Tycoon unveils push to make ATV Asia's CNN - and city's conscience

Struggling ATV aims to be not just Asia's CNN but the conscience of Hong Kong, as a terrestrial broadcaster with a Putonghua channel carried nationwide, according to a master plan announced yesterday.

Shenzhen property tycoon Wang Zheng unveiled the plan in his first appearance at ATV's headquarters in Tai Po since its major shareholder, Payson Cha Mou-sing, confirmed he had agreed to sell his stake to Wang earlier this month.

Wang also said four new directors - all of them his relatives - had been added to the ATV board, but he would not say who they replaced.

He was at ATV for the media briefing of a new event which he masterminded, the Hong Kong Top 10 Loving Hearts Selection Campaign.

Wang said the transaction for his stake purchase had yet to be completed but he was working as a 'volunteer' at ATV, without a proper office, and had mapped out the firm's long- and mid-term goals.

He said the ultimate aim was to turn ATV into Asia's CNN, so that those interested in Asia worldwide would watch ATV every day. But in the medium term, Wang pitched ATV as the voice of Hong Kong, representing the spirit and values of the city.

He recalled the kindness of strangers when he came to Hong Kong 19 years ago on a monthly salary of HK$5,000. At that time he met Lim Por-yen, whose family was ATV's biggest investor in the 1990s. 'Whenever Lim talked about ATV, he always said 'ai ya'. He lost HK$700 million from running ATV. He said he had never lost so much money,' Wang said.