Videoage International January 2020

28 January 2020 V I D E O A G E I n 2015, veteran TV broadcaster, producer, satellite TV pioneer, and content distributor Robert Chua Wah-Peng decided to write a 130-page self-published book to commemorate his 50 years in the TV business in Australia, Singapore, and Hong Kong. Even though it is an unusual book — in the sense that is has a Quick Response (QR) code on every page; he even renamed it a “Quick Response Book” or QRB — and has plenty of caricatures (apparently Chua was, for a time, Southeast Asian cartoonists’ favorite subject), it was very useful to this journalist when writing this Hall of Fame feature. It only took one month to write this piece. Previous Hall of Fame features have taken three months or more. Chua’s autobiography contains an abundance of facts, dates, and tidbits. (It’s clear, however, that the book was written without the assistance of a journalist or a ghostwriter.) All that info saved this reporter from having to spend weeks on end doing time-consuming research. All that was needed was to cross-reference and fact-check certain bits of information. A couple of face-to- face interviews were also conducted over the years, and some family background not included in the book was covered through e-mail. VideoAge last met with Robert Chua in Cannes during MIPCOM 2019 at Caffé Roma, where he traditionally holds court at both MIP-TV and MIPCOM. There, Peggy, his wife of 45 years, from whom he is inseparable, good-naturedly grumbled about Chua having lost his driver and her being forced to travel throughout Hong Kong by taxi, while Robert described some of his new TV projects for his invited lunch guests. The former Peggy Jen Ping Ping was the last of Robert’s assistants at the Hong Kong TV station TVB, where he worked for six years (until 1973). Peggy had joined TVB in 1967 at the age of 17, starting as a receptionist. In 1974, Chua and Peggy started Robert Chua Productions (RCP), where they employed 23 people. In 1975, the couple produced 26 episodes of Audio Visual Robert Chua for RTV. And in 1977, they produced Asia Singing Contest , also for RTV, which became a big hit. TVB was incorporated in 1965, and two years later began broadcasting in both Cantonese (TVB Jade) and English (TVB Pearl). The two stations were promoted as “Wireless Television” in order to distinguish them from cable service Rediffusion Television (RTV), which became a broadcast station in 1973, and was renamed Asia Television (ATV) in 1982. TVB was co-founded by Run Run Shaw (a Hong Kong entertainment mogul), Douglas Clague (a British soldier in Hong Kong), and Harold Lee Hsiao-wo (a Hong Kong businessman). RTV was founded in 1949 by BET, a British company, as a wired radio station. In 1957, it added subscription TV services in both Chinese and English. After going through several owners, ATV ceased operation as a broadcast station in 2016. Looking at the Chuas’ 1974 wedding pictures, one cannot help but marvel at the movie-star looks of Peggy, while Robert, who then wore a pair of oversized square eyeglasses, has become more handsome with age. Nonetheless, Peggy remembered with a smile that her “parents were relieved that their daughter did not marry a [then socially-unacceptable] Caucasian,” which they felt was a possibility due to her stunning beauty and frequent travels to Europe and the U.S. to check on the family’s real estate investments. Another curious bit is Chua’s explanation for both his and Peggy’s American accents despite the fact that they both hail from two former British colonies: “[After] over 30-plus years of attending MIP-TV and MIPCOM, our many American friends have [obviously] made a lasting impact.” VideoAge first met the Chuas in Hong Kong in 1994 when Robert was running China Entertainment Television Broadcast (CETV). He had founded the 24-hour satellite TV station, which focused on Mainland China, using the Putonghua language (standard Mandarin) that same year. On the occasion of the inaugural MIP Asia — the first TV trade show in Asia, which took place November 30-December 2 and was organized by Reed MIDEM — Robert and Peggy hosted a reception in their house to introduce CETV to Western MIP Asia participants. To make it a Western event, the Chuas (following the advice of former 20th Century Fox president Alan Silverbach) engaged PR agent Steve Syatt, who had left LBS, a distribution company in New York City, to open his own PR firm in Los Angeles. MIP Asia only lasted four years. In 1998, it was moved to Singapore and renamed Asia TV Forum. It’s now run by Reed MIDEM’s corporate division, Reed Exhibitions. AOL Time Warner became a CETV shareholder in 2001. Two years later, CETV was acquired by TOM Group, the Hong Kong-based Chinese- language media conglomerate. TOM Group closed CETV, Asia’s first satellite channel, in 2016. Chua had originally settled in Hong Kong, then a British colony, in 1967 at the age of 21, moving from his native Singapore where he’d worked as a By Dom Serafini Robert Chua: Sharing Life, TV Biz With Wife Peggy in Hong Kong Int’ l TV Distribut ion Hal l of Fame A young Chua at his desk at TVB in 1967 Peggy and Robert on their wedding day, January 1974 Chua in 1969 directing the Enjoy Yourself Tonight live TV show (Continued on Page 30)