TVB Plans for the new year

I was reading this article and I thought it was very good read. Mingpao got an exclusive with the Program Arrangement Strategic Planner and Production Department Vice-Director (Mr. Ho Koon Chung) about their upcoming plans for TVB and the different broadcast periods. Here are some highlights:

• They are planning to broadcast Tiger Cubs (Joe Ma, Jessica Hsuan) starting in June on the weekends. There are 13 90-minute episodes which will be broadcasted on Sundays first and then in July it will begin to be on both Saturday and Sunday. This series is a big investment because each episode cost almost $10 million HKD to make. 
• They have lined up some series to go along with the 4 seasons.
• The Romance season will coincide with Valentine's Day and they will air 4 in Love.
• The Off Season is in May and June and since it is an off season, they are planning to air some of their stronger series to get some high ratings. This will include The Boxing King (Kevin Cheng, Raymond Wong) and House of Harmony and Vengence (Bobby AuYeung, Myolie Wu, Linda Chung).
• The Summer season revolves more around the younger audience since they are on break and Return of the Three Kingdoms (Raymond Lam, Kenneth Ma, Tavia Yeung) is planned.
• TVB Anniversay Season- Some tentative plans have been made but they have not been revealed yet.
• Mr. Ho said that he did hear some complaints about series not being broadcast in better time slots, and he admits that there are some weaker time periods. However TVB produces series non stop and he has confidence in the series to do well. Also, TVB is international so even if there are less TV viewers in Hong Kong, there are still many other ways that people watch series. There have been more clicks on myTV and through Mainland streaming sites so HK viewers are not very accurate since there are many ways to watch series now. 

I also thought this quote was very interesting.

TVB's Mr. Ho calmly said: "It is good that there are new competitors, the industry can have a hundred flowers bloom and bring in new strikes. However, please don't 'wear the same pants', steal the same group of artists and shoot the same type of TV programs. The same productions method is not a blessing to audience. (This year, will TVB have to watch out in the battle, as there are new competitors?) In fact, we have long term arrangements for our programs. We also have the flexibility to make changes, it could change by the day and it's not difficult, but actually its a question of will the change be positive or negative? [We] have to consider this. More importantly, we want to pursue stability. TVB employs many skilled and experienced behind-the-scenes crew and we are an old company, so we seek 'within the stability, seek breakthrough and improvement'."

I thought that this was very informative and shows their thought process. I agree that the TV ratings does not accurately reflect the ratings of a series since there are so many more ways to watch series now. I don't think they'll get super high ratings for series because of this reason. It's the same in the U.S. because tv viewership has gone down and the average ratings have dropped as well too.


I think there might be a little bias in picking their anniversary series but I don't think that they give series bad time slots on purpose. They want their ratings to do well so they must have some confidence in a series to do well, even in unfavorable time slots. It happens to everyone so I don't get the whining about it. 


Also, I thought the last quote was funny because it was a pretty good dig at their competition. It's true that they're trying to copy their style but I don't think they'll succeed. ATV tried to do the same thing by paying more money to get TVB stars but it still didn't help their ratings. Basically, why would people watch a copy cat when they can watch the real thing?