Robert Chua

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Robert Chua Wah-Peng
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Born	May 20, 1946(1946-05-20) Singapore
Spouse(s)	Peggy Jen Ping-ping
Official website

Robert Chua Wah-Peng (traditional Chinese: 蔡和平) was born in Singapore in May 20, 1946.

Robert Chua's 44+ years television experience spans from Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong to China. He started his TV career in Australia at the age of 17 before making Hong Kong his home.

In 1967 at the age of 21, he helped launched TVB Hong Kong's first terrestrial TV and created the most successful and longest running 'live' variety show 'EYT'.He also started/produced the first ever 'Marathon Charity Show' in Hong Kong in 1972, and the first 'Miss Hong Kong' show in 1973 which are both still being produced by TVB today.

In 1979, his company became the first Media Company in the world to enter the Chinese Television market.

In 1994 he founded a satellite channel CETV. In late 2003 he sold his entire CETV stake to his partner Time Warner to concentrate on pioneering the world's first 'cross-media' interactive channel TIC (The Interactive Channel) that is aired over Cable TV and IPTV channel. It was launched late Dec 2004 and won the AFDESI 2006 "Best International Interactive Enhanced Television Award" in Cannes.

In mid 2007, TIC focused on "Health & Lifestyle" and created the 'cross-media' interactive 'Health & Lifestyle Channel' (HLC). All its 'live' shows simulcast over the Internet / 3G to enhance TV viewers and Internet users' viewing experience.

He is often invited to speak at various industry Events and had or is currently serving in the following committees:

• Board member of NATPE (USA) 2005-2006
• Honorary Committee member of the 'Monte Carlo TV Festival' (Monaco)
• Committee member of the Advisory Board of 'Rose d'Or Festival'
• Advisor to "Monaco Media Forum" (Monaco)
• Board of Governors of the 'Banff TV Festival' (Canada)
• Steering Committee member of 'FRAPA' (Germany)
• Honorary Director, Shanghai Broadcasting Association (by Shanghai Broadcasting Association, China)
• Consultant to 'Shanghai Oriental TV Entertainment Channel' (China)
• Guest Professor of 'News and Media Studies' Nanjing University, Nanjing (China)

Contents 1 A Brief History 1.1 The Facts 1.2 The Milestones 2 The Full Story 3 See also 4 References 5 External links

[edit] A Brief History

After 35 years of television, in May 1997 Robert Chua held a party^[1] to celebrate his 30th year in television^[2] in Hong Kong and China. It was an event to mark three decades of television in Hong Kong and his 51st birthday.

Robert Chua's career is unmatched in Asian broadcasting circles. He pioneered Hong Kong's first terrestrial TV station^[3] in 1967 as one of the first executive producers at Television Broadcasts (TVB), now Hong Kong's dominant TV station and a powerhouse in Southern China.

Robert started out at TVB as Senior Production Executive, rising soon to Production Manager and then Special Assistant to the Managing Director.

One of the first programs shown on TVB was Robert Chua's production of 'Enjoy Yourself Tonight (EYT.)'^[4] This program, which became Asia's longest running variety show was also the first show broadcast live in Hong Kong. He also started/produced the first ever 'Marathon Charity Show' in Hong Kong in 1972, and the first 'Miss Hong Kong' show in 1973 which are both still being produced by TVB today.

In 1974 Mr Chua started his own production and programming company, Robert Chua Production House Co Ltd (RCP.)^[5]

In 1979, RCP became the first foreign TV production and advertising company to enter the mainland China market.^[6] In the same year RCP sold almost HK$1 million in advertising on Chinese television stations. Over the years Robert Chua and RCP channelled many more millions of advertising dollars into China's fledgling advertising industry. Many of the ads were produced by RCP, which also produced educational programming and acted as a distributor of foreign TV programs and films for the China market.

In July 1989, Robert Chua was the first major media player to make an official visit to China just one month after the June 4 incident in Beijing's Tiananmen Square. While many Western media organisations treated China as a pariah nation, Mr Chua went to Shanghai at the request of the city's Film and Television Bureau, helping to rebuild bridges^[7] between the mainland, Hong Kong and the rest of the world.

In 1994 Robert Chua founded China Entertainment Television Broadcast (CETV),^[8] a Chinese language family entertainment channel beamed by satellite into China and around Asia. Billed initially as the “No Sex, No Violence, No News” channel, CETV has built up a loyal following among Asian viewers. After some turbulent years, with Robert Chua competing intensely with multinationals on his own, media giant Time Warner became a broadcasting partner in CETV^[9] in June 2000.

Towards end 2003 Robert sold his entire share holdings to Time Warner. In 2004 Robert founded TIC (The Interactive Channel), Asia first 24 hours "cross-media" interactive TV channel.

[edit] The Facts

1956-60: Saint Andrew's School, Singapore

1961-62: Anglo Chinese School, Singapore

1963: King's College, Australia.

1964-65: ADS Channel 7, Australia.

Early 1966: Fajar Record Co (recording local artists) Singapore.

Mid 1966: Top Talent Co (Producing pop stage shows) Singapore and Malaysia.

Nov 1966-May 1967: Radio Television Singapore (producing TV entertainment programs in Chinese, English and Malay language) Singapore.

May 1967-December 1973: Television Broadcasts Ltd (TVB). At 21, pioneered Hong Kong's first terrestrial TV ^[3]station launched November 19, 1967 (pioneered and contributed to what became Hong Kong's most successful TV station. Created Enjoy Yourself Tonight^[4], which became Asia's longest running light variety show)

1974: Hong Kong's first independent TV production company, Robert Chua Production House Co Ltd (RCP)^[5] opens for business, producing many successful commercials for the public and private sectors as well as corporate videos.

April, 1975: Hong Kong's first independent producer for then 'Rediffusion Television Ltd' (now known as ATV.) Produced a 26 episode, half hour series of a musical show entitled “Robert Chua Presents”^[10]. The musical show Robert Chua Presents' becomes the first TV show in Hong Kong to bear the producer's name, indicative of Mr Chua's position as the undisputed top producer of light entertainment television.

1976: Forms Hong Kong's first off line TV production facility, Video Centre. The facility specialises in videotaping special events, weddings and parties.

1977: Starts Hong Kong's first independent TV facilicating production company, Conic TV Studio^[11]

1977: The Queen of England's Silver Jubilee ^[12]is celebrated in Hong Kong at a grand multiscreen stadium event produced by Mr Chua. The biggest multiscreen event ever held in Hong Kong, the show won praise from top levels of Government.

1979: Became the first media company^[6] to sell foreign TV advertising directly into China.

1981: Starts Singapore's first independent TV facilitating production studio name "RCP-TV Studios".^[13]

1985: Created and produced Hong Kong's first English language situation comedy ‘Guess who's coming to Yum Cha.’)^[14]

1986: Appointed consultant to Hutchison Whampoa Co's cable television license application.

1988: Created and produced Hong Kong's first video publication.

1990: Pioneered Hong Kong Interactive telephone ‘audiotext’ service.

1993 Aug: Shanghai Broadcast Association "Honorary Member (Director)"^[15]

1994: Established the 24 hour CETV satellite family channel. Test broadcasting for 100 days began in 1st December 1994.

1995: CETV was officially launched^[16] on 11th March.

December 1996: Robert Chua is the only Hong Kong television media executive^[17] invited to attend the sixth Annual National Congress of Chinese Federation of Literary and Art Circles, attended by Chinese President Jiang Zemin.

1997 June: Invited to attend the ceremony to mark the handover of Hong Kong to the People's Republic of China.

1997 July: Appointed guest professor^[18] of News and Media Studies, Nanjing University, China.

1997 Sept: Project-Hope "Honorary Certificate"^[19]

1997: CETV forms first joint venture production house with the powerful Chinese Xinhua News Agency to produce documentaries.

1999 Dec: Formed a dotcom company named ComplainAsia Dotcom Company Limited

2000 June: Time Warner Inc announces a strategic alliance with CETV.^[9] Robert Chua stays on as chairman responsible for content.

2001 Nov: Robert Chua appointed as Honorary Committee member of Monte Carlo Television Festival Headed by Honorary Chairman Dick Wolf. H.S.H Crown Prince Albert is the President of the Festival.

2002 Jan: Robert Chua appointed to Banff Television Foundation's Board of Governors.

2002 Apr: US based CAA becomes Robert Chua's agent for programme formats.

2002 Dec: Appointed Consultant^[20] to Shanghai Oriental TV Entertainment Channel.

2003 Jan: 1st January Shanghai premiered "Everyone Wins" an original international Quiz/Game show created by Robert Chua. A first for a show to be aired seven nights a week at prime time (8 pm). Within months became the top Quiz/Game Show.

2004 Sept: Founded Asia first 24 hours interactive channel (TIC)^[21] and test broadcast over Hong Kong CableTV with 680,000 households.

2004 Oct: Appointed to Rose D' OR^[22] Advisory Board, the world's premier festival for television entertainment. The Rose d'Or Advisory Board is composed of industry leaders and is chaired by David Liddiment, the Executive Director of the Old Vic Theatre, London.

2005: Appointed to the NATPE Board(USA)^[23], NATPE is a global, non-profit organization dedicated to the creation, development and distribution of televised programming in all forms across all mature and emerging media platforms. NATPE develops and nurtures opportunities, both commercial and educational, for the buying, selling and sharing of content and ideas.

2006: Robert Chua's the Interactive Channel Wins The 2006 International Interactive TV Award^[24]

[edit] The Milestones

Nov 1966/ May 1967: At 20 years of age, Robert becomes Singapore's youngest TV producer of programs in the Mandarin, English and Malay languages.^[25] His ability, contribution.^[26]and production output exceeds that of all senior producers.

1967: Robert Chua was offered a job with TVB by telegram^[27] in early 1967. He departed for Hong Kong to report for work on May 21, 1967, the day after celebrating his 21st birthday. He was one of many “senior production executives” and was responsible for recruiting and training production staff.

At 21, the youngest executive at Hong Kong's new start-up terrestrial broadcaster, Television Broadcasts, Robert Chua creates a new variety show, “Enjoy Yourself Tonight (EYT.)”^[4] TVB's first ever live show, the five nights per week EYT shoots immediately to the number one rated slot and lasts more than 30 years. Its multi-presenter and guest format is quickly copied by rival channels.

In recognition of his abilities and energy, he received a 32 per cent pay increase^[28] four months after starting work with TVB and was promoted to Assistant Program Manager by the time TVB launched. He rose to Production Manager and then Special Assistant to the Managing Director. During his time at TVB, Robert Chua created Asia's longest lasting variety show, Enjoy Yourself Tonight and discovered many television talents.

1972: Produced Hong Kong's first ever 'live' TV charity show "Operation Relief" on 24th June. It raised a record $8.65 million during the show. Bruce Lee^[29] was one of the star that appeared on the show.

1973: The first Miss Hong Kong pageant was held. Created and produced by Robert Chua, Miss Hong Kong ^[30]gradually became the premier glamour event in the colony. Facing cultural resistance in the early stages, Miss Hong Kong soon established itself as a coveted title leading to success, wealth and great fame for many contestants.

1973: Robert Chua produced Hong Kong's first show which was staged overseas, a screening of Enjoy Yourself Tonight produced in cooperation with Radio and Television Singapore^[31] technicians and crew to benefit charity.

1974: Hong Kong's first independent production company, Robert Chua Production House Co Ltd (RCP)^[5] opens for business, producing many successful commercials for the public and private sectors as well as corporate videos. Later the company became heavily involved in selling airtime and marketing foreign television programs to Chinese channels.

April, 1975: Hong Kong's first independent producer for then 'Rediffusion Television Ltd' (now known as ATV.) Produced a 26 episode, half hour series of a musical show entitled “Robert Chua Presents”^[10]. The musical show Robert Chua Presents' becomes the first TV show in Hong Kong to bear the producer's name, indicative of Mr Chua's position as the undisputed top producer of light entertainment television.

1976: Forms Hong Kong's first off line TV production facility, Video Centre. The facility specialises in videotaping special events, weddings and parties.

1977: The Queen of England's Silver Jubilee^[12] is celebrated in Hong Kong at a grand multiscreen stadium event produced by Mr Chua. The biggest multiscreen event ever held in Hong Kong, the show won praise^[32] from top levels of Government.

1977: Started Hong Kong's first independent TV facilicating production company, named "Conic TV Studio"^[11], eventually selling out his shares in 1983. After a change of name, the company is now the leading facilicating digital production company in Asia.

1979: Became the first media company^[6] to sell foreign TV advertising directly into China, securing exclusive deals with TV stations in Guangdong, Fokkien, Sichuan and Henan provinces. Landed an advertising deal with Citizen Watch providing the time check for Beijing's China Central Television (CCTV), Guangdong TV (GDTV), and Fujian TV and a sports program sponsorship deal for Seiko in Guangdong. As an act of good faith, the Chuas deposited HK$1 million (then about US$200,000) into a Chinese bank as a guarantee of securing future advertising revenue for Guangdong TV.

1979: Financed and introduced the first closed circuit TV on trains running between Hong Kong and mainland China in his capacity as consultant to the Chinese Railway Authority.

1981: Started Singapore's first independent TV facilicating production company, name "RCP-TV Studios"

1981: Distributed China's first hospitality magazine^[33] produced outside the country - a Shanghai tourist industry brochure - in cooperation with Hong Kong newspaper the South China Morning Post.

1981: RCP created, produced and distributed China's first 26 half-hour episode ABC series of English learning programs in China. Hosted by Mr Chua's wife Peggy, these proved highly successful and were rescreened in many parts of the country.

1982: Produced a series of China export promotion videos^[34] distributed free to Chinese embassies around the world.

1983: Started Singapore's largest permanent live concert venue "Hoover Live Theater" facilicating local and Asian singers.

1984: Robert Chua became the first distributor of foreign TV programs in China, handling product from Lorimar, Metromedia and Silverbach Lazarus.

1984: A 12 million circulation Communist Party newsletter ‘Information Reference’^[35] lauds Mr Chua in a prominent article, describing him as a TV Whiz Kid.

1984: Robert Chua created and produced Hong Kong's first situation comedy 'Guess who's coming to Yum Cha'^[14], an English language pilot starring local celebrities GiGi Wong and Stuart Wolfendale. Mr Chua responded vigorously^[36] to critics of the show.

1986: Appointed consultant to Hutchison Whampoa Co's cable television license application. Proposed a China Cable Channel.

1988: Created and produced Hong Kong's first video publication ‘Le Club’, an innovative adult infotainment video sold at newspaper vendors and video outlets.

1989: Robert Chua is the first media figure to visit China a month after the Tiananmen Square incident, at the invitation of the Shanghai Ministry of Radio and Television. He helped rebuild bridges^[7] between the mainland, Hong Kong and the rest of the world.

1990: Hong Kong's most successful Interactive telephone ‘audiotext’ pioneer, launching several highly popular public services including the `Squidgy' tapes featuring the Princess of Wales and a `Guess your Age' game. Another service provided details of a topical court case. He later ceased operation because he refused to accept the adult chat line business.

Shanghai Broadcast

1993 Aug: Association "Honorary Member (Director)"^[15]

1994: Established the 24 hour CETV satellite family channel with the marketing tag '‘No Sex, No Violence, No News’'.

Test broadcasting for 100 days began on 1st December 1994.

1995: CETV^[16] began full broadcasting in Mandarin language to audiences around Asia on 11th March. CETV became the first satellite TV channel outside of China to jointly produce a live New Year variety show with a mainland province (Shandong Satellite TV) followed by many other provinces. The following year, in March, Rupert Murdoch launches Hong Kong based Mandarin language channel Phoenix with Chinese partners.

December 1996: Robert Chua is the only Hong Kong television media executive invited^[17] to attend the sixth Annual National Congress of Chinese Federation of Literary and Art Circles, attended by Chinese President Jiang Zemin. One of only 13 guests from Hong Kong, Mr Chua represented the media industry at this massive event which attracted 1,350 attendees.

1997 June: Robert Chua is invited to attend the ceremony to mark the handover of Hong Kong to the People's Republic of China.

1997: Robert Chua is invited to be a member of the Association for the Celebration of the Reunification of Hong Kong with China.

1997 July: Appointed guest professor^[18] of News and Media Studies, Nanjing University, China.

1997 June: CETV broadcasts 100 hours of live coverage of Hong Kong's handover celebrations.

1997 Sept: Project-Hope "Honorary Certificate"^[15]

1997: CETV forms first joint venture production house with the powerful Chinese Xinhua News Agency to produce documentaries.

1999 Dec: Formed a dotcom company named "ComplainAsia Dotcom Company Limited" (ComplainAsia.com) targeted at the Asian region.

2000 June: Time Warner Inc announces a strategic alliance^[9] with CETV. Robert Chua retains his shares in CETV and stays on as chairman also responsible for on-air content.

2000 Aug: Created an innovative internet service www.NumbersTo.com that allows users to register all their web address (Emails, WAP, ICQ etc..) to their telephone number.

2001 Nov: Robert Chua appointed as Honorary Committee member of Monte Carlo Television Festival Headed by Honorary Chairman Dick Wolf. H.S.H Crown Prince Albert is the President of the Festival.

2002 Jan: Robert Chua appointed to Banff Television Foundation Board of Governors.

2002 Apr: US based CAA becomes Robert Chua's agent for programme formats.

2002 Dec: Appointed Consultant to^[20] Shanghai Oriental TV Entertainment Channel.

2003 Jan: 1st January Shanghai premiered "Everyone Wins" an original international Quiz/Game show created by Robert Chua. A first for a show to be aired seven nights a week at prime time (8 pm). Within months became the top Quiz/Game Show.

2004 Sept: Founded Asia first 24 hours interactive channel (TIC)^[21] and test broadcast over Hong Kong CableTV with 680,000 households.

2004 Oct: Appointed to Rose D' OR^[22] Advisory Board, the world's premier festival for television entertainment. The Rose d'Or Advisory Board is composed of industry leaders and is chaired by David Liddiment, the Executive Director of the Old Vic Theatre, London.

2005:Appointed to the NATPE Board(USA)^[23], NATPE is a global, non-profit organization dedicated to the creation, development and distribution of televised programming in all forms across all mature and emerging media platforms. NATPE develops and nurtures opportunities, both commercial and educational, for the buying, selling and sharing of content and ideas.

2006: Robert Chua's the Interactive Channel Wins The 2006 International Interactive TV Award ^[24]

[edit] The Full Story

Robert Chua got his first TV job^[37] in 1964 during the days of black and a white TV as a property assistant at ADS Channel 7 in Adelaide, Australia. Over the next two years he worked as a camera man, floor manager, presentation director, program producer and director.

Robert was enthralled with the television industry and was willing to work long hours at any job if it meant learning a new skill. One of his keenest memories of his time at Channel 7 was the thrill of pressing the button for the closing sequence in the early hours of the morning after most of the staff had left the station for the night.

He gained a lot of invaluable knowledge and experience in that first job, but soon felt the need to return home to Asia. Back in Singapore in 1966 and aged only 19, he finally got a job in November that year, aged 20, producing shows for Radio Television Singapore. He specialised in light entertainment and popular variety shows.

While Robert waited to be accepted by Television Singapore, he helped out in recording audio tracks for local pop songs under the Philips label at Fajar Records. He also took part in producing shows such as pop concerts in Singapore and Malaysia.

Within the Singapore television industry at the time, Robert found there was a reluctance to trust such a young man to produce top programs. Then there was the issue of pay; as a non graduate he felt discriminated against both in salary and promotion. Despite these factors, he distinguished himself as the top producer^[26] in Singapore television, both in terms of content and sheer volume of production.

Then, in 1967 he was offered a young television producer's dream job: helping to set up the first colour television station in Hong Kong at Television Broadcasts (TVB.)

He started at TVB as a senior production executive, then rose to Assistant Program Manager, Production Manager and, ultimately, Special Assistant to the Managing Director.

One of his first achievements at TVB was the creation of what became Asia's longest lasting variety show, ‘Enjoy Yourself Tonight (EYT.)’^[4] As soon as it was launched, EYT immediately shot up to the number one rated slot, a position it held for the six and a half years Robert Chua was with TVB. Starting out as a one hour show five nights a week, it was soon extended to one hour and 45 minutes per show.

EYT remains one of Robert's greatest achievements. Without his talent for live shows developed in Australia and Singapore, Hong Kong television might have had to wait for years for a live-to-air show to develop.

EYT was revolutionary in Asia. It was broadcast live, which meant there was no room for production mistakes. It used multiple presenters - celebrities and new talents - mixed with light variety content, and it was shown five nights a week.

Critics said the idea would never work but the show ran in much the same form it was created for more than 30 years. During his time at TVB, Mr Chua hired and trained many new television talents for roles in various shows including EYT.

After creating EYT and accomplishing an impressive list of other ‘firsts’ at the station, Robert left TVB and started up his own production house, Robert Chua Production House Co Ltd (RCP.)^[5]With his name already established in the local TV industry, RCP was a big success right from the start. There were no other freelance television facilities available at the time because of the high capital costs involved.

Starting out producing commercials and TV variety shows for broadcasters, advertising agencies and corporate clients, RCP branched out to documentaries, major audio visual productions, stage productions, and private work such as weddings and gala parties.

By the late 1970s RCP was producing at least one commercial per day as well as renting out its facilities to clients. Eventually RCP became a big player in the broadcast advertising market in China. It was the first production house to shoot a TV commercial in China and brokered many deals for foreign advertisers looking for exposure in the huge China market.

From its base in a huge garden setting in Hong Kong's plush Kowloon Tong district, RCP soon gained a reputation for producing the best film and video in Asia. Its clients included the major advertising agencies, big local companies and multinationals - RCP produced the first commercial for Coca Cola ever done in China.

Throughout his career, Robert Chua has always been receptive to approaches from prospective venture partners. In March 1977 Robert and a major electronics company set up Hong Kong's first independent broadcast studio under the name of Conic TV Studio.^[11]

Housed in a 10,000 square feet site in the Kowloon Tong residential district, the company began producing commercials for Hong Kong television.

The studio invested in the latest videotape production equipment, equipping Hong Kong with videotape facilities equal to those available anywhere in the world. A sound library containing over 10,000 titles, the latest telecine machine and facilities for transferring film to videotape made the Conic TV Studio on of the most technically advanced in South East Asia at the time.

Robert Chua was a minority shareholder in Conic, and his relationship with the company's management took a turn for the worse when Conic started competing with RCP in production, breaking the partnership agreement. In 1982 Robert took the dispute to the High Court in Hong Kong, seeking to wind up the company on the grounds of breach of agreement. He secured an out of court settlement which resulted in the sale of his interest in Conic. The company has since changed it's company name.

RCP's main work has been in the production of commercials and variety shows for the Hong Kong TV markets and corporate videos. The RCP-produced show “Robert Chua presents...”^[5] was the first show in Hong Kong to include the producer's name in the title. In 1976 RCP produced the 26 program “Variety 76” and “a Saturday Night Variety Show” for the station then known as RTV.

Other recent ventures have included a video magazine Mr Chua likened to Playboy and a home shopping TV program. Mr Chua has also enjoyed success with information hot lines (also known as audiotext, or ‘900’ lines,) where members of the public call in for a fee. One of these services offered callers the opportunity to listen to the infamous ‘Squidgy Tapes’ which purported to show the British Princess of Wales flirting with a former body guard. Another great success was the infoline offering details of the sensational Hong Kong court case of the man popularly known as ‘Mr ABC’. The service offered a report of each day's Court Hearing before it was available in newspapers. Mr. ABC was convicted of posing as a movie producer to seduce young women.

Robert Chua was often called upon to do the nearly impossible and usually succeeded. In May 1977 he was appointed consultant to the Hong Kong Government Information Service to produce the biggest Government sponsored show Hong Kong had ever seen - the Silver Jubilee pageant^[12] to celebrate the 25th year in office of the British Queen Elizabeth.

Within just six months, Robert produced a show that was fantastic for its time, using state of the art “multivision” multi screen technology. The show drew thunderous applause from the audience.

Robert Chua has also fulfilled a pioneering role in broadcasting in China. In 1979 the Chuas pulled off an audacious coup. Learning that the television station for China's Guangdong province was looking for an agent to sell advertising time to foreigners, Robert and Peggy deposited HK$1 million (then about US$200,000) into a Chinese bank as a guarantee of securing future advertising revenue. The gesture must have worked, because in April, 1979 RCP became the sole agent for the placement of commercials on Guangdong television.

The same year Robert Chua signed up Citizen Watch Co. to advertise on Beijing's China Central Television, the first time the Beijing station had accepted any timecheck sponsorship. RCP also signed up Seiko to sponsor sports programs in Guangdong.

In 1981, Robert Chua produced the`ABC' series of English learning programs which were aired all over the vast nation. Following up this early success, in 1982 he produced a series of China export promotion videos distributed free to Chinese embassies around the world. The 90 minute tapes gave foreign business people advice on how to do business in China, then highlighted specific Chinese products including contact information.

A glance at Robert Chua's press file shows he has generally enjoyed a favourable press coverage. He had a taste of the opposite in 1985 after the broadcast of HongKong's first a pilot English language situation comedy: ‘Guess Who's coming to Yum Cha’^[14] (a traditional Chinese lunch.) Hong Kong critics hated the show and slammed it for poor production values.

Robert Chua responded that it was the best effort possible given the limited budget. It was the first-ever attempt at English language production in Hong Kong. He had invested his own money to provide a new English program with a concept the rest of the broadcasting industry had ignored or avoided. The same pilot became a hit show when shown in the Malaysian market.

Never restricting himself to a single medium, Mr Chua has published many magazines and books in addition to his broadcasting product. Most recently he secured the worldwide rights to the English language version of ` Wrath of Heaven - Scandal at the Top in China,' a chronicle of a major Chinese corruption scandal. Mr Chua says the publication was done to highlight China's efforts to clean up its public administration, rather than highlight the problem of corruption.

In 1995, after 100 days of test broadcasting (starting 1st Dec, 1994), Robert Chua's China Entertainment Television Broadcast (CETV) began screening around Asia on 11th March.^[16]

The Chinese language family entertainment channel was the result of years of quiet planning. Mr Chua was convinced his experience in the China broadcasting market and in general programming would let him succeed where others had failed. Rather than risk offending traditional Chinese values, he told anyone who would listed that his new station would carry “No Sex, No Violence, No News.”

As a result, he faced something of a programming challenge in finding enough interesting material to fill 24 hours of television per day. Like other broadcasters, CETV repeated blocks of programming but still needed at least six hours of fresh programming per day. Robert and Peggy made use of all their contacts around the world and managed to strike excellent deals on many programs. Soap operas from various nations documentaries, vintage movies and old Hong Kong programs formed some of the channel's main content.

About a third of the content on CETV is original material - a Mandarin language version of Enjoy Yourself Tonight, for example, chat shows, variety shows and children's programs. This original content is typically produced in Hong Kong using Mandarin speaking talent.

CETV produced over 1,300 hours of original programming, produced either in Hong Kong or co-produced with TV stations in China. CETV's signal was carried free to air on the Apstar 1 satellite, along with CNN, ESPN, TNT and some Chinese educational channels. Apstar 1 gave CETV a reasonably big footprint around China and South East Asia. The potential reach was to more than 1.25 billion Mandarin speakers in China, Taiwan and Singapore. However, Apstar 1 was less than ideal for real distribution. In the satellite TV business, the best way to guarantee broad viewership is to be carried on the most popular satellite - the one most hotels and other viewing centres aim their receiving dishes at. In the case of Asia, that means AsiaSat 1, the satellite which carries Star TV and other popular channels. Mr Chua applied for space on AsiaSat but was turned down by Star TV (Mr. Rupert Murdoch owns), which had power of veto. CETV is now carried on the AsiaSat 3S satellite.

Checking the number of viewers for a satellite channel is notoriously difficult, but Mr Chua has thousands of letters which prove CETV has many Asian viewers, especially in China. Being free to air, anyone with a satellite dish aimed at Apstar can receive the CETV signal, but ownership of dishes in China is tightly controlled and foreign broadcast signals are technically illegal. In practical terms, most viewers in China would therefore pick up the signal through their cable operators.

By extrapolating from data collected through viewers' letters, and through surveys carried out by CETV, Mr Chua estimates CETV could be seen in some 33 million households in China. The lack of hard demographic data about its viewership is a problem which affects every foreign satellite TV channel beamed into China. For CETV, it was one reason advertising was difficult to sell in the early years.

In financial terms, CETV was something of a black hole for the Chuas, who had invested millions of dollars of their own money up to June 2000. They originally held a 20 per cent stake in CETV, with private investors holding the remainder. There have been other private investors involved in CETV, including the Indonesian Lippo Group, the International Family Channel from the US and Malayan United Industries. In November 1995 Mr Chua announced that these partners had agreed to buy 80 per cent of CETV for HK$230 million, but a year later the new partners were eventually bought out by Mr Chua. By the end of 1997, Mr Chua was anxious to bring some mainland Chinese partners on board. Rupert Murdoch's Star TV - with its mainland partners - had just been given access to local cable operators in the wealthy Guangdong Province.

Hong Kong had returned to Chinese sovereignty and there was a big advantage in being seen as a local operation in China, as opposed to a foreign broadcaster beaming in a signal. In October 1997, Mr Chua announced the deal he had been searching for: a consortium of five mainland companies had agreed to take an 80 per cent stake in CETV. Unfortunately, the five companies did not pay up and the deal collapsed. The media began declaring the imminent death of CETV, but it was premature. More than two years later, media giant Time Warner became a broadcasting partner^[9] in CETV in June 2000. Robert credits the loyalty of CETV's many regular viewers with giving him the moral support that brought him and the station through this difficult period.

The intense pressure of keeping CETV afloat nearly killed Mr Chua in 1999, when an excess of blood fluid built up in his brain. The broadcasting world very nearly lost one of its most creative talents, but Hong Kong's top brain surgeon Dr Yu Chung-ping won the day. The fluid was drained, the five holes in his skull sewn up and he moved very quickly onto thinking about his next projects. The time Mr Chua spent recuperating after his surgery was the first time he had taken off work since his marriage to Peggy in 1974. Although he has now fully recovered, the experience taught Mr Chua to take time out from whatever projects he has on hand. While recuperating, he realised that in addition to television, the Internet was the future medium for his considerable creative talents.

In 2004, he founded "The Interactive Channel" and 2007 "Health & Lifestyle Channel".

[edit] See also

• Enjoy Yourself Tonight

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• RobertChua.com - Robert Chua's official website
• Health and Lifestyle Channel