[W. Knight]

Some local studio captures from Hong Kong. Your official broadcasters: ViuTV (FTA Ch.99) for 19 of the total matches, and cable network NowTV for the full coverage.

It's a real shame I can't find the Twitter thread from the Euro last year but it seems like nothing has changed in HK with all the men doing the 'serious' stuff and the women dressed in jerseys on the couch or elsewhere, whether it's Premiere League or FIFA/UEFA competitions (the Twitter thread was interesting with bemused people noting how sometimes the jerseys they wore had 0 relevance to the match they were commenting!).

So it turns out NowTV could afford the broadcasting rights. They were getting worried they were getting unaffordable for such a small population for it to be profitable. Last time (2018 I believe?), they were lucky enough to buy it back from a Mainland broadcaster that went belly up after having bid higher for the broadcasting rights).

Raises an interesting question, for countries with small populations (and perhaps even fewer people who watch football), how are broadcasters dealing with the skyrocketing price of broadcasting rights?

Interesting observation! Not a sports lover, I don't realise that arrangement is less seen in other countries, which I'll admit is a bit old-time 'eye candy' effect at works. There had been women commentators at the main desks in previous events - mostly former athletes, but still, a bit limited.

As for the broadcasting rights, 2018 World Cup was indeed handed to Chinese OTT platform LeSports, until their mother company went belly up, and passed the rights to the NowTV/ViuTV combo for $600mil HKD.

And to answer the last question - they can't. Searching back news articles, World Cup rights in HK had been in the hands of Cable TV (the company, not the general term) since 2002, while ATV and TVB had to license their footage from them. That's not always the case though- for instance, TVB News had to use recreated 3D animation for their coverage in 2010, thanks to a broken deal with the Cable guys. 

It was not until 2014, when TVB won the rights for approx. $400 mil HKD (no specific amount was announced), that football returned to FTA screens. World Cup in HK had been in a colourful competition in the old days (like ATV's innovation in 1990 - look ma, no ad breaks!), and it's sad that excitement faded away when they're locked behind paywalls.