China Media Monitor Headlines Archives

The Bank of Beijing will provide the August First Film Studio a RMB500 million (US$73.21 million) loan, under a recently inked strategic cooperative agreement. The August First Film Studio, a subsidiary of the People's Liberation Army, will use the loan to produce and distribute films and TV dramas, and construct cinemas.

Around 192 million Chinese use their mobile phones to access the Internet, according to a new report from China Business. With the number of Internet mobile phone users expected to grow as 3G technology develops, the newspaper predicts a promising future market for the mobile phone Internet business.

CCTV.com, the New Media arm of state-run national broadcaster CCTV, launched two interactive video sites on November 13 - xiyou.cctv.com and bugu.cctv.com. The Xiyou site offers SNS and video sharing functions, while the Bugu site focuses on direct broadcasting, according to a report on donews.com. CCTV.com plans to release three more online channels in early December: news, entertainment and sports.

Online video site Tudou.com and China Film Group Corporation (CFG) have announced plans to co-produce new drama series Mr Lei for mobile phone TV. The series will premiere on Online Video Channel, a 3G mobile phone TV channel owned and operated by China Mobile. Tudou will be the exclusive content provider for the channel, which is currently in trial operation. Company spokesperson Jiang Weimin said it plans to invest RMB100 million (US$14.64 million) on content for the channel in 2010.

The State Administration of Radio, Film & Television (SARFT) announced it has shut down a further 111 online video sites for operating without a license, taking the 2009 total up to 414 sites. The broadcast industry regulator said most of the sites it shut down hosted pornographic, "vulgar" and/or pirated material. It warned that it will increase it efforts to crack down on illegal online video sites over the remainder of the year.