A home-grown talent competition show, the return of blue-chip corporate advertising clients to terrestrial TV and a 30% leap in digital advertising lead Hong Kong’s broadcaster TVB’s third-quarter optimism about the state of its business after a fairly horrible few years. 

TVB said in its unaudited Q3 business update this week that the third season of local production, "Midlife, Sing & Shine!", had “once again attracted substantial sponsorship and advertising due to its consistent high viewership”. The talent show returned with contestants from Malaysia and the mainland Chinese province of Guangdong for the first time. 

Overall income from advertisers rose by over 8% during the quarter, compared to the same period last year, and TVB said it was “well positioned to deliver solid double-digit growth in advertising income” for the full year as well as positive net profit for the six months to end December 2024. 

TVB channels, including flagship Jade channel, achieved an aggregate 77% viewership share during the quarter. 

At the same time, premium streaming subscribers dropped 2% for the quarter from the same period in 2023 because of higher churn at one of TVB’s telco service bundling partners. 

Monthly active users across all service tiers held steady during the quarter at approximately two million. 

Revenue from digital advertising on streaming service myTV Super was up by over 30% during the quarter compared to the same quarter in 2023. 

Meanwhile, drama production in mainland China remains healthy, with three co-productions under way. The three series are "D.I.D. 12", "The Queen of Castle" and "The Fading Gold". 

Two co-productions – "No Room For Crime" and "Big Biz Duel" – started streaming on Tencent Video and a third, "Forensic Heroes VI", premiered on Youku. 

TVB’s multi-channel network (MCN) business also continues to reach a sizeable audience through livestream e-commerce activities.

TVB publishes consolidated financial statements on an annual and half-yearly basis.