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.