Can ATV's drastically discounted ad package ease financial woes?

Local television station ATV has unveiled a specially discounted ad package for 30-second TV slots, where a 30-second TVC can be broadcast 80 times for HK$30,000.The price of an ad slot offered through the package comes to HK$375, costing much less than the gross rate of a single prime time TV slot last year.According to ATV's rate card for 2014, a floating time slot between 6:57pm and 23:05pm costs a gross rate of HK$36,090, while a fixed time slot in the same period starts at the gross rate of HK$41,500."We are offering specially discounted rates for ad slots on ATV Home and World to increase our income in light of our current financial problems," an ATV spokesperson said.Strapped for cash, the 58-year-old broadcaster has come under fire because they have not paid staff salaries on time.  The TV station's second half of staff salaries for last November remain unpaid.According to an ATV news programme aired yesterday, ATV executive director Ip Ka-po said he anticipates the unpaid half of staff salaries for November to be paid tomorrow.The time slots available in the package will be a mix of prime time and non-prime time slots.  Since the package was launched on Friday, the ATV spokesperson said the TV station has received bookings from clients wanting to make the most out of the special package.The broadcaster's sales team has also been pitching the special package to clients by asking them to help ATV out during this time of hardship, added the spokesperson. He said, "We have been calling brands directly as well as agencies in the hopes of making sales by pitching the new package."Ray Wong, CEO at PHD Hong Kong, said he was not contacted by ATV about the special package and is not optimistic about the impact of launching the special package because the TV station's programming has not been altered accordingly."Some brands might want to buy TV spots at ATV because of the low prices.  But for us, it's not about money but about effectively reaching our target audience.  If you buy an ad slot and no one watches it, it's pointless," Wong said."There's no meaning in offering special discounts if ATV has not changed its programming to attract more Hong Kong viewers."The ATV spokesperson said: "Due to staff shortages, we have changed our programming where we have replaced programmes with older programmes we had produced in the past."On 1 January, for example, ATV axed ATV Home's Good Morning Asia morning news segment and has shortened remaining news segments for the rest of the day.Two years ago, ATV opted not to pay for its viewership to be monitored by A.C. Nielson, an agency used by other Hong Kong TV stations. According to the ATV spokesperson, the TV station does not commission external parties to collect data on its ratings but conducts internal assessments of viewership of its programmes.In the past two years, only one of Wong's clients placed ads with ATV.Without ratings conducted by a third party which is comparable to that of other TV stations, it is difficult to conduct post media buy analysis often required by multinational clients, he added.Concerns about the measurability of the performance of ATV ad slots were echoed by a media planner."We would not go for the now low-cost TV spots at ATV because they did not pay A.C. Nielson to conduct TV ratings and it is difficult for us to keep track of the performance of its TV spots," said the media planner, who declined to be named."After hearing that some of their employees who produce its news programmes have left the company and its news programmes being probably the highest quality programmes at ATV, I don't think clients will have confidence in ATV's ad slots to actually book them."For example, Law Pui-king, an editor at ATV's Chinese news department, left the company on 1 January.Wong believes the special package cannot help ease the TV station's financial situation. "The problem is not about advertising revenue.  It's the ownership and management of ATV," Wong said.