ATV’s last trump card – what happens to its rights to broadcast in mainland China?
The station struck valuable deals in the early 2000s to distribute its channels over the border in Guangdong
With ATV vanishing from the screens in Hong Kong and having sold most of its classic TV series to raise money, there has been much speculation on what will happen to the lucrative landing rights of its programmes in the Pearl River Delta region – its one remaining trump card.
While the station said the issue had yet to be dealt with, industry insiders were questioning the practical value of retaining or acquiring these rights as the fast-growing mainland television is teeming with programming choices and people appear to have lost interest in Hong Kong’s mostly unvarying local productions.
ATV and rival TVB separately won the rights to distribute their Cantonese and English-language channels to neighbouring Guangdong through regional TV networks in the early 2000s. The Hong Kong broadcasters were then supposed to enter into content licensing agreements with individual local networks in the southern province.
Vultures circling ATV’s mainland China landing right
A spokesman for TVB told the Post that the station had long-standing arrangements for channel distribution with Guangdong’s TV stations and received a fixed amount of fees in return every year.
He did not specify figures but an industry source said TVB was paid about 60 million yuan (HK$72 million) a year. The source said he was unaware that ATV, with equal right of entry to the Pearl River Delta, signed similar licensing pacts in the region.
Ip Ka-po, former executive director of ATV, stressed the landing rights were still useful.
ATV had secured landing rights in Guangdong in 2002, the veteran TV executive told the Post.
“They are certainly valuable. But the question is whether the landing rights can be retained after ATV has lost its TV licence in Hong Kong,” he said.
Can broadcasting in the Pearl River Delta continue in other formats after broadcasting in [Hong Kong] ends? I don’t know
Landing rights on the mainland, unlike TV licences in Hong Kong, did not need regular renewals, according to Ip. But he was uncertain of their current status.
“Before I left, I had told my colleagues to follow up. But then I left and I don’t know the progress these few months,” said Ip, who left the beleaguered station in December.
“Can broadcasting in the Pearl River Delta continue in other formats after broadcasting in [Hong Kong] ends? I don’t know.”
Ip explained the relevant regulators overseeing broadcasting policy in Guangdong were the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television and the Central Publicity Department. They could not be reached for comment on Friday.
Ip added that during his tenure at ATV, even though the station was given landing rights, some of its programmes still ended up being blocked on the mainland at times.
Last month, listed Hong Kong tech company China Trends proposed to extend a lifeline to rebuild ATV, citing the station’s legitimate landing rights in the Pearl River Delta region as a valuable asset. But the bid was rejected by ATV’s major creditor Wong Ching.
“The case of our landing rights is still pending,” Jeff Wong Sau-tung, outgoing senior ATV public relations manager, said on Friday, the day the station’s TV licence expired.
