KUALA LUMPUR, 22 JUNE 2022: Hong Kong’s Television Broadcasts Limited (TVB) has been a household name in Malaysian households since the 1980s.

From its humble beginnings selling and renting TV series, to the recent development of its own OTT streaming platform ‘TVB Anywhere’, TVB has been providing high-quality and diverse TV entertainment programs to Malaysian audiences for decades.

These include popular drama series, variety shows, infotainment programs, news, and business shows, music programmes, and more, with many of its actors and talents becoming household names.

2022 will be a truly significant year for both TVB and Malaysians, as the company will be celebrating its 55th anniversary this year, while Malaysia also celebrates its 65th year of independence this coming Merdeka Day.

At a recent press conference held at One World Hotel in Kuala Lumpur on June 21, 2022, TVB announced plans to expand its scope of strategic cooperation within Malaysia, and also strengthen its position within the local entertainment market. The event was graced by Desmond S.H. Chan, General Manager of TVBI Company Limited, and also officiated by Ian Lee Hock Lye, Head of Corporate Development of TVB, and Lim Cheng Hee, President of TVB Malaysia Sdn Bhd.

It was hosted by Amigo Chui, with guest appearances by popular TVB artists such as Shaun Tam, Daniel Chau, Rock Ho, and Aeren Man.

Leveraging on its strong market presence and experience here, TVB plans to create more locally-produced programs for Malaysian audiences, while also expanding its reach to non-Chinese audiences, which will create different business and job opportunities for Malaysia.

During the press conference, Desmond said that developing the Malaysian market has always been an important part of TVB’s business strategy.

“As the fog of the pandemic slowly subsides, we see 2022 as a good time to expand our business opportunities,” he said. “I am happy to announce that we will be investing heavily into developing the market in Malaysia, including setting up local branches, and investing in local productions.”

Chen also announced that following the success of STARS Academy in Hong Kong last year,  STARS Academy 2 (Malaysia) will be premiering in August with the aim of discovering and training Malaysians with the potential to become TVB artists.

“Through STARS Academy 2 (Malaysia), we hope to nurture the next rising young stars of Malaysia,” he said.

TVB will also continue to diversify its content in an effort to appeal to younger audiences as well as non-Chinese speaking Malaysians.

“In the second half of the year, we will be producing a series of new programmes geared towards a new generation of audiences, while also developing, producing, and promoting more localised programs. We will also be offering more language options in order to better cater to our non-Chinese speaking fans.”

Chen said that TVB will be cooperating with different Malaysian partners across various platforms, focusing on three major areas.

1. Becoming the main link between clients and target audiences, in order to bring a win-win situation.

2. Customised and tailor-made promotional programmes and creative campaigns for clients. Content creation is TVB's traditional core strength, and hence, it is able to understand clients' needs and better integrate them into creating a promotional programmes portfolio that is unique and different from other major content providers.

3. Comprehensively improving new media content and businesses. In 2016, TVB launched TVB Anywhere, an OTT platform for overseas audiences, which has been a great success. All you need to do is open the mobile app, and you can stream all of TVB’s content, from films to TV shows. Including third-party platform users, there are currently more than 10 million overseas users of TVB Anywhere, with Malaysia being one of its fastest-growing markets.

Later in June, TVB will launch several new series and variety programs, and one of the highlights is TVB Anywhere Original, a show that is aimed at younger viewers, while also giving regular audiences something new and original to enjoy.

Attendees of the event were among the first in the world to preview TVB’s upcoming shows for the second half of 2022, as well as a promotional video for TVB Anywhere Original (please refer to Appendix 1 for details)

This was followed by a series of activities involving Chui and the four TVB stars, who played games and shared their Malaysian experiences and latest updates. 

For actor Shaun Tam, this was his first visit to Malaysia since the 2021 TVB Awards ceremony early this year, in which he won the award for ‘Malaysia’s Favourite TVB Lead Actor’ for the series Take Two.

After thanking his Malaysian fans for helping him win the award, Tam talked about his experience as a guest performer and judge of STARS Academy 2 (Malaysia). He said that it was very challenging to be the judge of a music program for the first time, and urged the contestants to try their best during the competition and to enjoy the experience to the fullest. (Please refer to Appendix 2 for details).

Another guest performer on STARS Academy 2 (Malaysia) is Daniel Chau, who is no stranger to talent shows having gotten his big break in The Voice, and said he was very happy to be part of the show. These days, Chau is better known as the star of shows like Flying Tiger III and the upcoming TVB drama The Spectator.

Rock Ho and Aeren Man are alumni of the first STARS Academy, who recently made their official debut, and also participated in the filming of STARS Academy 2 in Hong Kong.

Mr. Chen and the four artists later conducted interviews with the Malaysian press before ending the event.

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