| Horse racing, which is called "paoma" inHongKong, is a kind of sporting event that has the largest scale, as well as the most profound influence in Hong Kong. Since 1840s, Horse racing started to develop in Hong Kong with the appearance of a British colonial era. After more than 160 years’ development, now the horse racing is no longer the symbol of identity and status for the upper ten, it is becoming more and more popular, regarded as a custom which could represent local characteristics. Also, the culture of Hong Kong horse racing has been rooted deeply in the heart of every Hong Kong people.As a kind of sporting event, the medium is the most important way to popularize and spread the game, and among all the medium, TV is the critical one. Hong Kong television industry has its own characteristic. Traditionally, Hong Kong has two main television stations:TVB and ATV, they are free to watch, and they make up the large majority of the Hong Kong market. During the years since founded, these two TV stations are keeping the competitive status in audience rating. Since 1975, ATV started to cooperate with Hong Kong Jockey Club, and owned the exclusive broadcast right of Hong Kong horse racing. ATV has made a great contribution to popularize the culture of Hong Kong horse racing, because of the.rich variety of program it made that cover all the facets of horse racing, as well as the timely and comprehensive live broadcast of Hong Kong horseracing. Therefore, ATV won the goal audience approval.ATV was the first Chinese TV station, but now, it is facing difficult and desperate circumstances. Hong Kong Government has decided to take back ATV s free television programme service license, which means ATV will close down if they can not find a new inventor before April 2016. Various reasons lead to the decline of ATV, but the most important one is the in-company fight shareholding, which result in the insufficient in both fund and energy to make program of high quality.Because of the decline of ATV, Hong Kong Jockey Club has to give the exclusive broadcast right of Hong Kong horse racing to TVB, which will be a huge strike for horseracing spread. The featured product of TVB is TV drama, so TVB don’t have extra space for horseracing program, and it will cause the dissatisfaction of racing fans because they can not watch their favorite horseracing program. Therefore, the transfer of broadcast right of Hong Kong horse racing divides the spread of horseracing culture into two phases. Under the circumstances of media convergence, Hong Kong Jockey Club urgent need to find a new way to popularize and spread its games as well as its culture. |
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