The landscape of Hong Kong's advertising industry will hardly change with the imminent closure of Asia Television (ATV) as the beleaguered broadcaster had already lost most of its advertisers over the years, according to scholars and industry experts.

A shutdown would only have a "rippled effect" on the television advertising business as there's only a limited number of clients left at the ailing station, said Peter Kwan Wai, who had worked in media industry for almost 40 years and now teaches at The City University of Hong Kong's media and communication department.

ATV's existing advertisers are likely to switch to other media organizations or ATV's rival Television Broadcasts Ltd (TVB), depending on what sort of audience they're targeting, Kwan told China Daily.

"If advertisers aim for a younger audience, they may move to a new media organization when ATV shuts down. If they're targeting a middle-aged audience, they're likely to switch to TVB," he reckoned.

But, he warned that the cost of advertising during TVB's peak viewing time may go up due to stiffer competition.

Edith Tse, group account director at Ptarmigan Media, an international company providing media planning and buying services, said that since there are still 12 months left before ATV's license expires, she has not heard of any of her clients intending to stop advertising on ATV.

ATV has drastically cut its advertisement fees as it tries to sort out its financial mess. The station launched a special advertisement package in January this year, under which an advertiser pays HK$30,000 for a 30-second advertisement to be broadcast 80 times, including during prime viewing time from 8 pm to 10 pm.

This means an advertiser pays only HK$375 for an advertisement to be broadcast once, compared with more than HK$100,000 for a 30-second advertisement during prime time - a rate once charged by the station.

ATV Executive Director Ip Ka-po has said that many advertisers had pulled out after the station brought in major investor Wong Ching and raised its advertisement fees four-fold.

TVB is said to be charging advertisers HK$1 million for a 30-second advertisement to be broadcast only once during prime viewing time.

Kwan said most advertisers expect more free TV licenses to be issued, offering them more alternatives. Even TVB does not see itself as the "single dominant" party among advertisers as they would rather switch to other advertising channels if competition in the television is totally eliminated.

Contact the writers at gladdy@chinadailyhk.com and sophiehe@chinadailyhk.com

(HK Edition 04/03/2015 page10)