TVB lays off one tenth of its staff

TVB says with uncertainties looming over the Hong Kong market, the company will deploy more resources to develop its business in the Greater Bay Area. File photo: RTHK

Priscilla Ng reports

Television Broadcasts Limited has announced it will be making 350 members of staff redundant – around 10 percent of all its employees, excluding performing artistes.



In a statement issued to all staff, TVB’s group chief executive officer, Mark Lee, said Hong Kong has entered an economic recession and it’s affecting various sectors, including advertising, television and newspapers.



With no end in sight to the ongoing social unrest, Lee said corporations have a responsible to ensure the sustainability of their development.



He said Hong Kong’s biggest television broadcaster will undergo restructuring to boost its cost-effectiveness, adding that around 350 of its 3,500 staff will be laid off.



Those affected will be notified as early as this month, but Lee did not specify which departments they will come from.



The TVB chief added that with uncertainties looming over the Hong Kong market, the company will deploy more resources to develop its business in the Greater Bay Area.



TVB, in particular its news department, has come under fire over the past few months for what many protesters describe as biased coverage of the anti-extradition movement.



The broadcaster has been accused of kowtowing to Beijing and siding with the SAR government, and suffered a decrease in advertising revenue after many companies pulled their ads from the station.



While netizens have called on people to boycott the station altogether, some TVB journalists have also been harassed by demonstrators while out covering various anti-government protests.