Zeman hits out at 'malicious' rumors against TVB senior management

Television Broadcasts board member and father of Lan Kwai Fong, Allan Zeman, has dismissed rumors about changes in the senior management of TVB as "false" and "malicious".

Reiterating the board's confidence in the management, Zeman hit out at whistle-blowers.

His comments followed Commercial Radio disc jockey Ken Kwok Chi-yan alleging six management changes in reference to a Facebook post last Wednesday.

These included general manager Eric Tsang Chi-wai taking a break after the Miss Hong Kong pageant, veteran actor Gordon Lam Ka-tung returning to TVB and former Asia Television executive Peter Kwan Wai being in charge of the news and information department.

TVB issued a statement on Thursday denying the rumors. Internal memos issued to employees by Tsang and three senior executives including executive chairman Thomas Hui To were also made public on Friday.

Speaking to The Standard, Zeman said the rumors were simply false.

He challenged the anonymous "informants" to name themselves if they wanted to help rather than hurting the public and investors.

"Rumors of management going to resign have been going on for probably a year.

"These anonymous people, they make these accusations without ever revealing their names," Zeman said. "It's absolutely annoying."

"They are trying to create confusions and affect the market price of TVB," he said. "I am unhappy."

TVB share price fell 4.53 percent, or 14 cents, to close at HK$2.95 on Friday.

"This is why TVB had to come out and file the voluntary announcement to HKEX [on August 13]."

"The board has full confidence in the management and these are malicious rumors," Zeman said.

Zeman acknowledged that the results of last quarter may not be that good, but added that the reform in 2021 appeared to be working and TVB had been doing well.

"The TV ratings is still number one, online viewership is great, the financial performance is improving and staff have been working very hard."

He said "we just came through Covid" as he recalled the impact of the 2019 protests. "Going forward, TVB is on the right track," Zeman said.

Saying Hong Kong is "too small", Zeman said the mainland is a huge market and TVB is well-known in China.

Speaking on the potential of advertising revenues in the mainland, he said the Greater Bay Area offers a good opportunity for TVB to expand its businesses.

On TVB's rival ViuTV, he viewed it as healthy competition.

"ViuTv is relatively a new station. It's good for Hong Kong to have two broadcasters and it's good for the media and the audience that they have a choice."

Despite concerns of things going online these days, he insisted: "There will always be a market for TV."

neo.tsim@singtaonewscorp.com