Television Broadcasts Limited (TVB) is a broadcaster based in Hong Kong, which operates five television channels in Hong Kong, the most prominent ones being TVB Jade in Cantonese and TVB Pearl in English.
Media assets
Television: TVB Jade, TVB Pearl, TVB Anywhere, MyTV Super, TVBS, TVBNews, TVB.com, TVB USA
State Media Matrix Typology: Captured Private (CaPr)
Ownership and governance
TVB is co-owned by a group of private individuals, and some of its shares are publicly floated. The majority shareholder in TVB is a company named Young Lions Holdings Limited, controlled by Charles Chan Kwok-keung, a businessman once described in the media as “Hong Kong’s maverick deal-maker.” One of the other two shareholders of Young Lions is vice-chairman Li Ruigang, who is the founder of China Media Capital. Li Ruigang is a former top official of the Chinese Communist Party who used to work in the Shanghai government, according to news reports.
Source of funding and budget
In 2021, TVB posted a record loss of HKD 647m (US$ 82.7m), mostly as a result of the acquisition of a local e-commerce platform, according to information from the company. TVB is financed mostly through commercial revenue.
In 2022, TVB had total revenue of HKD 3.7bn (US$ 471m), most of it being generated through commercial sales. The company received a government subsidy of some HKD 37.3m (US$ 4.7m) in 2022, according to a company annual report.
Editorial independence
TVB’s editorial agenda is heavily controlled by the Chinese government in Beijing, according to several sources including a study carried out by Clement Y.K. So, professor with the Chinese University of Hong Kong and a report from Hong Kong Watch. The situation worsened in the past two years as the pressures from Beijing on media outlets in Hong Kong intensified. Cases of blatant censorship inside TVB have been identified in the past two years.
No domestic statute and no independent mechanism of assessment or oversight of the editorial independence of TVB have been identified.
October 2023