Competition from future free-to-air TV stations: TVB and ATV’s remaining advantages

With new competition soon to be joining the free-to-air television market in HK, it doesn’t make sense why TVB and ATV continue to argue over the method in which ratings points are calculated.

ATV did not agree with the method that had always been used in the past, so they decided on their own to hire a different company, HK University’s Ratings Research system, to do the calculations – however, discerning critics know right away that the two methods involve two different sets of data. The ratings numbers that TVB announces, which are put together by CSM, are based on the average number of households (viewers) that completely finish watching an entire program – plus it mostly counts households that tune in using analog sets – digital broadcast numbers are available, but very rarely announced to the public. The ratings numbers that ATV announces, which are put together by HK University Ratings Research, are based on how many households (viewers) watched a program at some point during the time the program aired, however having watched a program at some point does not mean that the viewer finished watching the entire program – therefore, these ‘ratings’ will naturally be higher than the average ratings that TVB announces; obviously, both numbers will be completely different.

CSM also has the ability to determine how many viewers watched a program during any given minute that the program aired – if they were to take these numbers and compare it to the numbers that HK University comes up with in their ‘survey’, the numbers will definitely be a lot closer. Advertising companies mostly use CSM’s ratings numbers because 1) it uses electronic apparatus to calculate down to the minute and confirm for sure how many viewers are watching during each timeslot, and 2) it’s the calculation method widely used overseas on an international level. ATV’s method (through HK University) primarily uses a ‘sampling’ method to ask viewers whether they have watched a particular program for more than 5 minutes via various media platforms (including internet and outdoor group viewing) in the past 7 days. To be honest, there is really no point in ‘sampling’ because pretty much every (HK) citizen is a television viewer – simply by surveying how many people watch TVB programs versus how many watch ATV programs, one can already estimate how big the gap is between the two stations.

If 3 additional free-to-air licenses are indeed issued this year and the HK market with its population of 7 million people is pretty much already set, then that means naturally, each piece of the pie will be smaller – ultimately, both TVB and ATV alike will be impacted. TVB’s earlier announcement of increased collaboration with Mainland TV stations in the future is precisely their way of breaking through the small 7 million people HK market and expanding their reach into the large Mainland China market – after all, more opportunities exist with a population of 1.3 billion people (China) compared to only 7 million (HK). Currently, in the film market, the box office in China compared to HK is already 10 to 1 and is continuing to increase. However the television market is a completely different story. TVB has collaborated with Mainland China on television series in the past, however the results have only been so-so. At certain points in the past, HK TV stations did have some advantages outside of the region – for example, to this day, Mainland audiences still enthusiastically embrace such classic series as "The Bund" (the 1980 version starring Chow Yun Fat).

Due to the rapid expansion of the Mainland TV market, plus the number of HK artists and production people who have given up the HK market in favor of heading up North, the Mainland series of today far exceeds TVB when it comes to quality of production. If that’s the case, then what ‘advantage’ does TVB still have then? Well, to this day, TVB is still a “brand name” that has far reach – through DVDs (both original and bootleg) as well as the Internet, many Mainland audiences are able to watch authentic TVB-produced series. With ATV virtually halting production of TV series, TVB has pretty much become the “only” HK TV series production source. Majority of these TV series are not Mainland collaborations and so are not directly regulated by Mainland television approval guidelines – therefore, the “HK flavor” of the series is preserved, which is partially why the series are so popular in the Mainland. Collaborating on a TV series with Mainland China requires for it to go through the Mainland’s approval process, which means that inevitably, there will be certain restrictions placed on the content of the series – naturally, this reduces the “advantage” that TVB may have in the area of “authenticity”.

Another advantage is the smaller production cost. With its factory-style production methods and large scale studio, TVB has the ability to mass-produce almost 24-7, plus there’s the ‘efficiency’ factor in that many Mainland productions use only single camera with real live scenery, which could take longer to shoot, compared to TVB where most of the filming takes place in its own studio. Also, even with its ‘prestige’ as the largest station in HK, the salary that TVB pays its artists is far less than what other TV stations and production companies pay. In the industry, the typical pay for a lead artist in a TV series today generally makes up about half (if not more) of production costs, so with the amount of money that TVB is saving in the area of salary, it could become an advantage if the money is put towards production of the series itself. The question is, how long will this advantage last?

As for ATV – in the face of new competition, they will have the most to lose, primarily because they gave up on self-production of programs way too early, especially in the area of TV series, which is what most TV stations pride themselves on producing. With their long-standing over-dependence on outsourced programs, there really isn’t a whole lot for ATV to defend – so basically, their one advantage of being “the only other” choice for non-TVB television viewing will quickly end once other ‘choices’ come into play (additional free-to-air stations).

Source: MingPao
Translation: llwy12 @ AsianFanatics