The Rise of Independent TV Producers
Foreign media companies are pressing PRC regulators to open up China's cable TV market. (The 2003 Catalogue Guiding Foreign Investment in Industry forbids foreign investment in program production, publishing, and broadcasting.) In fact, some foreign TV production companies have already slipped their programming into the mainland by way of China's growing number of independent production companies. These companies are not only intermediaries for foreign media companies, but also major content providers for local TV networks.
The emergence of independent TV production companies is a result of China's competitive TV advertising market. China's TV broadcasters currently rely mainly on advertising for their revenues. To attract advertising from increasingly choosy advertisers, these broadcasters must constantly boost the quality and variety of their programs. The demand for good programming in turn has spawned a growing number of independent TV producers. Beijing-based Enlight TV Production Co. Ltd. provides one example. Established in October 1998, the company currently produces programs that are broadcast daily over some 230 TV stations across China. Meanwhile, its revenue from selling ads (independent producers often get paid in ad slots rather than cash) rose to ¥150 million ($18.1 million) in 2002 from ¥4 million ($483,840) in 1999.
Roughly 80 percent of programs broadcast by China's TV stations today come from independent producers. Independent programming dominates most content categories, with the exception of news, which is still tightly regulated by the government. What advantages do independent TV producers have compared with state-owned TV producers and networks? First, their programs better reflect most viewers' daily lives, or at least a vision of daily life that viewers want to see—independent producers frequently survey China's TV viewers to gauge their programming preferences. Second, these companies generally produce more innovative and entertaining TV programs. And last, they have started to cooperate with foreign media companies in bringing foreign programming into China. Tanglong International Media, for example, began importing programs from Viacom's Nickelodeon Channel in 2001, while Hainan Holdings inked a deal to introduce Disney's cartoons to mainland audiences in the same year.
The most popular foreign programs have traditionally been drama shows imported from Hong Kong and Taiwan, but South Korean programming has recently been making inroads in China. With the exception of the drama shows from Taiwan, most of the programs are dubbed, though some are subtitled.
Recently, imports of new types of programming, such as news, science, and educational programs have begun to increase—but they have yet to attract a large audience. PRC law does not permit the broadcaster to show the program's country of origin or the name of the original program producer.
With an increasing number of private companies entering China's TV programming sector, growing competition not surprisingly has begun to take its toll. At the end of 2002 more than 1,000 independent companies were producing TV programs. By the middle of 2003, many of these companies had either merged or closed their doors. But though more mergers will undoubtedly follow in the next few years, independent companies will nevertheless continue to dominate China's TV programming industry.
This article has been adapted from recent MFC Insight Briefs, a weekly telecom information service (www.mfcinsight.com).
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