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Truly free-to-air

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With pressure mounting on the government to come clean about its decision to deny HKTV a free-to-air TV license, the company has starting airing content outside the government offices in Admiralty.HKTV, the TV group backed by Ricky Wong, last night started airing clips from TV programs created for the media group outside government headquarters.It has also started releasing full episodes of shows like The Boarderline  on YouTube with great success. An episode of The Boarderlinehas already garnered more than 880,000 views.After years of deliberation, two free television licenses were  issued to i-Cable’s Fantastic TV and PCCW’s HK Television Entertainment Company on 15 October, but  HKTV’s application was rejected without any detailed explanation.The decision has resulted in widespread criticism and protests.https://twitter.com/VivienneChow/status/391855432584552448The government however maintains the decision on the licenses were based purely on merit.Ray Wong, CEO of PHD Hong Kong, earlier told Marketing the exclusion of HKTV on the free-TV license allocation this week means advertisers choices have been limited as HKTV is the one contender which put the heaviest focus on drama production among its rivals.Asked if there is any particular reason for the failure, Wong suggested HKTV chairman and founder Ricky Wong might have been a bit too “high-profile”.“Individualism of a TV broadcasting company head shouldn’t outshine the company’s philosophy. I think a broadcast company should put audience’s interest as first priority and their objectives should be providing as much choice as possible for audience so as to fight against monopolisation of TV industry in Hong Kong.”Around 320 staff have been laid off as a result of its failed bid.Image courtesy of @viviennechow.

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