China Media Monitor Headlines Archives

WinTV has entered the third round of bidding for the next three years of broadcast rights for the FA Premier League in mainland China, reports National Business Daily. The pay-TV station, which has held the broadcast rights for the last three years, entered the bidding process when it started in November 2009. It will continue through to the final outcome in January, 2010 according to an unnamed source at WinTV.

Unlicensed online video websites will have until December 20 to apply for an operating license under the terms of a September notice released by the State Administration of Radio, Film and TV (SARFT), reports Tencent. SARFT has announced it will launch a comprehensive audit of all online video sites on March 1, 2010. It will shut down all unlicensed sites operating for more than three months.

VeryCD, a popular online site offering P2P downloads of audio-visual content, was back online just one day after it was inaccessible for 24 hours on December 9, reports Sina. The brief period of downtime sparked rumors that VeryCD had been down as part of the State Administration of Radio, Film and TV's (SARFT) current campaign against unlicensed video websites, despite the operator's repeated denials. Site Co-Founder Huang Yimeng said the downtime was due to technical problems. VeryCD is currently in the process of applying for an operating license from SARFT.

The export revenues generated by Chinese TV dramas have remained stable at around US$10 million per annum since 2000, reports China Daily. China International TV Corporation (CITVC) spokesperson Cheng Chunli said Chinese TV dramas have failed to enter mainstream Western markets, with exports limited to East and Southeast Asia. Costume dramas accounted for the bulk of mainland programs sold overseas, he added.

Cheng Chunli said the poor sales could be attributed to the relative length of Chinese series, which are broadcast daily rather than weekly, as well as the complex cultural and historical references in the plotlines of many Chinese TV dramas.

SARFT started a "Go Abroad" project in 2001. Exporters of TV dramas are promised crucial government support in the Outline of the 11th Five-year Plan for National Culture Development.

From 2010, a 40% limit will be imposed on the broadcast time of TV dramas as a proportion of all programming on provincial satellite TV channels, according to State Administration of Radio, Film and TV (SARFT) TV Drama Director Li Jingsheng. He made his statement at the annual conference of the China Radio and TV Production Committee held on December 9. Li also took the opportunity to criticize Huayi Brothers’ TV drama production Dwelling Narrowness (Wo Ju) for its negative portrayal of officialdom and its sexual content.