Asia Television (ATV), Hong Kong's oldest broadcaster, is going through a tremendous crisis, forcing the company to cease broadcasting this past Saturday.

ATV revealed that they are currently understaffed and lack an editorial team to broadcast the scheduled news. The shareholders of the broadcast company have allegedly expressed interest to liquidate its remaining assets.

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Aside from financial problems that have subjected the broadcast company to a downward spiral, ATV is also breaching their duties as mandated by their broadcast license.

The broadcast license stipulates that ATV is required to provide 15-minute evening news, both in English and Chinese.

However, this was not done due to the network's shortage of staff, pushing the company to temporarily halt its broadcast operations. More than 200 employees have submitted their resignation papers to ATV due to non-payment of wages for the past two months.

The network stated that it will pay its former employees in full by Friday.

Meanwhile, the Communications Authority has stated that ATV could be compelled to paying fines for the breach of license.

ATV has only two months left on its license to broadcast and there is a high possibility that the license will not be renewed this year, according to a previous statement by the Communications Authority.  

Jeff Wong Sau-Tong, ATV's senior public relations manager, stated that there is a possibility that newscasts can be resumed after the Lunar New Year.

ATV, previously known as 'Rediffusion', was established in 1959.

The network has been struggling with corporate ownership problems for the past five years and this resulted in a series of financial problems.

Advertisers and public viewers have abandoned ATV due to its instability.

The government has already designated a task force, spearheaded by the Commerce and Development Bureau, to handle ATV's problems of the non-renewal of its free license.

TagsATV, Broadcast, lack of employees