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Giles is complaining about Hong Kong TV. It's like shooting fish in a barrel, and I have to agree with him that although we should consider ourselves fairly lucky with the choice of foreign-made programmes that are shown on local TV, the way they are presented seems to be getting increasingly irritating.

The latest innovation on TVB Pearl is that they announce a show as “coming right up’ and then slip in a couple of commercials before it starts. They also run programme trailers in the middle of the commercials rather than at the beginning or end of the break. It all serves to blur the distinction between programmes and commercials, and is presumably aimed at people who fast forward through the commercials. They also seem to be varying the length of breaks for the same reason.

All this comes on top of the sponsored micro-programmes that we now have to endure. These include ‘Science Minutes’ sponsored by the Delia School of Canada, Olympic Minutes, the timecheck sponsored by Raymond Weill, and the frankly puzzling ‘Earth Live’. What they have in common is that are very cheap to produce and presumably generate good revenue from the sponsoring company.

Part of the deal seems to be that they run trailers for the sponsored programmes (obviously these are really nothing more than adverts). So ATV World are actually running trailers for the weather report: “Tonight at 7.55, the weather report, sponsored by Mr Wong’s pirate DVD emporium (or whoever it is)”. Good grief.

All of this means that it’s hard to know when programmes actually start. Pearl has its “MI 930” slot, so-called in spite of the fact that the programmes never actually start at 9.30 (it can be anything from 9.35 to 9.45), and one bugbear for me is that the timeslot for ‘The Apprentice’ is constantly changing.

It’s very frustrating, but we have to remember that the two English language channels only exist because the government insists on them as part of the licence conditions for ATV and TVB. The tiny audiences they get for most programmes mean that they not profitable, and so they will try almost anything to generate additional revenue. Even if it drives the viewers crazy!

Comments

[Eshin]

I haven't worked out what MI stands for. I figured out the I stands for intelligence but the M still remains a mystery.

One can't blame the shoddiness of the English language channels. I mean, in how many countries are there two main channels dedicated to cater for such a minority of people (in this case expats)? Sure, it might be for language education purposes too, but then in most countries either a handful of programmes in English suffice with subtitles.

Imagine if they'd spend tax dollars on a terrestrial Punjabi or Urda language channel in the UK? It probably wouldn't be that good, and it probably never would exist.

So even though English is an official language, I still think the standard is acceptable. For quality programming, there's always cable.

Re-reading the first line of your post, I see I'm not coming up with anything new. Anyway, just my two cents worth.

[Chris]

MI presumably stands for 'Multiple Intelligence'.

The thing about English is that it is widely spoken in Hong Kong and the government is keen to encourage its wider use. Also, the use of Nicam means that many programmes are available in Cantonese as well as English (and these days many of the ads are in Cantonese as well). so it's not totally outrageous that Pearl and World exist as 2 of the 4 terrestrial channels.

Incidentally, a better parallel than a Punjabi or Urdu channel in the UK might be one in Welsh. Yes, there is one, though not all the programmes are in Welsh, and it's only available in Wales.

As for cable tv, I think the only English language entertainment channel is AXN, and that's not very good. However, my theory is that if the government stopped forcing TVB & ATV to broadcast in English we might get a better channel on cable.

Yes, in many ways TVB Pearl is better than we have any right to expect, but that won't stop me pointing out its shortcomings.

[Giles]

..and don't forget most of the Cable TV Channels are English only, so they most be catering for someone...

My point was that most of the adverts on the English type channels are sponsored by big name companies, therefore you'd expect more revenue and therefore better programming.

I remember the Welsh Programmes, I used to live in Bristol which is close to Wales and spent many an hour watching the crappy S4C programmes and trying to guess what they were trying to say (a bit like watching local HK TV I guess).

[Eshin]

I has a suspicion it was "multiple". How bizarre.

[henry]

I was always under the impression that the M stood for "missing"

but wasn't the MI930 originally spawned because they were all going on about Mission Impossible in the cinemas?

then again, what about "Maybe Incorrect 9:30"

[Simon]

I couldn't agree more on this one. The biggest problem is the TV is amateurish but there's extremely limited competition. And the advertisments are even worse. Of course we all have the God given right to not watch...hell we could all be blogging instead!

Can I just ask is there anyone left in Hong Kong who's still on i-Cable like me, or has everyone gone to NOW?

[Chris]

Amateurish is a good word. Perhaps if it wasn't there we'd miss it, but as it is I can't help feeling vaguely embarassed by it!!

We have i-Cable and Now Broadband, but I haven't got around to subscribing to any channels on the latter. Probably will one day.

[Roger overnout]

Does it bother anyone that these two English "channels" seem to insert the commercials whenever they damn well please, regardless of the action of the story?

Most television programs are structured with commercial breaks in the action. It is absolutely infuriating to me when ATV/TVB come back from a break and 20 seconds later is the place holder where it should have been. Could this be done for any other reason than either complete idiocy or deliberate intention to annoy???

[Chris]

Yes, they do, and it's very irritating. I think that ATV are a bit better about this than TVB, but I don't watch enough to be sure whether that is really the case. For shows I really enjoy, I'd rather buy the DVD.

Sadly, both TVB Pearl and ATV World are under-funded, and it definitely shows.