Serenade

Do you know... TVB is a free TV station? and you are paying for Fairchild right?
What part of the situation do you not understand?

You are paying QUITE A BIT for Fairchild TV you know? Unless you are not the one paying the bills, there is no reason for you to defend for them. So you are paying a TV station to air originally FREE TV programmes in HK and on top of that, get forced to watch crappy commercials with Dr. Jamie telling you how much he is paying Fairchild for these self-satisfying commercials of his.

Fairchild IS NOT part of TVB. You are paying 20-30 bucks a month for Fairchild's crappy + unimportant TV programmes and 2-3 years old TVB dramas that are not even worth watching. Not to mention how they pool the same news information with the radios, earning them double the money. Look at the bigger picture man... My family already cancelled Fairchild just because it's a dumb idea, maybe you should do the same too?

[ 本帖最後由 Serenade 於 2008-10-26 12:04 編輯 ]

Serenade

Oh... So akshea, you are a SFU Communications major... then you should be quite familiar with media responsibility then! The media has the responsibility to report with a general unbiased perspective right? clearly, Fairchild is in violation of that rule. Have you ever heard of any possible negative news against the Fairchild group on their TV channel? NONE! The shooting down at Aberdeen Center? OOPS, I am sorry, our reporters didn't get there in time, therefore we didn't get to report it in the news! I mean... come on, what part of the problem don't you get? It has nothing to do with whether the market is not worth investing, we are arguing how it is a media monopoly and tyrannism here. I do not mind so much about the TVB dramas, and frankly, I don't even watch them because most of them are crudely made anyways. (with the exception of a few spetacular production, probably once a year) But the least Fairchild could do is give the general public a better news report. People do not have much of a choice for Chinese TV news. And most people just rely on that one single source that they pay for: Fairchild. Especially the older generation who have less ability to determine whether the news they are watching is reliable or not. With Fairchild's way of doing their news, the Chinese media is pretty much sealed in.

On top of that, it is not that the market is not worth investing in, Fairchild is earning A LOT of money from the TV station. With the amount of money that they receive from their sponsors, commercials and subscribers, this is a HUGE business. The problem is that, the TVB dramas are solely contracted to be supplied to Fairchild. No other TV stations are allowed to air the shows. So basically... anyone who even remotely wants to invest on a new TV station will have to go through the government for multiple broadcasting licenses and Fairchilds monopoly before they can start.

Go and do more research before you make any statement... I am a communcations major too, you need to look at the bigger picture, not the smaller one.

Serenade

Akshea, yes, you did made a very good point regarding how the business is not a very profitable one in comparison to TVB and similar channels. However, when you think about the added-value toward that channel, you can understand what I mean. You cna make the calculation regarding how many subscribers they have for fairchild TV and how much money they are making on an average when they ask for 25-30 bucks per household.

Now, take in the calculation of how much they are paying their staff and reporters...

Here is a real life story, my own experience. I had worked in DAISO's headoffice in Richmond before I went to Japan and start my career here. They said that they would pay me 1600 a month (before tax) for the first 3 months and that I would get 1800 after that probation period.

THIS IS WHERE IT GETS NASTY...

I quit my job at TELUS and started working for them, my job was merely as an office assistant and it was pretty much a non-technical job. I was being asked to do legal translation in Japanese and English... and had to do some REALLY technical stuff... yet, they are paying me 1600. So I thought... fine, I am here to learn things anyways, and decided to stick with it. NOW... after I worked for 2 weeks, my boss came over and told me this: "I am sorry, but we can only pay you the same 1600 even after the probation period, would you still like to work for us?" I was like... WTH... I quitted my last job and now you tell me this?! outrageous! But I was stuck in nowhere, so I told them yes, and started to look for another job... luckily, in that very same week, I got a call from the government asking me whether I still wanna go to work in Japan with double that salary. I just fired my boss right there, right then and swear to god that I will never work for Fairchild ever again.

That's what it is...

Understanding that, now you can imagine how much money they can make out of the entire premise. By screwing new graduates that way, they can save a lot of money. imagine saving 200 bucks every month on every single new employee! Now that's a lot of money...

More facts that you will have to know about Fairchild Media Group:
- TVB owns 20% of Fairchild TV, and provides TVB programming solely to FTV in Canada.
- They also own Talentvision, with dominant airing rights to various Taiwanese programmings.
- 4-5 years ago, FTV, 1470, and other medias owned by Fairchild Media Group had been taking in double commercial revenues by setting up dual editions of airing in between West and East Coast. This directly violated their licensing rights with CRTC and was being sued. Since then FTV now airs the same airing with a 1 hour time difference. (FTV had been making double the money from commercials by violating this rule.)
- Facts in Wikipedia regarding Fairchild is completely manipulated by Fairchild and is biased.
- Most negative news regarding Thomas Fung is being sealed up in the media and is greatly manipulated.
- Fairchild Media Group also has intertwining relationship with Sing Tao Newspaper.
- Fairchild also owns the Advertising and Commercial companies, making it a monopoly business in the production of TV commercials and printed ads.
- Almost 1/3 of the Fairchild Radio 1470/96.1 DJ staff are unpaid volunteers taken from their profit generating DJ Training Program.
  - Furthermore, the DJ training programs are said to be biased in the selection of final panelists.
- Fairchild TV News had been hiring non-professional underpaid fresh-grad reporters.
  - Hence the high turnoff rates and the continuous hiring commercials on fairchild TV looking for inexperienced reporters on their channel.
  - Newscasters and Show hosts are selected based on internal relations, not abilities.

Now you tell me, how can an evil media group like this NOT profit from a bunch of C9's who doesn't have anything to do than to watch TV? You have to know, Chinese people are not famous for their "critical-thinking". If free TV channels like NBC can survive (and profit...) without asking for money from their viewers, and can even make their own high quality TV shows, then I don't see how FTV not make money from ripping off the Chinese community. (Please don't argue with me on how big NBC is and how small FTV is, they are both TV channels, and if you make the calculations on licensing and franchises, you can have a rough estimate of what the costs are to set up a television channel.)

You can question me again where I got all these information, I will tell you I know a few friends/classmates who worked in all the above departments, and some of these information can even be found in news archives and internet.

You can also argue that "if this is such a profiting business, then why don't somebody invest in it?" Take in account of TVB owning 20% of Fairchild TV, I don't see how another channel is ever gonna sustain viewership without a permannent source of entertainment programmings. You are not asking them to buy ATV programmings right? cause as we all know, ATV isn't making very many dramas anymore.

The ball is in your court Akshea-san.

P.S. The reason why ATV is not making as much money as TVB, it's because ATV treats their staff and talents a lot better. Hence the less funding to make new fancy things that builds up their publicity. This is also researcheable if you google it.

[ 本帖最後由 Serenade 於 2008-10-27 15:30 編輯 ]

Serenade

Peter236, you don't have to insult someone to get the point across, I get your logic, but you don't have proofs to backup your points... Here are a few facts: I have a friend who works as a producer at TVB, and I have an uncle who works with ATV for commercial productions. The things I hear from both sides are all ACTUAL FACTS. TVB treats its employees and talents like crap and takes on most of the money gained from its talents, while ATV talents are given a much higher freedom toward the future they make, AND they pay people better. Don't give me this ATV sucks because they make worse programming, if you have been to their studio then you will know. The studio is old, and they don't have the funding to do renewals, that's why it's harder for them to make better programmings, and YES, that does have a lot to do with the salary differences between the two. I HAVE BEEN IN ATV's STUDIO BEFORE.

A few years ago when I was receiving interviews, I had been to 1320 and 1470's studios too, there is a huge difference in quality of the stations' equipment. Now, quit arguing without facts alright?

Cable TV can never beat TVB is because you need to PAY to watch. most people just refuses to pay for TV in HK, do you know how much people make in HK on an average? they won't want to be spending 100+ bucks each month for cable TV if they have the choice of watching free channels. This is also why the subscription ratio of TVB's paid cable channels are so low, simply because of the lack of consumer demands.

and yes, ATV's programmings are worse, but there are reasons behind that. read more on their production and history.

There are always Chinese people who wants make a career in the media field, but with only one Chinese broadcasting company in Canada, it's very hard not to get in. This is why the good DJ's in Fairchild all left for HK after they got famous. They are badly underpaid. I know at least 4 DJ's from Fairchild, and they told me the same thing, so stop arguing.

SingTao Canada is not owned by Fairchild, but is in relations with it. Go do your research again.

Fairchild earned from both Vancouver and Toronto premises by reprogramming their commercial timing sequences years ago. Now they are mixing the same commercials because CRTC found out what they did and gave them a warning. CRTC only licensed one channel broadcasting right to them, not two, hence they cannot make double advertisement money on both sides of Canada. Again, go do your research. Go and look up their revenue charts. Go read the news archives.

I didn't say that people are forced (Just Akshea, not everybody) to watch Fairchild, as I am suggesting everybody, we should boycott Fairchild instead of paying for crappy overpriced TV programmings from them.

BTW, the last time I went back to Vancouver (Staying for a whole month), I didn't spend any time listening to Fairchild's radio, nor watch their news, nor go to Aberdeen Center. Realizing how much they are ripping people off, my family already boycotted Fairchild's crappy programming, maybe you should too?

[ 本帖最後由 Serenade 於 2008-10-27 23:24 編輯 ]

Serenade

Peter236, this is written in Wikipedia:
"Fairchild is jointly operating AM1540 with Sing Tao (Toronto). Some radio personalities from Fairchild Radio Toronto - FM 88.9 are being transferred to the new station."

BTW, the above quote is most likely written by Fairchild Group's people... The whole Wiki sounded like an Ad.

They are business partners, don't you think that's influencial enough?
Everyone in HK eh? Have you ever been into ATV?
Gosh, I don't understand how you can claim that when you haven't even been into ATV... Do you have friends working on both sides of the TV channels? Are you working in this field. Don't make claims like that when you don't have solid proof. Go look up the history of HK broadcasting, you will be surprised.

Your argument is basically flawed.
I claim that the Chinese community and C6's do not generally do not do critical thinking when it comes to the media. Fairchild is a bad media group that reports biased news, making it a bad influence in the Chinese community. It has nothing to do with why they are continuing to watch Fairchild. DO NOT PUT WORDS IN MY MOUTH! BTW, this social phenomena is the same in the US, where a lot of US citizens believe in controlled medias.

BTW, this has nothing to do with people being "stupid" it's just people rely and trust the media, yet certain media broadcasters are just biased.

[ 本帖最後由 Serenade 於 2008-10-28 07:39 編輯 ]

Serenade

And again, don't get me wrong or try to bend my words.
THERE ARE some great talents in Fairchild too, young and bright ones, skilled veteran actor and actresses, etc. The bad part of the group is the management.

I am saying, people shouldn't really work for a group like this and start thinking more for themselves. I keep telling my friends to stay away from such an evil company. And by my standard, Thomas Fung as the owner isn't any better.

Seriously people, stay away from anything Fairchild if you can. It's not doing the society any good.

Serenade

原帖由 peter236 於 2008-10-28 09:21 發表


Your claim that Fairchild has influence over Singtao is ridiculous. Just because they are partners does not mean Fairchild can influence the partner. Singtao is part of Toronto Star. Why would Toron ...

Gosh... stop putting words in my mouth. I never said Chinese people and Americans are "dumb", I never used such a word, stop generalizing and start focusing on reading what people said.

I never said that what I said is authoritative. All I claimed is that, I got facts to back up my points, and that I had done my part of the research to back up what I said. Do you? I had at least worked in the media field, had you?

Peter236, you clearly have no idea on how the media business work and that there is no reason for them not to control the flow of information publicated. No matter what you say, Singtao will no doubt have a softened tone when reporting on the incident. There are lots of ways to write an article and the tone of the articles changes the reader's perception of the whole incident, THAT, is the power of media. We have to read multiple sources to gain a certain general perspective on what actually went on. You really should try taking SFU's Communication courses, it might really help you on understanding the world around you.

As for those DJ's whom I know, I never said that they are good, only one of them was REALLY good, and that's Man-Jeng. And he went back to HK to pursue a bunch better career. Frankly, I think the other 3 are just crappy, cause they are not exactly professionals anyways... Just a bunch of school dropouts who ended up becoming so called DJ's because they went into that DJ training program. BTW, according to what they told me, they didn't get paid at all back when they first started. They were doing volunteer work and getting midnight shifts just because the radio station wanted someone to fill the blocks. FREE WORK?! I mean... they had paid so much to get into that so-called training program, and after that they even have to do free work as a DJ?! That's just plain rip-off... Seriously, I have never seen such a cheap organization.

Yes, ATV's production are no good, and that they really do deserve to lose money against such a strong rival (TVB). But ATV has got a better image in the media industry, and that's a fact. At least ATV understand what corporate responsibility is and treat their employees like human. Talking to all the people working in the industry really helps understand what's going on inside. You should try too Peter.

BTW, I never bashed on Singtao, I just said that they have influence in Singtao, I never said anything about the frontpage or what yes/ what not. Peter, you really have to start reading people's posts before accusing others of things alright? Otherwise, you are just gonna be fighting a losing argument.

Serenade

PETERRRRRR READ PEOPLE'S POSTS CAREFULLY!!!!
Geez, as business partners, there has gotta be influences on both sides. Either you are too naive to admit the fact that the world is evil, or you are just siding whichever sides for certain reasons. and whether it posted that this morning doesn't really matter anyways, they are in relation, that's a fact.

You know, it's not easy to hold up a TV station, once again, go do some research on ATV's background. it will do you good.