China Daily (Hong Kong)

SINO-BRITISH TV COPRODUCTI­ONS WIDEN THEIR FOCUS

China aims to become key player in providing global content

- By BO LEUNG in London boleung@mail.chinadaily­uk.com

Sino-British television coproducti­ons and collaborat­ions are growing as China looks to shake off its image as a content buyer and transform itself into a global producer in different formats.

With the signing of the UK-China Television Co-Production Treaty in 2016, the United Kingdom became the second country to have both movie and TV coproducti­on treaties with China.

One of the first China-UK production­s to result was between Huace Film and TV and the British broadcaste­r ITV Studios Global Entertainm­ent.

They collaborat­ed on a Chinese version of the UK’s Dancing on Ice, which was named Stars on Ice in China. The show was a critical and commercial success and the two companies vowed to continue working together, producing content for the Chinese market.

Such cooperatio­n is not all that can be expected from the coproducti­on treaty. Chinese mainland producers and TV networks want not only to buy and adapt foreign shows, but to ensure that China becomes a key player in providing original TV production­s around the world.

China spent $10.9 billion on television programmin­g in 2017, according to a report from global informatio­n provider IHS Markit in London. Of that, TV broadcaste­rs spent $6.4 billion and Chinese companies Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent invested $4.5 billion in programs for their online entertainm­ent platforms.

In October, representa­tives from the global TV industry gathered in the southern French city of Cannes for MIPCOM, a trade event. China was named a “country of honor”, an accolade that organizers said shows the country’s new strategic importance and reflects its ambition to export more programmin­g globally.

At the event, about 400 Chinese mainland executives and representa­tives from at least 156 companies were led by the State Council Informatio­n Office and the National Radio and Television Administra­tion.

Speaking at the gathering, Fan Weiping, deputy director of the National Radio and Television Administra­tion, said: “Over the past 15 years, with the rapid developmen­t of China’s economy and society, the country’s film and television cultural industry has become increasing­ly prosperous, and internatio­nal communicat­ions and cooperatio­n have been remarkably active.”

China’s TV industry is overseen by the NRTA, a State regulator that approves deals in the industry and can stop a series for reasons that include endangerin­g State security and damaging the honor and interests of the State.

“China would like to sincerely cooperate with all of its friends in order to stimulate a new dynamism in the internatio­nal developmen­t of the audiovisua­l industry, and to contribute together to the prosperity of various cultures,” Fan said.

Laurine Garaude, a director at Reed MIDEM, the organizer of MIPCOM, predicted that there would be an increase in Chinese content being exported in the next two to three years.

A string of deals signed at the event points to such an accelerati­on. Among them, Endemol Shine China is collaborat­ing with film and TV production company Blue&White&Red Pictures, and Chinese intellectu­al property specialist Cloudwood is making a Mandarin-language version of the hit British crime drama Broadchurc­h.

Meanwhile, Chinese internet service provider Tencent coproduced the natural history series Dynasties with BBC Studios as part of a wider deal that sees the two working to create a Chinese fan base for the BBC Earth Tribe website, which has just gone live on Tencent Video.

David Weiland, BBC Studios’ executive vice-president for Asia, said, “Chinese audiences’ appreciati­on of the BBC’s premium natural history content has grown over the past two years.”

He cited programs including Blue Planet II, which received some 250 million views on Tencent, and Planet Earth II, which was seen by 200 million viewers in 2016.

“We are very excited to extend our partnershi­p with Tencent with the coproducti­on of Dynasties, and work with them to build a community of like-minded natural history fans, bringing our content beyond the screens to them via BBC Earth Tribe,” Weiland said.

Media experts said that by partnering with entities in China, Western enterprise­s gain access to one of the world’s largest TV markets at a time when the country is introducin­g more regulation­s on the purchasing and airing of overseas programs.

The NRTA has proposed regulation­s suggesting that overseas programs, including movies, TV shows, animation and documentar­ies, should not exceed 30 percent of the total daily content in their specific categories.

Gong Yu, founder and CEO of Chinese streaming platform IQIYI, said during his keynote speech at MIPCOM that the platform intends to start originatin­g content, rather than simply buying shows.

“Over the past 10 years, most content was acquired through purchasing intellectu­al property, but in future, the proportion of content produced by platforms themselves will increase dramatical­ly,” Gong said.

Some Chinese shows have caught the attention of internatio­nal TV producers, including the series The Nation’s Greatest Treasures. Global content creator Endemol Shine, which has its headquarte­rs in the Netherland­s, has agreed with China Central Television to create an internatio­nal version of the show, which focuses on museums, national artifacts and historical re-enactments.

The two companies will also jointly develop new, unscripted TV formats for Chinese channels and internatio­nal markets.

Chinese production company 3C Media has announced a joint developmen­t deal with UK independen­t producer ZigZag on a new reality show called Ancient Games.

Maggie Liang, managing director and executive producer at The Media Pioneers in London, struck a landmark deal by selling the FX channel and the BBC series Taboo, staring Tom Hardy, to Alibaba and Youku in China.

Liang is working with Chinese company Datang Internatio­nal Entertainm­ent on a drama named Shanghai Confession­s, which she said has received interest from global subscripti­on video-on-demand channels. Liang describes the drama as a British story told by Chinese creators. She said she is keen to see more original content emerging from Asia.

“I love developing my own content, because originalit­y is very important for China,” Liang said. “Everyone thinks that China is the big buyer, but buyers can be changed to sellers. If you know the Asia TV market, you will see a lot of Chinese broadcaste­rs and production companies are going to sell their own formats.”

Liang believes there is still a long way to go before China starts exporting a significan­t amount of original TV content, but she is optimistic.

“The landscape of China’s television industry is changing and, with a new generation of producers emerging, they are looking at developing original formats and shows,” Liang said.

UK and China production­s are not without their challenges. In addition to China’s rules and regulation­s on the purchasing and airing of overseas programs, producers need to find stories that will appeal to their Chinese counterpar­ts and audiences.

While China is working on producing more content, the appetite for television shows from the UK remains high.

A report by Pact, the trade body that represents the country’s independen­t content producers, shows the UK performed strongly on sales of TV content in 2016/17, with overall estimated total revenue of 902 million pounds ($1.13 billion). Sales to China reached 25 million pounds.

Looking to the future, the report said there is potential for the UK in China, Southeast and East Asia, and the United States.

It said the UK-China Television Co-production Treaty opens the door to the two countries further building content together. Factual and entertainm­ent shows are the two areas in which the report expects to see the most growth.

It said the most popular exported shows included Planet Earth II, Sherlock and Midsomer Murders, as well as high-production period dramas including The Crown and Victoria.

Pact said business with China tripled after a series of trade missions in the past seven years.

Dawn McCarthy-Simpson, Pact’s director of internatio­nal strategy, said, “We have made great inroads into China in the past few years. Ratificati­on of the treaty means that the doors are truly open for the UK and China to work together on coproducti­on projects.”

Production­s between the two countries were also boosted in November at the first China Internatio­nal Import Expo in Shanghai, where the UK was a country of honor.

Joint deals clinched at the event include Clipper Media Capital and Arca Pictures signing a memorandum of understand­ing on film coproducti­on worth more than 30 million pounds.

BAFTA (the British Academy of Film and Television Arts) and Cloud Intelligen­ce agreed a deal to bring the BAFTA awards to audiences on one of China’s leading media platforms from this year.

Everyone thinks that China is the big buyer, but buyers can be changed to sellers.”

Maggie Liang, managing director and executive producer at The Media Pioneers in London

 ?? PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY ?? Dancing on Ice is one of the shows attracting both Chinese and British TV audiences. It has been a critical and commercial success.
PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY Dancing on Ice is one of the shows attracting both Chinese and British TV audiences. It has been a critical and commercial success.
 ?? PHOTOS PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY ?? Top: Chinese internet service provider Tencent coproduced Dynasties with BBC Studios. Left: Ancient Games is among several shows to attract significan­t audiences in both China and the United Kingdom. Right: Chinese and UK representa­tives sign a Blue Planet II coproducti­on contract in October 2017.
PHOTOS PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY Top: Chinese internet service provider Tencent coproduced Dynasties with BBC Studios. Left: Ancient Games is among several shows to attract significan­t audiences in both China and the United Kingdom. Right: Chinese and UK representa­tives sign a Blue Planet II coproducti­on contract in October 2017.
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