At a show recording for RTHK earlier this month, Sunny Chan (陳錦鴻) revealed that his TVB contract is ending soon, and that he may not renew his contract when the time comes. “I’m looking at different options,” Sunny said. “I want more time for myself. Shooting one television drama for other stations is worth two to three dramas for TVB. This needs some consideration.” For the past year, Sunny stayed in hiatus to care for his autistic son, Edgar Chan (陳駕樺), and rarely made public appearances. Sunny clarified that he is still with TVB, but he has yet to renew his contract when it expires in December 2013. He added, “[We’ve] been negotiating for the [TVB contract renewal] for half a year already, but in the end, my final response is that I really want to take a rest. I want to go out and see how other productions work.” On whether or not he is planning to move to Ricky Wong’s (王維基) HKTV, Sunny said, “I will treat them as a production company and not a television station. They’re experiencing some changes now, but I don’t have a problem with that. As long as there’s freedom for us, and the artist and creative departments don’t close down, I will anticipate working with them. But I really don’t know what they’re planning to do next.” If all situations work out, Sunny should be able to move to HKTV in 2014. However, an HKTV rep recently clarified that new artists would not be joining HKTV in 2014 and 2015. The rep said, “There shouldn’t be any new artists joining, but we will honor the contracts and even if our productions do not come to fruition, they will get paid.” After the Hong Kong government turned down HKTV’s application for a free broadcast license in October, the station announced the dismissal of 320 staff members. Television drama Night Shift, which was in production at the time, had to be canceled. Despite the cancellation, HKTV’s drama production department is still running, and a few production crews are currently brainstorming new scripts. It is reported that a majority of HKTV staffs’ contracts will expire in early 2014. Creds: ihktv
