City Beat | Now ATV has faded from Hong Kong screens, the entire industry needs some fresh thinking
Television’s glory days of the 1980s and 90s have disappeared and media-savvy audiences these days have an almost endless array of viewing options
The traditional Chinese calendar measures time using a combination of signs arranged in the form of 10 heavenly stems and 12 earthly branches to calculate a full life cycle of six decades, called a jiazi. What it means is that when one reaches the age of 60, he or she has gone through the ups and downs of life and should have become smarter and wiser.
It’s supposed to be the same for a company.
Thus it saddens many, especially dedicated staff from different periods over the past decades, to see Asia Television, the world’s first Chinese-language broadcaster, going off the air just months before its 60th birthday when it would have completed a full life cycle.
But at the same time, the unfortunate fate of ATV provides rich food for thought for the future development of Hong Kong’s broadcast industry.
How and why ATV ended in such a state could be a textbook case for any business school to study
Obviously, financial woes and constant rows among shareholders which led to chaotic management and the deterioration of programme qualities contributed to the station’s untimely demise. There are also many who believe the eccentric style of ATV’s mainland investor, Wong Ching, was to blame, while some have gone a step further to conclude that money from across the border usually screws things up.
Highlighting only this mainland factor may be oversimplifying matters, although it reflects the perception of some amid the ongoing tension between the city and the mainland.
