Quality of HK Dramas affected by production methods?

The "2009 Television Program Appreciation Index Survey" ranked TVB hit drama series "Rosy Business" at number one. With news programs generally taking the top spot, the fact that a TV drama series beat out all other HK produced programs to make its way to the top of the survey is no easy feat – though it’s not the first time. Similar to the situation with ratings, 80-90% of the drama series produced in HK are from TVB; ATV has practically stopped producing series, i-Cable as well as now-TV are not involved with series production, and RTHK’s series are more documentary style and not geared toward mainstream audience entertainment.

At one point in time, HK drama series – like HK films – were popular all throughout Asia. They didn’t just ‘entertain’ HK audiences, but also international audiences as well, which created a lucrative overseas sales base. During its peak, TVB once had a special line dedicated to producing series that were exclusively for overseas sales and that HK audiences may never get to watch on regular TV – so it can be seen how huge the demand was for this at that time.

ATV had its chance to shine in the past as well. Even though in HK, TVB’s ratings far surpassed ATV’s, however in terms of overseas market, ATV was quite strong and did not always lose to TVB, especially with its kung fu and martial arts themed series. However, with the repeated changing of ATV’s management over the years, the number of series produced by the station steadily declined to its current point of virtual non-existence. In Hong Kong, there is a huge market for drama series due to overwhelming popularity as well as the relative ease in broadcasting series with little cost. Therefore, TVB – with its primary focus in this particular market – of course continued to turn over a hefty profit year after year. ATV, on the other hand, was not able to maintain consistent quality in its series, which caused them to reduce the amount of series they produce – now, even during its ‘golden timeslot’, ATV has resorted to airing series purchased from overseas rather than their own series.

TVB’s ‘style’ of producing drama series has remained pretty much the same over the past few decades, however in recent years, with the lack of competition in the market, the quality of their series started to drop. Add to that the rise in popularity of series from other Asian regions such as Korea, China, Taiwan, etc. – which has developed to the point now of saturating the market at an international level, not just within its own borders. Also, HK TV actors, actresses, producers, etc. were once heavily recruited by China, Taiwan, Singapore, and other Asian countries to collaborate in the hopes of not only helping to increase the quality of the series in these countries, but also to help them train up ‘rising stars’ of their own – and we have seen the fruits of this in these past several years especially.

In addition, TVB (for the most part) still uses the traditional method of filming within studio walls with multiple cameras and angles, whereas other Asian regions – due to the plethora of independent production companies – have already started to take a ‘movie’ approach to series, using only one camera and real life backdrops when filming, which increases the sense of ‘realism’ for the audience.

Though audiences have increasingly criticized TVB series for their decline in quality in recent years, they still continue to watch the series and the ratings, it seems, have not been effected much. With "Rosy Business" winning the ‘most appreciated TV program’ crown, perhaps it will be a means of motivation for the artists as well as the crew at TVB.

Source: Mingpao
Translation: llwy12 @ AsianFanatics