ViuTV (1776: The United Commonwealth of America)

ViuTV, formerly called as Commercial Television, is a commercial television network in Hong Kong that launched in September 7, 1975. The network was originally owned by Commercial Radio, Jardines, Sing Tao Daily, Wah Kiu Yat Pao, The Kung Sheung Daily News, and the Lam family (one of the founders of Hang Seng Bank) until 1982 when it helped by a consortum to prevent its bankruptcy.

The beginning
In 1973, the Hong Kong government issued licences for additional terrestrial television broadcasters, ending TVB's six-year monopoly as the sole free-to-air television company in Hong Kong. A group of shareholders formed a consortium (Commercial Television) to contest the licence; the six major shareholders were Commercial Radio, Jardines, Sing Tao Daily, Wah Kiu Yat Pao, The Kung Sheung Daily News, and the Lam family (one of the founders of Hang Seng Bank).

The licences were awarded on August 10, with Rediffusion Television receiving licences for two television stations (one broadcasting in Cantonese and the other in English), while Commercial Television only received one licence for a station broadcasting in Cantonese.

The launch and financial crisis
The station launched at 6:00 pm on September 7, 1975. Its logo was a hexagon formed from six angled lines, representing the Six Arts (禮樂射御書數) in Confucian philosophy, as well as the six major stakeholders. At the time, the station was reportedly mocked for using the Six Arts as the inspiration for its logo, as 御書數 (Charioteering, Calligraphy and Mathematics) in Cantonese sounds similar to the phrase 預輸數 (predicted/prepared for defeat).

One of the station's licensing conditions was to air two hours of educational programming every week night, with no commercial interruptions. Such programming on the station was primarily oriented at adults, covering topics such as automechanics, interior design, and foreign languages. The station struggled to break even as a result of this requirement. An attempt was made to resurrect the failing station in July 1976 when Selina Chow, then Assistant general manager of TVB was drafted in as its new general manager. A significant amount of money was spent on producing drama series; The number of staff trebled, and the cash-burn rate escalated under Chow.

The Closing and Rescuing
On August 21, 1978, the station announced it was ending its operations, its 800 staff were laid off and the company was declared bankrupt on October 19. Following the station's collapse, the government concluded that a third commercial television station "did not appear viable".

But in 1980, Jardine Matheson had applied a license of the TV station with to the government once again but the license granted by it. At this time, the company was called "Independent Television of Hong Kong, Ltd.".

ITV era
In January 1982, CTV was relaunched as a affiliate of British ITV by a consortium formed by Jardine Matheson and two ITV stations, Thames Television and Central Independent Television.

Handover
In July 1, 1997, following Hong Kong's transfer of sovereignty to China, CTV ended its afiliation with ITV and became an independent network.

As ViuTV
In 2000, CTV announced that the name changes to ViuTV on 31 March, 2001.