New role for drama hotshot Tsang as broadcaster targets profit swing

Themis Qi

Television Broadcasts has appointed local industry veteran Catherina Tsang Lai-chun as executive director as the leading broadcaster aims to turn profitable by the end of the year.

Tsang, 72, is a "highly esteemed management figure" in the industry, the broadcaster said in an announcement yesterday.

She joined RTHK in 1970 as a broadcaster and once acted in TV dramas such as Below the Lion Rock. Three years later, Tsang joined TVB as an assistant scriptwriter-director.

Tsang was appointed as assistant general manager of drama production at TVB in 2016 and is a director of TVB, Staff & Artistes Fund for Charities.

She is a cousin of Eric Tsang Chi-wai, TVB general manager (content operations).

Catherina Tsang has produced over 10,000 episodes of dramas, including Virtues of Harmony, Come Home Love and other series.

She has also nurtured many actors - including Sandra Ng Kwan-yue, Sean Lau Ching-wan, Stephen Chow Sing-chi, Dicky Cheung Wai-kin, Louis Koo Tin-lok and Joel Chan Shan-chung to name a few.

TVB said she has "consistently demonstrated strategic leadership" as head of the drama division and helped her team achieve "optimal performance."

The broadcaster added that Tsang's productions "had a significant positive impact" on the company's brand and commercial revenue. In 2021, Tsang signed a continuous service agreement with TVB as the assistant general manager of drama production, with an annual salary of over HK$4.5 million in addition to pension contributions by the company at the rate of 10 percent of the annual salary.

TVB said no additional fee will be paid to Tsang for serving as an executive director in accordance with a 2021 policy that salaries of executive directors include their services as directors.

TVB saw its first-half net loss narrow by 65 percent from a year ago to HK$143 million, mainly due to a recovery in advertising income in Hong Kong.

After consecutive losses for five years, the city's major broadcaster expects to swing to a net profit in the second half of the year, excluding one-off items, as business growth in Hong Kong and the mainland and cost controls are expected to continue.

In October, TVB said it expected to achieve significant positive earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization for the whole year.

To reduce losses, TVB pursued more business in the mainland, partnering with Chinese video platforms to produce more dramas and collaborating with Alibaba's e-commerce unit Taobao to have Hong Kong actors sell goods online.