Fairchild TV News
Fairchild TV News is the news division of Fairchild TV, a Cantonese cable television network in Canada. It competes against the Cantonese newscasts on Toronto’s OMNI.2 and Vancouver’s OMNI BC.
Operations
Fairchild TV produces one hour-long newscast every day. It airs at 7pm local time in both Vancouver and Toronto.
From 7pm to 7:30pm, the newscast is produced separately from newsrooms in Vancouver and Toronto, and the audience in each market receives its own appropriate edition. Domestic and international news items are covered (with the items often shared between the two editions). Local news items are tailored specifically for each edition so the coverage is relevant to its local audience (i.e. local news items from Toronto will seldom appear on the Vancouver edition, and vice versa). The two editions are also presented by different anchors, with each newsroom supplying two of its own on-air personnel.
From 7:30pm to 8pm, the newscast segments are solely produced at the Toronto newsroom, presented by the anchors in Toronto, and received by viewers in both cities. This section of the newscast covers news items from the Greater China region (People's Republic of China, Hong Kong and Taiwan), lifestyle and feature reports, business news, sports and weather. A separate Toronto-based sports anchor presents the sports segment, and the two Toronto news anchors handle the business report and weather forecast.
Fairchild TV does have several reporters based in both cities to cover local news. However, most local and national/international news footages are usually sourced from the mainstream networks (in general Global TV for the former, and Canadian Broadcasting Corporation for the latter), with footages from the Greater China region provided by China Central Television (CCTV) in mainland China, TVB in Hong Kong, and various sources in Taiwan.
The newscast is repeated at 11:30 p.m. local time.
News production is completely handled in Toronto on weekends. The newscast goes from 7 p.m. to 7:40 p.m. on Saturdays, and 7 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. on Sundays.
Fairchild TV does not have designated anchors for its newscast. Instead, its anchor lineup varies from night to night, as was the usual practice at television stations in Hong Kong. (Hong Kong’s TVB currently assigns shifts to its anchors on an approximately monthly basis).
History
Until 2001
Prior to 2001, Fairchild’s Vancouver and Toronto operations were separate. The station operated as two separate feeds, one for each city, and the two feeds often had slightly different schedules from each other.
Each feed also had its own completely separate newscast, produced at its own facility. Viewers in Toronto never saw an anchor from Vancouver, and vice versa. The newscast was aired at 7:30pm local time, and presented by only one anchor. Each feed also had its local weather segment, which was aired immediately after the newscast as a separate program in and of itself.
2001-2004
However, this split-feed arrangement breached the station’s Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) licensing conditions. As such, Fairchild TV was forced to merge the two feeds back into a single national feed in 2001. Vancouver viewers now received exactly the same feed (other than local commercials) as those in Toronto, only on a three-hour delay due to time difference.
Under the single national feed, initially the bulk of the newscast was produced in Toronto, with only a brief segment produced in Vancouver consisting of regional items from Western Canada (primarily from Metro Vancouver itself). The weather forecast was also completely produced in Toronto. Gradually, Vancouver’s production team received more airtime, as it took over production of the Greater China news segment.
Not only did the Vancouver newsroom receive less airtime overall; it was also unable to cover local news effectively. The Vancouver newsroom had been heavily dependent on Global BC for local news footages, and prior to the changeover, it routinely taped footages off Global BC’s 6pm newscast to air on its own bulletin. However, under the single national feed, the Vancouver newsroom had to link up with Toronto at 4:30 p.m. Pacific in order to meet the 7:30pm Eastern deadline for the newscast. As such, the Vancouver newsroom now had to tape Global BC’s noon or even morning newscast instead (which often carried items from the previous day), resulting in Vancouver news items often being shown on a one-day delay.
To partly remedy this problem, the station launched an 11 p.m. newscast, titled Western Canada Late News (加西晚間新聞). This gave the Vancouver newsroom another opportunity to link up at 8 p.m. PT for an 11 p.m. ET deadline, and allowed it to use footages from Global BC’s 6pm newscast. Western Canada Late News was completely produced at the Vancouver studio.
The main evening newscast's starting time was moved up from 7:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. local time in June 2003. In conjunction with the schedule change, the Vancouver operation debuted a new open studio, with a view of the newsroom behind the anchors.
Since 2004
The shortcomings of this national setup were apparent to Fairchild, which petitioned to the CRTC to amend its licensing conditions. The request was granted, and Fairchild revamped its news production in fall 2004. (Details of the revamped newscast have been discussed in the “Operations” section.)
Since the Vancouver newsroom now had more airtime and no longer had to run any items on a one-day delay, “Western Canada Late News” was promptly cancelled.
In early 2006, the entire Vancouver studio was relocated to the third floor of Richmond's Aberdeen Centre (a shopping mall owned by the Fairchild Group), and a new newsroom studio was opened. Visitors of Aberdeen Centre can now watch the studio production of newscast through the windows.
Format
Until 2001, each feed’s newscast was presented by a solo anchor, who was not seen at all on the other feed. After the single feed went into effect in 2001, most of the newscast is presented by a Toronto-based anchor, with a Vancouver-based anchor presenting a brief segment of Western Canadian news.
In 2003, in conjunction with the move to a 7 p.m. starting time, the evening newscast also became completely duo-anchored, with two anchors based in Toronto and another two in Vancouver. With the introduction of the duo-anchor format also came "happy talk", involving the two co-anchors exchanging supposedly casual conversations. Initially the bantering was at times rather forced and awkward; however, the conversations now sound more natural, as the anchors have apparently become more accustomed to this format. The “happy talk” format was further supplemented with the addition of a Toronto-based sports anchor in 2004.
For its entire existence, Western Canada Late News was solo-anchored.
Sports reporting is present in the Toronto segment with alternating sports anchor.
There is no specific weather or business presenter, the task is completed by one of two anchors.
Most of the news stories use footage from CBC News and Global News to the point where the FTV's anchors just translate.
Current affairs programming
Along with its nightly newscast, Fairchild TV News also produces programming pertaining to current and public affairs, including:
- Headliners
- Magazine 26 (26分鐘見證實錄) - from Vancouver
- Timeline (時代雜誌) - from Toronto
TVB News
Instead of producing its own morning or noon newscasts, Fairchild TV airs satellite feeds of newscasts from Hong Kong’s TVB during these day-parts:
- An overseas edition of TVB’s 1pm newscast is shown two times, at 7:30am and 7:45am local time;
- An overseas edition of TVB’s flagship 6:30pm newscast is shown three times, at 8:30am, 9am and 12noon local time.
News team
News production and bureaus are located in Toronto (Richmond Hill) and Vancouver (Richmond). Reporters (and camera crew) may travel to remote locations if needed and mostly within Canada. There have been several occasions where reporters have travelled overseas, mainly to Hong Kong.
In total there are 21 onscreen personalities in the news division.
Toronto (Richmond Hill, ON) Bureau
- Kate Chan (陳品姬) - anchor/reporter
- Eric Chau (周浩輝) - anchor/reporter
- Michael Fung (馮錦禮) - anchor (evening news)/reporter; formerly program host with OMNI2 (CFMT-TV)
- Kit Ching Ho (何潔貞) - anchor; former TVB news anchor
- Jenny Kwong (鄺芯榆) - anchor/reporter
- Siu Lun Lau (劉肇麟)- sports anchor/reporter
- Jimmy Leung (梁志權) - reporter
- Rebecca Liu (劉雨薇) - reporter
- Alice Ngan (顏智明) - correspondent, Timeline
- Ivan Wu (胡耀國)- sports anchor/reporter
- Nelson Yu (余世釗) - anchor/reporter
- Titus Leung (梁超明) - reporter
- Isa Lee (李思韻) - anchor (evening news)/reporter
Vancouver (Richmond, BC) Bureau
- Ada Luk (陸小雯) - anchor/reporter
- April Lee (李尹諾) - anchor/reporter
- Hon Sang Chan (陳瀚生) - anchor/reporter
- Vincent Ng (吳偉基) - reporter
- Claudia Lau (劉柏嘉) - anchor/reporter
- Wilson Lam (林渭森) - Writer
- Cissy Yee (余思詩) - former reporter
Former anchors and reporters
- Chan Yiu Yin (陳耀燕)
- Chai Hiu Tung (齊曉東)
- Chan Long (陳朗)
- Chan Yim Wai (陳炎威)
- Cheung Chi On (張子安)
- Endora Fan (范美芬)
- Zhang Xing Ping (張欣萍)
- Gu Ming (顧明)
- Shelley Huang (黄瑜) - anchor/reporter
- Ka Lai Ming (賈麗明)
- Kwok Kam Chou (郭錦洲)
- Jessica Lai (賴佩儀)
- Lam Wing Tim (林泳甜)
- Elim Lee (李琳) - reporter
- Lee Chai Ming (李濟明) - now with Talentvision
- Kenneth Li Lap Pun (李立本) - now reporter with OMNI.2 Toronto
- Lee Ping Yan (李炳恩)
- Eric Lee (李潤庭)
- Leung Kwok-Shu (梁國書)- now with KTSF-TV San Francisco
- Lo Yan Wai(羅恩惠)
- Luk Man Yee (陸曼怡)
- Luk Ngai Pang (陸毅鵬)
- Stanley So (蘇凌峰) - now anchor and producer with OMNI.2 Toronto
- Charles Mak - now producer with OMNI
- Karen So (蘇嘉欣)
- Wong Ka Yin (黃嘉妍)
- Wong Tai Guan (黃大鈞) - now with TVB News in Hong Kong
- Simon Lee (李景鴻) - now with Bloomberg News
- Florence Ho (何潔雯)
- Anthony Ding (丁樂堯)
- Karen Cho (曹嘉欣)
- Karen Ha (夏婉嘉)
- Joanne Lau (劉頌恩)
- Spencer Gall (過智溢) - now with Now TV News in Hong Kong
- Aurelien Ng (zh:吳雲甫) - now with TVB in Hong Kong
External links
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