In addition to plans for producing series, ATV also announced that the 2 grand production series that have been in their warehouse since 2008 -- Heroes of the Law (starring Lawrence Ng and Amy Chan) and the fifth installment in their Who is the Winner series (starring Julian Cheung and Ada Choi) – will be airing in July.
Both series are not exactly ATV productions, as they were filmed primarily through outside production companies and have been ‘buried’ in ATV’s warehouse for the past 2 years -- there were obviously ‘issues’ that arose which prevented the series from airing earlier.
Most people know that Heroes of the Law was plagued with salary dispute issues which prevented it from being released, however it is not very clear why Who’s the Winner was delayed for so long.
Prior to halting the production of series last year, ATV always had a history of unclear and ever-changing direction when it came to their series. Even with plans to resume production this year, it does not look like the situation will be improved much.
It is a known fact that producing TV series is rival TVB’s strongest weapon, so if ATV wants to use TV series – whether their own or those produced by outside companies -- to pull in high ratings, they will face enormous challenges. This is already obvious from past history.
Even with accusations of plagiarism, TVB’s series have continued to garner high ratings, which proves that HK audiences have already gotten used to watching the ‘TVB-style’ drama series.
With this said, what is the point of ATV resuming series production again? If the purpose is to pull in ratings, ATV needs to find the proper ‘niche’ for their series. If the purpose is to target a certain audience pool, then they need to ask themselves the necessary questions – how many people in the audience will the series attract, is it worth the investment, etc. etc.
Also, if ATV-produced series will have the same effect [in terms of ratings and audience] as series produced by outside companies (with ATV buying the rights to air), then is it really worth it for the station to produce their own series?
In today’s industry, it is almost impossible to gain profit from relying solely on the local Hong Kong television market. Typically, in order to produce a series, the cost usually starts at approximately 500,000 HKD per episode (for ‘ancient’ series, the costs are much higher) – so without an overseas market, the company is sure to lose money. Even collaborating with other countries such as mainland China and Taiwan can be a challenge, since it would be necessary to reduce the ‘Hong Kong flavor’ of the series in order to attract audiences in those markets.
With the large amounts of money that ATV has invested in their ‘new’ production facilities (sets, costumes, etc.), it is understandable that they would want to maximize the use of these resources by increasing production. However, the reality is that huge production costs contributed greatly to much of the past financial loss that ATV still has not recovered from.
Before producing series again, ATV really needs to think things through and establish a new and clear direction for themselves.
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