Time for Standards and Continuity, Please

BEIJING --- Along with the 2001 full year statistics that emerge each March come the inevitable complaints that the numbers do not add up, that the market is poorly regulated and poorly managed and that regulators are following a series of short term measures rather than tackle the major issues.

While continuing to chart growth across all sectors, reviews of 2001 throw up at least as many questions as answers and reveal many of the contradictions in the industry.

By far the most fundamental failure to introduce standards and continuity in the industry relates to the continued lack of national digital standards. Four institutes have submitted their own transmission standard proposals, a number of listed companies are continuing their investment into networks and several broadcasters are experimenting with digital production and broadcast, but the latest news from SARFT is that no final decision will be made until next year.

Meanwhile, the administrators of the new media groups are battling to sort out internal contradictions and challenges thrown up by high speed mergers and consolidation. In Guangdong, heads are being scratched over the ownership of cable network companies in Guangzhou and Shenzhen.

Now subsidiaries of their respective Radio & TV Groups, they are also subsidiaries of the provincial level Guangdong Cable Network company under the Guangdong Radio & TV Group. How they sort out division of subscription and advertising revenues has now become an issue of direct importance to the Hongkong-based channels that received permission to air on cable nets in Guangdong last year. (see CMM passiim).

Another inexplicable conundrum is the release of three credible different total advertising turnover estimates for 2001. According to AC Nielsen, China’s total adspend in 2001 reached US$11.2 billion, the highest figure in the region and a 16% increase from the previous year.

However, CVSC-TNS Research (CTR) figures differ starkly (CTR claims that the discrepancy is due to differences in calculation methods, and asked CMM-I not to quote the figure in the article), as do the official figures from the State Administration of Industry & Commerce (SAIC), according to which 2001 total ad turner reached US$9.6 billion. The only matter on which everyone is agreed is that China has bucked the global trend and recorded increases in adspend across media.

This was confirmed by CCTV's announcement that revenues rose 6% over the year and 22% at its annual prime time auction. Just how this relates to CCTV's recorded revenues for tax purposes is an open question, similar to the type being asked about the validity or relevance of CCTV research on its own channels (see related articles in this issue) conducted by companies within its own China Radio, Film and TV Group.

Topping the complaint list for international program distributors is the SARFT decision to allow Shanghai TV Festival to move from its traditional Autumn slot to June 2002, just weeks after the Beijing International TV Week and bringing three major China events into one accounting year.

Conceived by SARFT as an opportunity for competition in the fairs market, the result has been to weaken both events and give the impression that the state is unable to protect or promote its monopoly in a logical manner. At the time of writing, the STVF seems to be winning the battle to attract international program exhibitors, while BTVW is focusing on a high level conference for international leaders to meet their counterparts at China's new media groups.

At the same time, the Sichuan TV Festival is also considering changing from its "every other year" format to an annual one, although the SCTVF focus on documentaries has been widely welcomed as a sustainable niche for the western province.

At the end of the day, the frustrations felt by all involved in Chinese media as it travels strange roads towards a known destination are combining to point the way forward. Looking again at those issues, the dream would seem to be nothing more than a market with a single transmission standard, transparent ownership of media assets, one integrated statistics service and mature and well timed fairs and markets.