Chik Chak won't give broadcast right to TVB; TVB will not broadcast RTHK Awards

Yesterday CRHK announced that the broadcast right to this year's "Chik Chak Ultimate Song Award Presentation" will not be given to TVB due to them not having an agreement with HKRIA yet. CRHK does not want to affect the spirit of the awards ceremony. At the same, TVB refused to broadcast RTHK's Top 10 Chinese Song Awards due to EEG and East Asia's boycott. RTHK is pulling ATV, iCable and other channels to help them broadcast their awards show.

In the past, all four award ceremonies (RTHK, CRHK, Metro and JSG) were given to TVB to broadcast. Even last year when the royalty disputes with HKRIA started, RTHK and CRHK still allowed TVB to broadcast. RTHK even promised that they are willing to take any risk of legal consequences, if their award show was to be broadcast on TVB. Stephen Chan was expected to break the ice upon his return to TVB, but in reality there are more uncertainties now. Also, with the cancellation of the "Four Station Media Award", there are greater differences between all the stations.

CRHK supports the Big 5 record labels

Currently, the four stations each have their own stance. CRHK clearly supports the Big 5 labels, so yesterday TVB announced through their Foreign Affairs Department that because the TVB and HKRIA issue has not been resolved, TVB cannot broadcast anything relating to the Big 5 (including the newly joined BMA). If music fans and audience hope to watch the original award show (Chik Chak), then can go on CRHK website to watch the show online. It was also stated that both CRHK and TVB have agreed that TVB does not have enough time to edit out the Big 5 segments in the award show for audience to have a pleasant watch, so TVB agreed to give up on the broadcast.

TVB also clearly supports EEG and East Asia, so they announced three reasons why the RTHK Top 10 Chinese Song Awards is not going to be broadcast. Firstly, TVB can face legal consequences if they broadcast the show with singers under Big 55. Secondly, because the two largest record labels in HK (EEG, East Asia) are boycotting the show and third is because this year RTHK backed out of the Four Station Media Award, which is questioned by the industry and record labels of its acceptability.

Yesterday Assistant Director of Broadcasting (Cheung Man San) expressed that they have received TVB's Lee Bo On's written response of the "final decision". Although he feels regret, he hopes that this single event won't affect future collaborations. Mr. Cheung said: "RTHK's music awards is on its 33th year, it had always been RTHK's major productions in a given year. Although this year EEG and East Asia aren't attending, the production and sense of entertainment won't be affected. RTHK will present the awards to EEG and East Asia singers like normal and will broadcast the winning song clips."

Source: Mingpao
Translated by: aZnangel @ AsianEU