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Government should negotiate to buy Tokyo Olympics broadcasting rights

2020-03-03T00:12:16.666Z


It is only more than four months since the Tokyo Olympics, but no television station in Hong Kong has purchased the broadcasting rights for the Olympic Games so far, and the public may miss the glorious events and athletes. Government promises to promote local sports


01 perspective

Written by: Comment Editor

2020-03-03 08:00

Last updated: 2020-03-03 08:00

It is only more than four months since the Tokyo Olympics, but no television station in Hong Kong has purchased the broadcasting rights for the Olympic Games so far, and the public may miss the glorious events and athletes.

The government is committed to promoting local sports, and watching the games can also unite the hearts of the people. The government should assign Radio Hong Kong to negotiate the purchase of the Tokyo Olympics broadcasting rights, which will then be broadcast by RTHK and other television stations.

In the past several international competitions, due to high broadcast fees and disputes between TV stations, the broadcast rights were often not determined until the last minute. With less than five months left this year, Huo Qigang, the vice chairman of the Hong Kong Association for the Olympics and the Olympic Committee, and his member Jin Baobao publicly requested the government to purchase the broadcasting rights on Friday (February 28) to achieve the "City-wide Olympic Games" and said that Write to Chief Executive Lin Zheng Yue'e.

As early as November last year, there were rumors that local TV stations had given up purchasing rights in East Austria because they refused to do business at a loss. It was reported that the TV broadcast of Rio 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, cost 150 million Hong Kong dollars, and the broadcast rights of the Tokyo Olympics and the 2024 Paris Olympic Games cost up to 70 million US dollars (about 549 million Hong Kong dollars). You cannot rely on sponsorship and advertisers to pay back. As the new type of coronavirus pneumonia rages, the Tokyo Olympics may change, and the local consumer market is sluggish. TV stations also need to tighten their pants to live the day. I believe we need to think twice about buying broadcast rights.

The government has three benefits

The Taiwan media has cited some reasons for the Olympic broadcast price: First, the event clips are transmitted in 4K to 8K quality, which increases the cost; Second, Toyo authorized Japan Dentsu to broadcast the Olympics to Asian TV stations instead of directly authorizing TV stations. , Dentsu shares revenue from it. Third, the sale of broadcasting rights has become an important source of income for the International Olympic Committee. The association counted the financial statements from 2013 to 2016, and the relevant proportion reached 73%.

However, the event is about to be held. If there is no TV station bidding in Hong Kong and the public does not want to miss the live event, it can only be bought by the government, allowing the TV station to make good use of the remaining time to prepare for broadcasting. Furthermore, this can avoid the dispute between broadcasters on the broadcasting schedule like the 2010 World Cup; even if the dispute repeats itself, the government can give it to Hong Kong Radio under its control for everyone to enjoy. Thirdly, from the perspective of the government, sports events can gather people's hearts and further enhance the sports atmosphere, which has considerable social benefits.

No waiting for TV stations to manipulate Olympic rights

The government has not advocated involvement in the broadcasting of sports events, and insists that the television station and the organizer discuss under commercial principles, but the calamity is deep. TV stations are the main channel for watching matches, and they have considerable profitability. TV stations compete for high prices for broadcast rights and bundle users to pay for watching, especially the European Football League and the World Cup. As a result, television stations have confined their attention to paid channels, and non-subscribers can only watch some programs. If the organizer does not require the opening games, finals and other events to be broadcast on free channels, the TV station must even "subscriber-only" for these golden programs.

In recent years, due to the financial constraints of TV stations, sports programs have failed to bring in more audiences and revenue. Even local events involving local athletes have no intention of bidding. Hong Kong people can hardly watch the 2018 Jakarta Asian Games through local channels. It was only this week that the cable TV announced the acquisition of broadcast rights and witnessed the athletes winning 46 medals. Therefore, no matter whether the TV station is busy or weak, it is not in the public interest to let the TV station dominate the sports event for free.

Government should appoint Hong Kong and Taiwan to negotiate with Japan

Both the sports community and the private sector have demanded that the government be more proactive, either requiring television stations to broadcast all events for free or bidding for funding. Looking at the areas where the broadcasting rights of Tokyo Olympics have been steadily purchased, there are no shortage of state or public broadcasters. China Central Television, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the Japan Broadcasting Association, the British Broadcasting Corporation and the Swiss Radio and Television Group have respectively obtained all or part of the broadcasting rights in the country.

From a business point of view, the situation may be unfavorable for TV stations to bid for Tokyo Olympics broadcasting rights, but citizens still expect Transocean to cheer for athletes. While pending, the government should appoint Radio Television Hong Kong to negotiate with East Olympic and its authorized parties, request funding on reasonable terms, and indicate the financial arrangements for East Olympics. If this happens, Hong Kong and Taiwan will co-ordinate the broadcast of the game and distribute the program with other TV stations, and the government must allocate additional funds to Hong Kong and Taiwan to organize the program.

In the long run, if the government sincerely promotes sports, it must change its mindset and set guidelines for the active purchase of broadcast rights, so that history will not repeat itself, and it is anxious before the start of the movement.

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Source: hk1

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