documentaries and educational shows. Among the
shows it has aired are Ally McBeal (甜心俏佳人), Survivor (生還者), Smallville (超人前傳),
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (滅罪鑑證科), Elizabeth I (伊利沙伯一世傳奇), CSI: Miami (鑑證行動組),
Cold Case (鐵證懸案), CSI: NY (鑑證紐約),
Grey's Anatomy (醫人當自強), The Closer
(真相追擊), Doctor Who (異世奇人) and Ghost
Whisperer (靈感應)as well as the talk show Late Show with David
Letterman (大衛牙擦騷). Arts and sports programming are also offered (e.g. local
horse racing, in Chinese 賽馬直擊). Mandarin and Korean programmes are available on ATV World at off-peak hours.
ATV World's flagship English news programme is the "Main News and Weather Report at 7:30" provided under the collective effort
of ATV News.
Given its focus on English-language programming in a predominantly Cantonese-speaking market, ATV World carries relatively
little advertising and is subsidised by ATV Home. Both free-to-air television companies in Hong Kong are required by the
government to provide an English-language service. In the face of competition from TVB Pearl, ATV World has in recent years switched focus from dramas and movies to
documentaries and natural history shows, likely because such programming is less expensive to acquire.
ATV News
-
ATV News has a wide and close connection with China and overseas media broadcasters. Additional foreign coverage of news is
provided by CNN and CBS. ATV receives CNN transmissions 24 hours a day
via satellite from CNN's home base in Atlanta, USA. Through than 10 news bureaux overseas, global breaking news can be accessed
immediately via satellite and the Internet.
To make its news programming more accessible, ATV has established an electronic news site, which provides daily and archived
local and international news.
Besides producing daily news reports, ATV offers eight news programmes: six in Cantonese, two in English. Its news programmes
broadcast in Cantonese are Monetary Word (金錢世界), Chasing Current Affairs (時事追擊), Decoding Current Affairs
(時事解碼), Following Ad Hoc News (時事熱點追蹤), Investment Strategy (窩輪有法) and Mr. Tsang's Show (曾sir28騷). Its two
English-language news programmes are Newsline, a discussion show, and Inside Story, a topical magazine show.
ATV's News Magazine, a recent current affairs production, has won awards at the New York Festival[specify], the Chicago International Television
Competition and the Asian Television Awards.[citation needed]
ATV Training Institute
Asia Television Training Institute was founded to train people who are interested in joining the television industry.
There are four faculties including television production, television artwork, television talent and technical production. Some of
the graduates are offered work at ATV.
License
ATV recently had its license renewed for another 12 years. Under the terms of the licence renewal, the Broadcasting
Authority required that ATV World provide bilingual subtitles on news, weather and current affairs shows, educational shows and
emergency announcements, beginning in December 2004. The company was also required to provide more cultural and arts shows.
Major competitor
TVB was the first wireless commercial television station in Hong Kong, and was the initial driving force for the then RTV to
switch to free wireless broadcasting from paid cable. It was established in 1967. The Group has now grown to a size of about
5,000, including contract artists and staff in overseas subsidiary companies. The viewership of TVB is usually much higher than
that of ATV. TVB has an overwhelming advantage over ATV, mostly due to the entrenched viewing habits of the population -- the
company has most local music stars under contract and its Cantonese-language service provides a steady stream of soap operas and
undemanding entertainment programming.
Actor Crossovers
TVB is known to typecast their performers, some will always lead and some will always play in second or third place positions.
It's because of this that certain actors left TVB to ATV to have better opportunities and vice versa. The majority of the leading
roles are actually given to veteran TVB actors. While some veteran TVB actors merely switch sides because their contract ended,
some joined because they're offered better compensation and positions to veteran TVB actors. There were several known incidents
where TVB had certain dramas planned and were forced to cancel or rewrite scripts because the star(s) of the role left for other
opportunities and vice versa. While TVB also acquired ATV actors, the cross over is higher in frequency with TVB actors to
ATV.
Criticism
In recent years, viewing figures for ATV Home have fallen sharply, as the TV station has begun to cater more to the interests
of the mainland Chinese audience, who can now legally receive the channel. Some Hong Kong viewers have complained that programmes
aired on ATV Home are "old-fashioned" and not in tune with the preferences of the Hong Kong TV audience.
Moreover, news programmes broadcast by ATV are deemed by some observers to have taken on a pro-Beijing bias, reporting news
involving pro-democracy political forces in Hong Kong in a negative light. (A short talk show on current affairs that airs after
the six o'clock news frequently invites pro-Beijing advocates to air their views, often praising the PRC's policies and
criticising pro-democratic parties, especially when these parties invoke a demonstration). TVB's news programming has been
similarly criticised for its "pro-establishment" stance. Although the Hong Kong media has freedom of speech, self-censorship is commonly practised at media organisations whose owners have
business interests in mainland China. A shift in ownership of ATV in mid-2006 sparked concern that ATV would become even more pro-Beijing.
For example, the pro-democracy July 1 marches usually makes the headline
news on TVB, but ATV usually makes the pro-Beijing counter protests the headline news. ATV also attempts to dilute the
pro-democracy message of the marches by saying the participants have different messages.
ATV Drama
ATV is notorious for poor quality production of their drama works. Among them are poor lighting, sound/audio, and imagery.
Several projects required fantastic scenes that were deemed too expensive to create and so CGI were used to replace physical
props, but the CGI tends to be sub-par and unrealistic. Many scenes had poor use of lighting where the actors stood in night, but
the lighting was intense to give the false illusion of day while the background was clearly night. When shot during the day
lighting was saved for costs, creating dimmed cinematography as the filming required brighter lighting. The actors tend to speak
louder or echo frequently as their recording is poorly done. Many people believe all of these problems are contributed to cost
problems within ATV and try to cut costs within their production, but only attributed to lower ratings.
Also, the translation controversy over ATV's telecast of Korean drama
Jumong has further raised questions over the station's production quality, and also
its editorial independence.
See also
References
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to:
The following channels offer at least some programming in Chinese
zh-yue:亞洲電視
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