China Media Monitor Headlines Archives

Hunan TV, one of China's leading provincial stations, will launch a new talk show called Encyclopedia in a bid to attract more viewers. The show invites viewers to improve their general knowledge by coupling interesting guests with the dynamic presence of five of China's most popular hosts, including Xie Na, Zhu Zixiao and Tang Xiao. The show will be broadcast in the same primetime time slot as popular talent show Beat the Mike (Tiaozhan Maikefeng), which has just finished its third season. Hunan TV is also set to launch another talk show, 8090, about the love lives of young people.

Anhui TV station and Taiwan CTV inked a TV drama and gala event co-production deal during Anhui Culture Week, which was held in Taiwan from November 16 to 22. Both stations will broadcast all of the new content produced as a result of the deal. The partners have already co-produced the Sunday Best (Zhouri Wo Zuida) variety show, as well as a gala performance for the Mid Autumn festival in 2008.

Online piracy has become an increasing problem in Chinese Internet cafes, according to a recent report by Dadu Consulting. Around 89.4% of the content downloaded in Internet cafes is pirated, an increase of around 10% compared to last year. The growth in online piracy has also created a market for copyright protection and anti-piracy initiatives. The report estimates this anti-piracy market is worth RMB9 billion (US$1.32 billion) per annum.

Independent production company Huayi Brothers has produced more than 10 TV drama series with more than 357 episodes in the first 11 months of this year, according to a November 25 report in West China Metropolis Daily. The dramas have been aired on a variety of satellite and terrestrial TV channels, including Beijing Satellite TV, Dragon TV and Zhejiang TV's Drama Channel. Company President Wang Zhongjun said he expects Huayi Brothers to make around RMB300 million (US$43.94 million) from TV dramas this year. They plan to produce 600 episodes of high quality drama over the next 3 years.

Beijing plans to build a 15-kilometer media industry corridor to the east of the new CCTV building in Chaoyang District, according to a press conference at the 4th China Beijing International Cultural & Creative Industry Expo. Feng Chunqiu, deputy director of the Chaoyang District Publicity Department, said he expects the corridor to attract more than 20,000 media companies and RMB100 billion (US$14.6 billion) in annual revenues. The Beijing government plans to raise around RMB15 billion (US$2.2 billion) in private capital to build the infrastructure for the media corridor. China Education TV, Shanghai Media Group, Hunan Satellite TV and Tianjin Satellite TV are already discussing their site in the corridor, according to Feng.