China Media Monitor Headlines Archives

Beijing Polybona Film Distribution plans to launch an IPO on the New York Stock Exchange in either the second half of 2010 or the first half of 2011, according to Chief Executive Yu Dong on November 3. He said the company will start drafting its listing application early next year.

Polybona currently has film distribution, film production and cinema operation business arms. Its plans to launch an IPO follow in the steps of two of rival film companies. Huayi Brothers Media Corp debuted on China's new start-up companies market in the southern city of Shenzhen on October 30, surging 148 percent on its first day of trading. The state-run China Film Group has also announced plans to list in Shanghai.

China National Radio launched an entertainment radio channel with the medium wave frequency of 747 kHz on October 28. The channel airs 20 hours a day and covers Beijing. Its contents feature cross talk, local traditional drama, classic music and popular music.

Taiwan Cartoonist Zhu Deyong is suing Beijing TV's Finance Channel plus China Business Network TV (CBN), Shanghai SMG Broadband Ltd and Shanghai Weizhong Video Communications for copyright violations. Beijing Haidian District Court heard the case on October 28 but deferred judgment to a later date.

Zhu Deyong claims that Shanghai Weizhong Video Communications infringed the copyright on his popular comic book On This Matter To Go To Work (Guanyu Shangban Zhedianshi) by producing a talk show with a very similar name, Go to Work - This Thing (Shangban Zhedianshi). He also alleges the producers used key sentences from his book to promote the show. BTV Finance Channel, CBN and Shanghai SMG Broadband have been added to the case for airing the program.

Zhu Deyong is asking the defendants to stop producing and broadcasting the program immediately and to offer RMB500,000 (US$73,206) in compensation for economic loss. All of the defendants have denied the accusation.

China International TV Corporation (CITVC) signed contracts and letters of intent for projects worth around US$1.6 million at the Tokyo Television Festival, according to an October 30 announcement on CCTV.com. CITVC is a wholly-owned CCTV subsidiary and the exclusive agent for all CCTV programming.

Major independent Chinese production company Enlight Media expects to syndicate around 6 hours of programming every day to more than 100 local city-level TV channels across the country in 2010. The company syndicated programming to around 70 city-level stations in 2009 and signed cooperation contracts with another 20 TV stations at an October 19 conference.