Hong Kong broadcaster ATV owes HK$8m in fees and penalties even after it stopped broadcasting
It is also unlikely the cash-strapped television station will renew its non-domestic licence when it expires on May 31, according to Communications Authority chief
Asia Television still owed the government more than HK$8 million in licence fees and penalties when it stopped free-to-air broadcasting early this month, the chairman of the Communications Authority said on Monday.
Ambrose Ho Pui-him added it was also unlikely the troubled station, which went off air on April 1, would renew its non-domestic television licence when it expires on May 31, as documents on the company’s share transfer had not yet been submitted in full.
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It was revealed that the station still owed HK$510,000 in penalties, of which HK$480,000 was already due. It also owed the authority another HK$7.7 million for licence fees.
“We might have to go to court to chase up the penalty,” Ho said, adding that the sum owed would become civil debt if ATV did not pay up.
The broadcaster has been penalised for not paying its employees, not renewing its licence on time and inaccurate news reports.
A false story was reported by ATV news on March 31 last year, stating the station’s shares would be sold to HKTV boss Ricky Wong Wai-kay.
Last year, the authority received 10,372 broadcast complaints against ATV. While 138 of the resulting 2,247 cases were substantiated, 125 were minor breaches such as inaccurate subtitles in news programmes. The remaining 13 cases were handled by the authority’s broadcast complaints committee.
While Jan He, who represented the station’s mainland investor, Si Rongbin, claimed on the last broadcast day that ATV would consider satellite transmission services as one of its future development options, the Communications Authority chief said the chance of renewing the company’s required non-domestic television licence was minimal.
“We have asked ATV for information on share transfer many times, yet they haven’t submitted a full set of documents.”
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He said the authority would decide the next step following the court’s decision on the company’s liquidation on Wednesday. The station would not be under the authority’s regulation if it switched to the internet, he said.
PCCW’s ViuTV took over half of ATV’s broadcasting spectrum on April 6. The remaining spectrum will be assigned to other new free-TV licence holders.
“If applicants haven’t got a licence yet, a spectrum will not be assigned to them,” Ho said.
He said iCable’s Fantastic Television, one of the applicants, handed in details of its corporate restructuring last month, which will be submitted to the Executive Council for further consideration.
A consultation has also begun for an application by Forever Top, owned by David Chiu Tat-cheong, son of late ATV founder Deacon Chiu Te-ken.
While the Court of Appeal overturned a previous ruling by the Court of First Instance that Exco had failed to follow a 1998 policy which banned preset limits on the number of licences in rejecting HKTV’s licence application, Ho said the judgment only indicated how to interpret the policy, but would not affect the authority’s decision in recommending future licence applications.
Since the launch of the Competition Ordinance in December last year, the authority has received 45 inquiries or complaints. The ordinance forbids anti-competitive practices such as price-fixing or bid-rigging.
