On Novemeber 3, 2013, the Hong Kong Government controversially refuses to approve HKTV’s proposal for a free-to-air license. While this has come as a surprise to many television viewers in Hong Kong and workers of HKTV, the Government refuses to offer legitimate reasons for its radical decision. After the decision’s been made, thousands of workers of HKTV have immediately been put out of work (laid off).
HKTV was founded by a Hong Kong entrepreneur named Wong Wai Kay. The rise of HKTV was greatly anticipated by television viewers as they believed it would provide a healthy competition to the current near-monopolized free-to-air television broadcaster, TVB. TVB’s productions have recently been criticized for its lack of creativity and the quality of its productions, in which television viewers argued that this has to do with TVB’s lack of competition.
Politicians and nearly 400,000 people who signed a Facebook petition demanded that the government give a full account of the reasons for denying Wong’s Hong Kong Television Network (HKTV) a licence. Thousands vowed to protest at government headquarters on Sunday.
