China Media Monitor Headlines Archives

Mainland video site Voole has announced it will sue all companies who placed their ads before, during or after pirated content on rival site Youku, reports Sina. Voole said it is gathering evidence on the advertising featured on 589 pirated TV dramas and films hosted on Youku. Voole brought a similar case against Coca-Cola in the Beijing Haidian District People's Court on December 15 but the case was dismissed on grounds of insufficient evidence.

Xinhua News Agency is set to launch a satellite TV channel called China International TV in 2010 after launching trial broadcasts on November 18, reports Tencent. After the official launch, the channel will air China-related and international news in Chinese after its official launch. English language broadcasts will be introduced at a later date. The channel will cover the Asian-Pacific region at the start and later expand to Europe and America. "Many world famous news agencies have their own TV platform to broadcast news. Xinhua News Agency has made the effort to join them," said Audio-Video Department Manager Zhang Hao.

Leading mainland online video site Youku plans to raise the rates for some of its ad space by 20% to 30% next year, according to Vice President of Operations and CEO Executive Assistant Wei Ming. Although Youku has more than 300 advertising clients - including manufacturers of fast-moving consumer goods, cars and IT products – its revenues are still insufficient to cover broadband fees. Most mainstream online video sites in China are operating at a loss. Broadband and copyright fees are their largest expenditures.

The China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) shut down 699 websites with pornographic content from December 10 to 14, reports Sina. The state-controlled CNNIC found the sites by following up on the reports the public lodged on its hotline, which opened on December 10. The sites were closed down after CNNIC employees verified the reports. CNNIC has also shut down more than 8,000 phishing sites in 2009.

Chinese Internet users have turned to other online video sites for their content fix following last week's closure of some of China's largest BitTorrent sites, reports National Business Daily. Popular video sites such as Tudou.com and 56.com have reported 10% to 20% jumps in traffic compared to the previous week. Wang Jianjun, CEO of 56.com, said "The increase in traffic occurred right after the BitTorrent sites were shut down but I’m not sure whether it will continue to grow."