After turning in its free-to-air TV license, Asia Television has transformed itself into an online enterprise.

The company has also appointed former actor Frankie Lam Man-lung as vice president.

On that, chairman Deng Junjie said inviting a former artiste to join the management was for the purpose of increasing drama production to secure a business breakthrough.

The plan is to first sell internet broadcasting rights of new productions to online platforms such as Tencent and iQiyi to recover costs.

As these platforms focus on the mainland market, ATV will keep the Hong Kong and overseas rights for profit.

But the mainland makes high-quality TV dramas these days. In such an operating environment, can ATV secure buyers and investment before production or does it need to market completed programs?

Deng said for productions of over HK$50 million, they will opt for the former course. For those with a lower budget, the company will consider making the investment itself. A 12-episode miniseries would cost about HK$50 million to make, he explained.

ATV is also considering asking Lam's wife, Kenix Kwok Ho-ying, to go on screen again, but it's not known at this stage whether such a plan would work. Kwok, formerly a lead actress with TVB, ceased acting after marrying.

With programs available for broadcasting in the mainland becoming fewer even as demand for content is rising, ATV's strategy of splitting its serial drama rights into two parts - for selling and retaining - could work.

Deng said it also intends to put ATV's archive programs to good use.

As for his own role, Deng remarked with a chuckle that he had never thought he would one day be running ATV, and it was quite by accident that he finds himself in the online media industry now.

Siu Sai-wo is publisher of Sing Tao Daily

Frankie Lam

ATV changes focus for success