TVB cut 10% of staff yearly, lost its chairman and CEO, and posted a record HK$0.8B loss

TVB (Television Broadcasts Limited) was Hong Kong's dominant broadcaster for decades, once commanding over 95% of the territory's television audience. By 2018, that dominance was gone. Streaming services, the rise of ViuTV, and shifting viewer habits had eroded its audience. The company responded with serial workforce reductions: 130 jobs cut in July 2018, 150 in October 2018, and 350 (about 10% of its remaining workforce) in December 2019 — the largest single layoff in the company's history.

The management team that oversaw the decline did not survive it. Chairman Charles Chan resigned in January 2020. Chief Executive Mark Lee, who had announced the December 2019 cuts, departed soon after. The board itself faced a shareholder revolt in 2023, when a group of investors issued an open letter accusing directors of mismanagement and revealing a HK$1 billion loss from failed investments in SMI and State Reserve Energy Bonds.

Beyond internal dysfunction, TVB's brand was damaged. During the 2019 Hong Kong protests, its pro-establishment editorial stance triggered advertiser pullouts from Pocari Sweat and Pizza Hut. A 2023 Communications Authority survey found viewers describing TVB's dramas as 'repetitive in content, lacking creativity.' The company's 2022 record loss of HK$0.8 billion on HK$2.5 billion revenue confirmed that its core business was no longer viable as structured. In 2024, TVB closed its Big Big Channel and leased a broadcast frequency to Phoenix Television to cut costs.