China’s Media Morphosis
The Chinese television industry has witnessed numerous changes and amazing growth over the past decade. For one thing, idol shows are now becoming extremely popular throughout the country. This article from Beijing Review provides the latest industry news and trends as well as good insight into investment oppportunities in China’s TV market.
“After successive years of continuously high growth, the total pre-tax profit of the media industry has exceeded that of the tobacco industry, making it China’s fourth largest business. Advertising revenue has increased in volume 20 times in 10 years, topping the 100 billion yuan mark in 2003, with average annual growth of 35 percent.”
Mobile TV Still Fuzzy in China
Mobile television has beome such a hot topic in China that almost all manufacturers, mobile carriers and media organizations are getting ready to reap fat profits. Nonetheless, this article from Telecommagazine.com points to some major technical hurdles of this novelty. While technology is realizing many of our dreams, a lot of times patience is key.
“The motivation for launching an immature and commercially unproven technology like CMMB is subject to speculation, but some commentators believe it could be driven by the desire to erect a ‘Chinese wall’ around the domestic telecom market, locking out international competition while fostering internal growth.”
MTV offers online video content on Baidu
The room of development for non-Chinese media organizations in China’s tradtional media sectors seems quite unpredictable in the near future. That is probably why some international media moguls have turned to the new media for potential opportunities. According to this article from Yahoo News, MTV will work hand in hand with the Chinese language search engine giant to break new grouds.
The Rise of the Small Screen In China
The ongoing economic boom and exciting happenings in China make this country a perfect testing ground for new forms of media. With the rapid expansion of the cell phone market, mobile TV is ready to take off. Following that, as suggested in this article from Asia Times, watching movies on the cell phone screen will soon become a real-life experience.
“The Chinese cell-phone movie has just celebrated its first birthday, so the industry is only in the initial stage. A large majority of movies still rely on clumsily arranged humorous or erotic subject matter (the latter being more popular) to attract viewers.”
CHINA: TV host lost job ‘because of planned graft expose’
While the media industry in China has been expanding very fast in the past few years, censorship issues still apply. As reported in this article from Asia Media, the “Larry King of China” would have to put an end to his talk show simply because he was planning on featuring some politically sensitive material in the show. This may serve as an alarm for existing and future investors in the industry to pay more attention to the selection of content.
“His weekly talk show, called Larry Lang Live, drew millions of Chinese viewers with its sharp but colourful criticism of the country’s endemic corruption problems.”