Timothy Fok Tsun-ting, the president of the Sports Federation and Olympic Committee of Hong Kong, has written to International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge to express his concern that a deal has not yet been reached for free-to-air coverage in Hong Kong of the London 2012 Olympic Games.
The local rights-holder, pay-television operator i-Cable, is obliged to allow at least 200 hours of the Olympics to be shown on free-to-air television.
The Standard newspaper reported that talks between i-Cable and free-to-air broadcaster ATV had been put on hold due to the free-to-air broadcaster’s availability in the Pearl River Delta region in mainland China – an area in which Chinese state broadcaster CCTV should have exclusive rights for the Games.
The newspaper said that Rogge had previously warned that i-Cable could be stripped of its rights to show the Games if its audience reach is inadequate.
ATV executive director James Shing Pan-yu said his company was “actively striving” to air the Olympics. “I hope it can be broadcast on our free-TV channel and serve the people,” he said. “At the same time I hope everything will be done according to our principles.”
Gregory So Kam-leung, Hong Kong’s secretary for commerce and economic development, added: “I think they should step up communication to solve the problem. But, of course, commercial interests are involved and so it is not suitable for the government to interfere. On the other hand, I do believe that the senior management of these stations are very clear about the government and the public’s hopes to see the Olympics on free channels.”
Prior to the talks being put on hold, ATV is thought to have accepted a limit on advertising time which i-Cable wanted included in the deal, which had been rejected by at least one other free-to-air broadcaster. The pay-television broadcaster wanted to limit advertising time in ATV’s coverage to 400 minutes across 250 hours of Olympics coverage. Free-to-air broadcaster TVB rejected this term as “unreasonable.”