News Article: Hong Kong broadcaster TVB names Charles Chan as new chairman

I know I haven't posted too much about TVB lately, but since this is pretty big news, figured I would share it...

The announcement was made today that TVB's current chairman Norman Leung (who took over as chairman a few years ago from the late Sir Run Run Shaw) will be retiring at the end of the year.  Charles Chan (he's part of the conglomerate that bought TVB 3 years ago) will be taking over Mr. Leung's position as chairman starting January 1st.

To be honest, I'm not really sure how I feel about this news.  I guess to me, it doesn't really make a difference, since TVB was already on a downward decline as a company more than 10 years ago when Sir Run Run Shaw got too old to manage the station himself and handed off day to day operations to his wife Mona Fong (who had a huge hand in digging TVB's grave with her poor management / oversight).

I guess my only "gripe" about Charles Chan taking over is his "outsider" status when it comes to TVB (he has only been with the station for 3 years and I highly doubt he was too involved with day to day stuff during that time).  As with any "established, brand-name" product that gets new ownership from outsiders who don't know a thing about running a TV station, there are bound to be issues in the beginning....not sure how TVB is going to fare under this new leadership.  Will Charles Chan change TVB for the better or will he put the last nail in the coffin for good?  At this point, it's too early to tell....but for the sake of the artists who still work at TVB (specifically the ones I grew up watching and still support to this day), I hope this change is for the better.

By the way....I rolled my eyes when I read that Mr. Accountant (Mark Lee) got promoted to CEO (obviously I dislike that guy with a passion).  Well, I hope this doesn't mean that TVB goes back to their "cheapskate" ways now, especially since they were actually starting to "spend" the way they're supposed to the past 2-3 years....

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Hong Kong broadcaster TVB names Charles Chan as new chairman

Source:  SCMP

Article originally published December 20, 2014

Deal-maker Charles Chan Kwok-keung has been appointed as the new chairman of TVB, the city's dominant free-to-air television broadcaster.

The announcement was made yesterday with Norman Leung Nai-pang, 74, current executive chairman of the station's board and the chairman of the executive committee, set to retire on January 1.

The news came as TVB's beleaguered rival ATV was still struggling to pay November salaries while awaiting the government's verdict on the renewal of its licence to broadcast. Both ATV's and TVB's licences expire in November next year.

ATV's news staff plan to release a statement on Monday, vowing to stop work on December 30 or 31 if they are still unpaid.

Chan, 59, will assume both of Leung's positions at TVB. He was appointed a non-executive director of TVB in April 2011 after leading a group of investors to buy Shaw Brothers' stake in the broadcaster for HK$6.26 billion.

The investors also included Taiwanese entrepreneur Cher Wang Hsiueh-hong, co-founder of smartphone maker HTC, and Providence Equity Partners, a US private equity company that manages US$22 billion in capital and investments worldwide.

Wang and Jonathan Nelson, the chief executive of Providence, were named as non-executive directors of TVB in April 2011. Chan was appointed to the executive committee in March 2012.

Leung, who had been with TVB for 11 years, succeeded the late Run Run Shaw as executive chairman of the board on January 1, 2012, after the film and television mogul's retirement.

In a statement, Leung thanked TVB colleagues and praised Shaw's achievement in co-founding TVB. 

"When I took over from Sir Run Run in 2012, I knew his achievement would be a hard act to follow," he said.

Meanwhile, general manager Cheong Shin Keong will become an executive director and sit on the executive committee. Group general manager Mark Lee Po-on will become group CEO.

'TVB Family Culture' -- some upcoming changes at TVB

** HOT OFF THE PRESS **

TVB’s chairman Norman Leung just announced that they will be making a lot of changes and instituting what they call “TVB family culture”.  He said he was inspired by veteran actor Liu Kai Chi’s interview (I’m assuming he meant the long, in-depth interview that Uncle Chi did with Mingpao, which was a great interview by the way) and is instituting changes because he wants people who work for TVB to feel proud to work for them – also, he said that if other TV stations (referring to HKTV) can do it (referring to all the things that HKTV has done for its artists), TVB should be able to do it way better.

While on the one hand I’m happy to see TVB finally willing to make changes that will benefit their artists and are putting in the effort to recreate the ‘family’ atmosphere that defined them back in the 70s and 80s (and early 90s to some extent), part of me can’t help but think that these changes are ‘too little, too late’.  With all the ‘damage’ that has already been done, it’s going to be difficult for them to turn things around without a lot of hard effort….plus, right now, it’s all talk – until these changes are put into action and we start seeing the results, I’m not too confident that TVB will be able to pull it off.  

Also, the 15-20 years or so of TVB treating their artists like crap is definitely not going to be easy to reverse....besides, there are other policies that they need to look at as well that had a huge hand in putting them in the rut they’re in today.  With these changes, it's definitely a step in the right direction, but how effective it will be remains to be seen...let’s wait and see though….

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Below is the translation of the article that outlines the new plan…

Source:  kuangai TVB’s weibo

(I’ll post the link to the actual article from its original news source later on…)

Yesterday, TVB’s chairman Norman Leung attended the celebration dinner for Triumph in the Skies II.  Of course, the ‘hot topic’ of late has been the free TV license debacle and Ricky Wong’s HKTV.  Despite losing their jobs, all of the HKTV staff have stood by Mr. Wong and supported him, with not a single person blaming him for the situation – to be honest, this is something that we’ve never seen happen at TVB.  In addition, veteran actor Liu Kai Chi (廖啟智) accepted an interview with a magazine earlier in which he detailed very clearly, point by point, why he decided to leave TVB (after close to 30 years of service) – it wasn’t a decision made in haste or out of a fit of anger.  Rather, it was because some of the clauses in TVB’s contracts were too ‘bizarre’ and ‘insulting’ to artists.  At the end of the day, the biggest reason why things eventually got to this point – TVB’s monopoly and the lack of competition to challenge them. The emergence of Ricky Wong gave these television artists new hope and reignited in them the passion and love for their craft that had long since disappeared.  

Now, it seems that even TVB has finally ‘woken up’ and realizes that something has to be done.  At the dinner, Norman Leung went onstage to give his customary speech, during which he expressed that over the weekend, he read the interview that Liu Kai Chi did and that inspired him to immediately institute a few changes:  “Effective immediately, I would like to start cultivating a ‘TVB family culture’.  As part of the management team, my hope is that members of our TVB family will truly feel proud that they are part of our family and that everyone will see our progress.”

Mr. Leung continues:  “This new TVB family culture consists of 4 main things:  first is that our artists need to feel respected; second is that work hours need to be reasonable; third, compensation needs to be reasonable and fair; fourth is that all artists need to be given opportunities to perform.”

“In terms of the work hours, the memo has already been sent out:  work hours will be based on ‘shifts’ going forward.  Each shift will be 10 hours, but can be extended to 11 hours if needed on certain occasions – anything over 11 hours must be approved by the director of production.  For on location filming, the shift can extend up to 12 hours, however anything over 14 hours will require approval from the director of production.  With this change, we hope that artists will be able to get sufficient rest.  At the same time, we already implemented the requirement that all scripts must be 80% complete before filming starts so that the production team can have sufficient time to prepare.  Even though all these changes will cause production overhead to increase, that’s okay because our goal is to make quality series and also create a good working environment for our staff.”

Mr. Leung concluded his speech with the following words of encouragement to his staff:  “If other TV stations are able to do it, TVB will definitely be able to do it too – not only that, we should be able to do it better!  I don’t care whether you’re Mr. Wong, Mr. Lee, Mr. Ma, or Mr. Cow – I’m absolutely certain that we [TVB] are up to the challenge and will absolutely do it better than you!”