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TVB rejects i-CABLE’s London 2012 Olympics broadcast proposal, calls for negotiation

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TVB (Television Broadcasts Limited) has rejected i-CABLE Communications Limited’s proposed broadcast agreement regarding the airing of the 2012 London Olympics Games. The proposal is for TVB to re-transmit i-CABLE’s Cable No.1 Channel, which contains unspecified Olympic programmes, on TVB’s analogue Jade and Pearl Channels free of charge, at timeslots designated by i-CABLE, for a continuous period of 17 days and up to 250 broadcast hours.

i-CABLE is the official broadcaster of the London 2012 Olympic Summer Games in Hong Kong. Aiming to extend its cross-platform coverage of the Games to over-the-air television platforms, i-CABLE sent proposals to TVB and Asia Television Limited (ATV). ATV has since made a counter-offer, which i-CABLE has already accepted.

According to TVB, it has repeatedly written to i-CABLE on acquisition of free television rights to the 2012 London Olympic Games since April, but it received no substantive response. In the proposal it recently received, TVB noted that the major problem is that the programs are 100% produced by TVB and should carry more than 90% of i-Cable advertisements, leaving it with less than 10% of the advertising time.

Besides robbing TVB of its channels and legitimate business interests, i-CABLE’s offer prohibits it from making any change to the content of the Cable No.1 Channel as well as from providing a supplementary commentary during the retransmission, according to TVB. This deprives the viewing public and advertisers of choice of programming, commentary and advertising opportunities, TVB said.

TVB remains sincere in bringing the London Olympics to the widest possible audience in Hong Kong and is willing to pay a fair and reasonable licence fee to i-CABLE for the rights to produce, broadcast and market Olympics programming on TVB channels. This accords with the well-established international practice on sports licensing and will give viewers and advertisers genuine choice. In line with this, the company has written to i-CABLE requesting it to come to the negotiating table on this basis.