China Media Monitor Headlines Archives

The State Administration of Radio, Film and TV (SARFT) approved the production of 24 animation series in December 2009, according to a statement released on the SARFT website. The series which are intended for broadcast on TV have a combined length of 28,722 minutes.

Private companies and state owned enterprises in Shanghai’s radio, film, TV, Internet, animation and entertainment agency sectors earned nearly RMB30 billion (US$4.39 billion) in 2009, reports Wen Wei Po. Around 800 new enterprises operating in these sectors were established in 2009 with a combined registered capital of RMB4 billion (US$585.65 million). Last year’s box office receipts in Shanghai totaled RMB679 million (US$99.41 million). Furthermore, the Radio and TV sector experienced a 15.4% annual growth in revenue rising to RMB14.1 billion (US$2.06 billion).

China’s 3G mobile phone users reached 13.50 million by the end of 2009, reports China News. Last year China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom made a combined investment of RMB16.09 million (US$2.34 million) in the construction of 320,000 3G base stations. China Mobile’s 3G service which uses the home grown TD-SCDMA standard has 5.51 million subscribers.

Zhejiang Children’s Publishing House defended its title in 2009 as the annual children’s books sales champion for the 7th year in a row, according to the book retail market researcher OpenBook, reports China Press and Publication Journal. The publishing house’s major undertakings in 2010 include the importation of the Simon & Schuster publication The Hardy Boys from the US and the publication of the comic book Legend of a Swordsman (Qinshi Mingyue), which also has been made into an animation series and broadcast on CCTV.

Chinese actress Yu Nan has been appointed as a member of the jury at the Berlin Film Festival which opens on February 11, announced the China Film Group (CFG). Tuya’s Marriage (Tuya De Hun Shi), in which she played the lead role won the festival’s Golden Bear at the Berlinale in 2007. Other members of the jury are German director Werner Herzog, Italian director and writer Francesca Comencini, Somali author Nuruddin Farah, German actress Cornelia Froboess, Spanish producer José Maria Morales and American actress Renée Zellweger.