Profile... Walking the walk at TVB's corridors of stardom

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Stephen Chan appears to have a hankering for the limelight. As general manager of broadcasting at Hong Kong’s dominant terrestrial broadcaster TVB, a station renowned for its frothy talent shows and legendary artiste programme, Chan has more access than most to the corridors of stardom. Rather than bask in the reflected glow, Chan fronts his own late-night talk show, opting for a considerably more high-profile approach than many of his predecessors.

“Well, they are not as smart as me, and I can make noise,” says Chan. Despite the jocularity, Chan’s Be My Guest hardly counts as a vanity project, securing Cartier as a sponsor for the second season.
The show is a little at odds with Chan’s solid establishment background.

A civil servant since leaving university, his last Government posting was at the Television and Entertainment Licensing Authority, where he crossed paths with Winnie Yu, director and GM of radio player Hong Kong Commercial Broadcasting. Even at that stage, Chan’s media sensibilities were reasonably well-formed, after stints as a DJ on RTHK.

Departing the civil service, Chan spent two years in radio before making the switch to TVB. “I thought it would be a good opportunity, as TV would have a bigger impact than radio,” he says, with a measure of understatement.

Over the past 10 years, TVB has defied developed market trends in other parts of the world to retain its dominant position in Hong Kong’s congested media world.

According to Admango, the station accounts for almost 80 per cent of Hong Kong’s US$ 767 million in TV spend, a figure that has felt little buffeting from the winds of change assailing traditional media in other markets. Many observers put this down to Hong Kong’s unique topography — but Chan looks instead to TVB’s content offering.

“Free TV in Hong Kong will go from strength to strength if we hit the right notes, because Hong Kong people are desperate for gossip and common topics,” he explains, pointing to recent hits like Heart of Greed, War and Beauty and La Femme Desperado.

TVB’s position in the Hong Kong market, where growth prospects are minimal, has always made overseas expansion imperative.

“Our current competition does not come from within Hong Kong, but we are competing with places like Korea, Taiwan, Japan and even China,” says Chan.

China, of course, remains the biggest prize — but one that has proved difficult to crack for TVB, particularly in comparison with its local rival ATV. “Even if we could just capture Southern China, our market would expand substantially and we could deploy more resources,” says Chan. “But to make successful TV productions in China, you need to ‘go native’, and assimilate according to the cities and provinces.”

To achieve this goal, Chan explains that TVB’s traditional model of licensing finished products is fading now. Instead, he is aiming for more joint-ventures and co-productions, pointing to recent drama The Drive of Life, which featured actors from Hong Kong and CCTV, as a good example. “The other direction we are heading in is to form partnerships with internet service providers in China to provide video-on-demand,” he adds.

“The advantages of having these different partnership formats is increasing advertising dollars, along with more exposure for our artistes in China.

“We are also planning to have more collaborations with local production companies and TV stations to produce dramas which are tailor-made for the China market.”

Chan’s other focus for increasing revenues is through branded content where, in common with many free-to-air players, TVB has made relatively minor ripples. However, he points to popular gameshow Super Trio, where eating sushi was part of the storyline, as an example of the kind of product integration in which he is interested. “This is not currently a substantial source of our income, but we are seeing it as a new source of revenue,” Chan points out.

“We have to balance our commercial art and not allow the products to become too obtrusive, so there is still a learning curve for clients.”

Chan’s cheery disposition makes him a popular figure in media circles. Until, that is, the subject of TVB’s advertising rates comes up.

The broadcaster has attracted the ire of Hong Kong’ media agencies in recent years for its inflation of ratecards, sometimes at odds with the prevailing economic climate. “We do take the state of the economy into account, but we have limited inventory and the regulations for controlling advertising time have been tightened,” insists Chan.

“No one likes to see any payment increase apart from his or her own pay-cheque.”

Stephen Chan’s CV

2004 General manager, broadcasting, TVB
1994 Programme controller, TVB
1992 Executive assistant to director and general manager, Hong Kong Commercial Broadcasting
1981 Administrative officer, Hong Kong Government