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Robert Ting-Yiu Chung (Director of Public Opinion Programme, the University of Hong Kong) Translated by Carmen Ka-Man Chan & Kitty Suet-lai Chan (Research Executives, Public Opinion Programme, the University of Hong Kong) |
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Note: This article represents the view of the author and not the University of Hong Kong. |
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| Television appreciation index (AI) surveys have been introduced into Hong Kong for more than 10 years. The author was honoured to participate in the planning of the new generation of AI studies in 1997, and then took up the responsibility of conducting such surveys since 1998. Two years ago, the author was entrusted by the "Television Programme Appreciation Index Survey Advisory Panel" with the responsibility to briefly review the survey result for previous 5 years. At that time, the author adopted a relatively simple approach to categorize the programmes and then discussed the findings. After 2 years, the author has used the same method to review the development of quality television programmes over last 5 years. What is a bit different is that the concepts of average appreciation indices and the number of times covered in quarterly surveys have been introduced into this review, so as to facilitate the discussion of the quality television programmes"s ranking method. The author hopes that, the method suggested in this article can produce a more stable analysis of the development of various kinds of programmes. Viewing from another perspective, since the development of quarterly AI surveys have already been rather mature and regular, the adoption of rolling analysis can demonstrate the macro development of quality television programmes more effectively. To start with, the top 20 quality television programmes in the 5 year-end summaries were taken out, amounting to a total of 100 programme-times. The overlapped programmes were then grouped, and analysis was made per category. From 2000 to 2004, the 100 programme-times of shows in fact could be grouped to 63 different programmes or series. Among them, 3 programmes had different classification methods in various years and the final ones were adopted. The first type of programme, namely "Year-round quality current affairs programmes", ranked top 20 every year over the past 5 years and appeared in all 20 quarterly surveys. There were altogether 3 of them. Listed in order of the average appreciation indices, they were RTHK"s "Hong Kong Connection", TVB"s "News Magazines" and "Certain Weekday Report" respectively. These 3 year-round current affairs programmes can keep their superiority for long, form a brand of their own, and be regarded as "the best of the best" programmes. Apart from these 3 tip-top programmes, 3 other programmes belonged to the second category, i.e. "Quasi-year-round quality current affairs programmes", and they were also commendable. Listed in the number of year-times of presence on the list, they were Cable TV"s "Cable News", TVB"s "News/Financial/Weather Report" and RTHK"s "Police Magazine". They were produced all the year round, meaning that these programmes could be found in all quarterly surveys during the years they appeared on the list, and were regarded as the second category of the year-round quality current affairs programmes. As these programmes were produced around the year, it is extremely difficult for them to maintain their high standard. Comparing to 2 years ago, the corresponding programmes included RTHK"s "Headliner" and "One Minute Chinese", but they have already faded. There is another type of current affairs programme which has a different production direction from those mentioned above. They were produced infrequently, but with a consistently high standard and have appeared on the top-20 list for at least 3 years in 5 years, and thus could be classified as "Frequently on-the-list quality current affairs programmes". There were altogether 5 programmes in this category. Basing on the year-times of presence on the list and the average appreciation indices, they included ATV"s "Stories from Afar Series", RTHK"s "The Road Back", RTHK"s "Success Stories", TVB"s "Yearend Review Series" and RTHK"s "Doctor and You Series". Among them, "Stories from Afar Series" have even obtained the highest appreciation index for 4 years. Although it is a pity that there was no production of "Success Stories" in 2004, its influence is far-reaching as it has encouraged the production of many case programmes of similar nature. The 11 programmes discussed above could be considered as "the best of the best" current affairs programmes. For the "best of the best" entertainment programmes over the past 5 years, they can be derived by the following method: First, we need to understand drama series are different from other programmes. While the audiences might have appreciated them from different angles, they should be treated as a separate group. Besides, just like movies, generally drama series will not be produced around the year, or even years, and therefore, branding effect is not common, putting aside the drama effect. Among the drama series, the productions of long drama series, short drama series and reality dramas are also different, and thus should also be treated according to their corresponding categories. Over the past 5 years, there were 5 "Quality long drama series". Basing on the average appreciation indices, they were "Square Pegs", "War and Beauty", "Triumph In The Skies", "Healing Hands II" and "War of the Genders". All were produced by TVB, while "War and Beauty" were produced in 2004. As for the "Quality short drama series/reality dramas", according to the average appreciation indices, RTHK"s "Difficult Life", "On the Beat II", ATV"s "Awakening Stories of Drug Addicts", RTHK"s "Mid-night Workers", "Love at the Age of SARS", TVB"s "ICAC Investigation 2004" and RTHK"s "After the Rain" were included. Yet, "After the rain", "Love at the Age of SARS" and TVB"s "ICAC Investigation 2004" showed up on the list only in 2004. Game show is a special kind among the entertainment programmes and should be treated separately as well. However, over last 5 years, "Quality game shows" only consisted of ATV"s "Who wants to be a Millionaire" and TVB"s "Happy Family Flagship". While the recently produced "Who wants to be a Millionaire" was no long found on the list, this shows that the mania for game shows have already cooled off. All in all, the 25 programmes mentioned above could be considered as the best quality programmes over last 5 years. Meanwhile, 13 i.e. half of them ranked top 20 in 2004. For the remaining 38 quality programmes, 6 have appeared on the list twice in 5 years. Basing on the year-times of presence on the list and the average appreciation indices, they were RTHK"s "Lose and Win", ATV"s "Hong Kongers in Mainland", RTHK"s "Youth Weekly Series", ATV"s "Yearend Review Series", RTHK"s "Collective Memories series" and "Headliner". Only "Lose and Win" appeared on the list in 2004. Other 32 quality programmes only showed up once and details were omitted here. Among the 100 programme-times of quality shows, basing on the TV station"s quarterly categorizations, information programmes accounted for 47 times, current and pubic affairs programmes, 30 times, and entertainment programmes, 23 times. This probably reflected the audience"s appreciation level towards different types of programmes. Yet, as suggested in the article, the audience may have appreciated different types of programmes with different attitudes and angles. Therefore, adopting this article"s classification method, i.e. to divide the quality programmes into "Year-round quality current affairs programmes", "Quasi- year-round quality current affairs programmes", "Frequently on-the-list quality current affairs programmes", "Quality long drama series" and "Quality short drama series/reality dramas", and then comparing among programmes of the same kind, may be more meaningful. It has to be noted that, the analysis above have not included those "Other types" of quality programmes, such as some outstanding foreign programmes, repackaged programmes, mainland or foreign drama series and some few-minute shows produced around the year. Such programmes may have been omitted simply due to the limitations of AI surveys and therefore no data were available. As a long-term development, the author hopes that all quality TV programmes can be included in the scope of AI surveys so that the reference value of the indices could be enhanced. In the short run, different types of programmes can be nominated by TV stations so as to widen the scope of the indices. Last of all, in terms of the technical level in the AI surveys" development, the author would also like to see the introduction of more frequent checks on the quality of individual programmes as soon as possible, so as to strengthen the pragmatic value of the survey and promote the production of quality programmes in a quality society. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Table 1: Year-round quality current affairs programmes |
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Table 2: Quasi-year-round quality current affairs programmes |
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Table 3: Frequently on-the-list quality current affairs programmes |
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Table 4: Quality long drama series |
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Table 5: Quality short drama series/reality dramas |
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Table 6: Quality game shows |
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Table 7: Other programmes with presence on the list more than once |
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