Hong Kong broadcaster TVB slashes net losses by 65% year on year to HK$143 million

The company’s mainland China operations recorded a 22 per cent revenue growth, driven mainly by its drama co-production business in which revenue more than doubled when TVB expanded its collaboration deals with two key platform partners Youku and Tencent Video, the firm said.

The TV station said the group’s total operating costs in the first six months fell by HK$305 million, or 16 per cent year on year, to HK$1.62 billion, as the company continued its cost saving efforts.

The group said it achieved positive Ebitda – or earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation – of HK$47 million for the half-year period, a HK$233 million improvement compared with the Ebitda loss of HK$186 million last year.

The figures mark the group’s first return to positive Ebitda for the half-year period since 2019.

The company has in recent years grappled with plummeting viewer numbers and advertising revenue, with the Covid-19 pandemic exacerbating issues stemming from the 2019 anti-government protests.

During the social unrest, some internet users called for a boycott over what they claimed was a pro-Beijing bias in TVB’s news coverage.

But analysts said TVB might cash in on a new plan by Alibaba Group to invest at least HK$5 billion in Hong Kong’s culture and film industries over the next five years to help reinvigorate these sectors.