BBC TV shows broadcast on sohu. com. Photo: sohu.com

By Chen Yang

Even before such overseas shows as Friends, Sex and the City, Lost and Prison Break became popular with young Chinese viewers who watched pirated DVDs and/or downloaded them from the Internet, foreign TV networks were eager to expand their business in the mainland, where - save for a few exceptions, most overseas programs, particularly news, are forbidden to the general public.

BBC Worldwide is one of them. The commercial arm of BBC held its first BBC Showcase China for 130 potential buyers in Beijing last Wednesday, offering more than 500 hours of finished programs for the mainland market.

"We have been in China for more than 20 years, by holding this event we can maintain our relationship with existing clients such as China Central Television and Hunan Satellite TV, as well as expand to new clients in both traditional and digital fields such as Sohu.com," said Steve Macallister, managing director for Sales & Distribution of BBC Worldwide.

BBC Worldwide signed a two-year content supply agreement with Sohu, one of China's main Internet portals, during the event, providing the Sohu Video Channel with licensed dramas and children's and educational programs, including Tale of Two Cities, Planet Earth and Teletubbies.

Financial details were not disclosed. But Sohu will invest a total of $20 million to buy domestic and overseas licensed video contents this year, according to Sohu's CEO Zhang Chaoyang at a telephone conference in July.

Macallister's department gained a total of revenue of £240.8 million ($374 million) for BBC Worldwide last year. "We experienced healthy growth in China last year, but at the same time it is quite a small figure," he said. "So we hope there is plenty room for future growth, especially in terms of co-production like Wild China with CCTV."

He said Chinese buyers prefer factual programming, especially natural history, due to easy cross-cultural understanding, as well as children's programs due to its convenient adaptability.

Joyce Yeung, senior vice president and general manager for Sales and Distribution Asia of BBC Worldwide, admitted that BBC Worldwide must follow certain local censorship guidelines when operating in China. "There are certain scenes that can be considered as sensitive by the local regulations, so we allow clients to make certain adjustment to the contents," she said.

BBC TV shows broadcast on sohu. com. Photo: sohu.com

The piracy problem

Piracy is another problem faced by all program providers in China. There are vendors selling pirate BBC drama and documentary DVDs in subway tunnels and along the streets, and there are also fan groups on the Internet, recording the latest programs from overseas TV channels, adding Chinese subtitles and uploading for millions of viewers for free.

Li Zhe, a 20-year-old high school graduate in Yuncheng, Shanxi Province, used to be one of them. He has been a fan of foreign TV fare since he was in junior middle school and began watching Dexter, a Showtime drama about blood spatter-pattern analyst for a Florida police department who moonlights as a serial killer who murders other serial killers.

Li, who will begin studying civil engineering at the University of Leeds next month, said he once worked for a fan group forum called bbs.uuniao. com and wrote Chinese subtitles for some movies such as $9.99 and Live Free or Die Hard 4.0. "I did that totally for free, but the most I could get from the work was just a VIP status in the forum which gave me downloading priority," he said. "I left the group because of Chinese authorities' crackdowns on the forums, and I couldn't upload my translation work."

The State Administration of Radio, Film and Television closed down hundreds of downloading websites in December, but some were reopened later and kept lower profiles.

Macallister said BBC tries to build its awareness and extends to a larger audience in China by doing business as much as possible with legitimate buyers, rather than let its programs circulate on unlicensed channels.

"Piracy is a problem not only in China, but also it's a global issue so we need to work together as an industry to eradicate it," he said. "If we find out from legitimate clients that our contents have been pirated, then we will work with them to try to shut that down."

Pierre Chung, BBC Worldwide's senior business development manager in China, said they would contact the unlicensed websites and first offer cooperation. "But if the websites insist on offering pirate programs, we will resort to legal action," he added.

BBC TV shows broadcast on sohu. com. Photo: sohu.com

Foreign expansion

Overseas media companies are also exporting their program formats and co-producing more shows with Chinese partners.

Beijing-based Shixi Media introduced BBC Entertainment formats Strictly Come Dancing and Just the Two of Us in 2006, and collaborated with Hunan Satellite TV to produce Chinese versions. It also helped export Hunan TV' s Challenging Microphone, an original public karaoke program, to Thailand in 2009.

Other TV companies such as the Fox in the US, the UK's ITV and Fremantle, France's Mistral and Ger-many's Sevenone have also exported TV formats including Skating with Celebrities, Take Me Out, and Intercities to Chinese stations.

"The format price for Strictly Come Dancing is $5,000 per episode," said Liu Xichen, president of Shixi media. "Currently the annual format import market stays around 20 million yuan ($2.94 million) in China."

Macallister said BBC Worldwide's business in China is still primarily selling finished TV programs, but co-production also shows huge potential. "A number of clients within the Chinese broadcast community have expressed interest in co-productions," he said.

"We will cooperate with Hunan TV and release Top Gear's Chinese version soon," Liu added.