China Media Monitor Headlines Archives

Star China Media; the joint venture between News Corp and China Media Capital which is affiliated to Shanghai Media Group (SMG) , has appointed former Shanghai Media Group executive Tian Ming  as its CEO. He’s replacing Jack Gao will manage other News Corp investments in China. The company also appointed Cao Zhigao，a veteran of the ad sales sector, as its Chief Operating Officer with immediate effect. SCM's media assets currently include the three TV channels Xing Kong Wei Shi, Xing Kong International, Channel V Mainland China, and the Fortune Star movie library.

Guangdong Satellite TV will launch a match making show based on Endemol’s format Dating in the Dark. The show’s Chinese version is called Wanmei Anlian and will be broadcasted every Saturday night from June 18. Feng Lingyi, vice general director of the channel, said that the show will be completely different with existing match making shows that currently in Chinese market. Participants at first will communicate without seeing each other and will only meet after a series of discussions.

Beijing has been rumored to receive approval from the State Council to launch IPTV services around October this year. Twelve trial cities including Beijing and Tianjin submitted three network convergence proposals soon after the State Council released a list of 12 three network convergence trial cities in July last year. The China Mobile Beijing branch and Beijing cable operator Gehua signed a strategic cooperative agreement earlier this month. The agreement will complementary allow both parties to cooperate on mutual resources. Tianjin has already launched IPTV based on cooperation between the local branches of China Unicom and Tianjin Broadcast Group.

China’s Internet economy size has reached RMB151.32 billion (US$23.36 billion) by the end of last year, an increase of 53.9% year-on-year, according to China Internet Economy Research Report released by iResearch. The size will increase to RMB52.2 billion (US$8.06 billion) by the end of first quarter this year. The report said Chinese Internet companies have to be more creative and provide services of higher quality to seize opportunities and combat challenges in the new era. The report went on to note that sectors like online gaming, video sharing and infrastructure construction all have a huge potential with Chinese Internet and mobile Internet users with their number growing at a very fast pace.

Shanda’s online literature subsidiary Shanda Literature submitted the applications to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on May 24 to launch an IPO. It plans to be listed on the NYSE and aims to raise US$200 million through an IPO. It would be the fourth listed subsidiary of Shanda if the IPO were to succeed. The other three are Shanda Interactive Entertainment, Shanda Game and video sharing site Ku6. Shanda Literature has purchased 7 online literature websites in previous years and has launched its proprietary e-book reader Bambook. It made RMB390 million (US$60.19 million) net revenues in 2010 but still suffered loss of RMB4.23 million (US$652,873.48) in first quarter this year.