TVB recently celebrated their 42 year old birthday. In recent years, there has been numerous news of artistes ending their contract with TVB and even more recently, there was the incident of a celebrity's sudden death. According to some media reports, TVB lacks humanity and does not take care of the elderly. Second line and third line actors and actresses also get very measly pay. Faced with all these rumors, reporters recently interviwed TVB's manager for foreign affairs Ceng Xing Ming. Regarding the rumors of how Chan Hung Lit died at work but received no death indemnity, Ceng Xing Ming emphasised that TVB purchases insurance for all of their artistes. As for Chan Hung Lit's children, Shao Yi Fu (邵逸夫) and Fang Yi Hua (方奕华) will be paying for all their future education costs.
No death indemnity for Chan Hung Lit
It was reported that on the day of Chan Hung Lit's death, everything was very normal. It was near 3pm, when they ended the filming of a scene and everyone went to their respective changing room to change their outfit that Chan Hung Lit started feeling unwell. Although he died at the filming site of "Off Pedder (毕打自己人)", the channel has announced that they will not be paying death indemnity. Response: TVB foreign affairs manager Ceng Ming Xing emphasised that its not that TVB does not give death indemnity but rather, they have bought insurance for all their artistes. He expressed that when Chan Hung Lit died on site, they reported it to the labor department immediately and have helped his family to claim insurance from the insurance company. He also expressed that Shao Yi Fu (邵逸夫) and Fang Yi Hua (方奕华) will be paying for all the future education costs of Chan Hung Lit's children.
Neglects the elderly actors/actresses and film for long hours
A TVB worker revealed that: The crew will not stop and take care of the elderly during filming in TVB. "For example, when filming a 20 episode drama, there might be 4 directors and each director will take care of 5 episode. Episode 1-5's outdoor scenes could be filmed from morning 5am to afternoon 5pm. Episode 6-10's director might also request for the cast to film night scenes indoor. Thus, the cast will basically have to work from morning to night."
Response: Regarding the cast revealing that TVB does not care for the elderly artistes, Ceng Xing Ming stated that the company does care. "For those veteran, older artistes, we'll have specially arranged their work schedule to prevent them from being worked too much. We will also try to separate the time slot for their filming." As for the heavy workload, Ceng Xing Ming expressed that all other types of work have a heavy workload too.
Measly pay; Third line artistes only get a basic pay of HK $440
For Chan Hung Lit's case, his pay in TVB is HK $2600 per episode and he'll film 20 episodes in a month. Adding his basic pay, his monthly income will not exceed HK $50,000. This kind of income is not outstanding in Hong Kong. TVB has great income disparity and that's a normal situation. Michael Tse Tin Wah's filming pay will be around HK $88,000 while Fala Chen gets only HK$5,300.
Those second line and third line artistes are even worse. Some second line artiste gets a basic pay of HK $6,200 which is around the same amount as a normal working class in China. Some third line artiste only get HK $440 as their basic pay and occasional guest appearances in dramas. Their pay are not much better than walk-on roles. When they have no dramas to film, they basically end up facing a difficulty in paying for their normal expenses, afterall, Hong Kong has a high cost of living.
Response: In response to TVB giving out salary even lower than outsiders imagined, Ceng Xing Ming explained that "Actors salary is given based on the consensus of both sides.". He said that even though for example, Fala Chen gets HK $5000 per episode, "In TVB, one drama will probably have 20+ episodes. Adding that up, its a pretty good pay." Also "Actors/Actresses can earn money from outside performances." He said that if any artiste requests for a heavier workload by themselves "Then their pay will be quite a significant sum." Additionally, he revealed that for the artistes that signed a management contract, the contract can be altered at anytime with their change in performance each year and gain in experience. The conclusion is, if you want to earn more, you have to quickly climb up and make yourself popular.
Poor standard of care; Many artistes leaving
With TVB giving such standard of care, many of their artistes are leaving and moving to Mainland to "scoop gold" instead.
Response: Ceng Xing Ming expressed that some of the older artistes will change to signing part-contract with TVB and they get selection over their scripts. They also get to go to Mainland to act and have greater development space. This does not mean that TVB is unable to keep these talent. He also stated that their training classes every year will train many newcomers.
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