China Media Monitor Headlines Archives

Work has started in earnest on Yang Guifei (or Sacrifice), a new £12 million musical feature film co-production from Great Britain's Captive Music and mainland companies Dadi Media and ESA Cultural Investment.

Since the partners signed off on the deal last year, British playwright Kenneth Clarke has finished the first draft of the English language screen-play. He is now working with mainland playwright Chen Han on the final English and Chinese language versions of the script. Broadway legend Toby Simkin has agreed to act as a producer, casting is underway and the production companies are in negotiations with director Chen Kaige.

Shooting is slated to start after the Chinese New Year, around mid-February 2010.

In a first for a mainland media organization, IPTV operator BestTV has acquired the rights to broadcast all of the NBA's pre-season games plus its regular games, play-offs and finals over the next 4 years.

The Shanghai Media Group (SMG) subsidiary plans to offer fans high IPTV definition broadcasts of all the matches, with subscriptions available for a low RMB30 (US$4.39) to RMB60 (US$8.78) per month. Under the deal it negotiated, BesTV will offer the NBA a cut of the revenues after the total subscribers reach an undisclosed threshold. The other details of the cooperation have not yet been released.

The China Video Industry Association, under the supervision of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), is formulating a set of national standards for Internet TV sets, according to Guangzhou Daily. The new standards are designed to promote the development of this new industry.

Since March this year, mainland TV set manufacturers such as TCL and Skyworth hae launched a number of internet TV sets on the market. The sets have proven popular with consumers, who appreciate the added functionality that allows them to download films and TV content off the web and view it on a TV screen.

The State Administration of Radio, Film and TV has approved Sony Pictures' science fiction film District 9. The film is expected to premiere in China at the end of November.