Foreign Introduced Reality in ’s Market

A Thesis

Submitted to the Faculty

of

Drexel University

by

Yiyan He

in partial fulfillment of the

requirements for the degree

of

Master of Science in Television Management

Spring 2013

ii

© Copyright 2013 Yiyan He Reserved iii

Acknowledgments

I would like to acknowledge and express the deepest appreciation to committee chair and my program director, Albert Tedesco, who has extensive experience in television and communication field and gives me much support and advice during my years in Drexel

University. I cannot thank him enough for his wisdom and support.

Many thanks to my thesis advisor, Lydia Timmins who gives me valuable advice regarding the thesis. Without her guidance and help, the thesis would not have been possible.

I would like to express my gratitude to all professors of the TV Management program, who give me insights to the different American and Chinese television system and industry. A thank you to my colleagues during my internship at Media Group, who let me join the of : China Rush and gain lots of information for the thesis preparation. I also would like to thank my colleagues and supervisors from CNN New York, who brought me into the real American cable network’s production.

To my loving parents, thank you for believing in me and your support and encouragement. To my friends, thank you for all your comfort and support. iv

Table of Contents Acknowledgments...... iii Table of Contents ...... iv List of Figures ...... vii Abstract ...... viii Chapter One: Introduction ...... 11 1.1 Introduction ...... 11 1.2 Statement of the Problem ...... 17 1.3 Purpose of the Study ...... 18 1.4 Research Questions ...... 20 1.5 Significance to the Field ...... 20 Chapter Two: Review of the Literature...... 22 2.1 Introduction ...... 22 2.2 Body of the Review ...... 23 2.2.1 China’s Television Market Research ...... 23 2.2.2 Broadcast Structure Research ...... 28 2.2.3 Culture behind the Reality TV and Co-producing Culture ...... 32 2.3 Chapter Summary ...... 37 Chapter Three: Methods ...... 38 3.1 Introduction ...... 38 3.2 China’s ...... 40 3.3 The Amazing Race: China Rush ...... 48 3.4 of China...... 51 Chapter Four: Results ...... 56 4.1 Research Question One ...... 56 4.1.1 The Awareness of Copyrights ...... 56 4.1.2 More Attention to Good Programs of Other Countries’ Markets ...... 57 4.2 Research Question Two ...... 59 4.2.1 The Potential Huge Market ...... 59 4.2.2 Franchise and Derivative Income ...... 60 4.2.3 Low Production Cost ...... 60 4.3 Research Question Three ...... 61 4.3.1 Regulations and Rules...... 61 4.3.2 Audience’s Taste and Current Competition Situation ...... 62 4.4 Research Question Four ...... 63 4.4.1 The Brand Effect ...... 63 4.4.2 The Professional Production ...... 63 v

4.4.3 Airing Landscape and Target Audience ...... 63 Chapter Five: Discussion ...... 66 5.1 Introduction ...... 66 5.2 Discussion ...... 67 5.3 Recommendation for Future Research...... 68 5.4 Conclusion ...... 69 References ...... 72 vi

List of Tables

Table 1 ...... 12 Table 2 ...... 15 Table 3 ...... 45 Table 4 ...... 46 Table 5 ...... 54 Table 6 ...... 55

vii

List of Figures

Figure 1 ...... 39

viii

Abstract

Foreign Introduced in China’s Market

Yiyan He

From the hit of Super Girls’ Voice in 2004, Chinese audience got to know the new of television programs, reality TV. Various types of reality television appear on TV and such reality programs have been popular since then. Before 2010, the laws about TV program copyrights were not clear in ; so there were lots of shows whose format were copied from foreign popular shows in China’s media market. Since 2010, some foreign reality shows were introduced while there are still a number of shows plagiarized from foreign shows.

Those introduced shows got much attention and became hot topics during airing. In 2012 and

2013, more TV stations chose to buy and broadcast Chinese version introduced shows for slot. But does the Chinese audience accept the introduced programs? Do the introduced shows affect the China’s TV market? The purpose of the study is to research the current reality television market of China for foreign introduced programs and at the same time to get to know the real Chinese audience’s taste for reality television and market of reality TV for interested foreign media investors and local production companies. Three popular different-style introduced reality shows are discussed. The thesis concludes that brand effect, professional production, right landscape and other basic elements of the reality ix

TV are the key factors for an introduced or a co-produced show to succeed in China’s market. x

11

Chapter One: Introduction

1.1 Introduction

1926 was a meaningful year for the television history. It was in that year that the

world's first television system that could broadcast moving pictures was successfully tested

and publicly demonstrated (Kamm & Baird, 2002). And , the inventor of

the television system, once said that television would one day make every family a mini cinema (People Daily, 2003). After more than eight decades, what he stated has already been realized. Television has become one of the most essential media of people’s everyday

life (People Daily, 2003). According to the statistics from Worldbank, the share of

household with television of the whole world is 84.46%, in which 97.29% for high-income

countries and 88.9% for the middle countries in 2002. And the proportion rising from

2000 to 2004 (see Table 1). As an influential medium in the 20th century, television changed people’s life (Luo, 2009).

12

Table 1 The Share of Household with Television of the whole world from 2000 to 2004（%） Country 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 The World 79.23 79.59 84.46 High-income 96.90 96.94 97.39 97.5 Countries Middle-income 85.05 83.71 88.90 Countries Low-income 14.03 16.06 14.8 Countries Mainland 86.12 87.25 89.17 90.00 91.00 China Kong 97.95 98.98 99.56 99.00 99.00 99.00 99.20 99.30 99.40 Korea 93.84 93.08 92.07 93.00 93.00 98.00 98.00 98.00 98.00 98.00 USA 96.88 98.59 97.84 97.00 93.66 94.72 95.00 94.13 94.72 95.00 97.56 97.26 UK 99.00 99.00 99.00 99.00 From Worldbank, 2004

People watch news programs to get to know what is happening in the local neighborhood and the world. People watch science programs to know more about the earth and nature. People watch dramas to be moved and relaxed. People watch to get excitement and fulfillment. The audience plays an active role in the media consumption

(Elihu, Blumler and Gurevitch, 2011). “People integrate media into their lives. Audiences are responsible for choosing media to meet their desires and needs to achieve gratification”

(Elihu, Blumler and Gurevitch, 2011, NP). TV shows can be generally divided into two large : information programs and entertainment TV. The information programs include all news, interview, information shows. And the other shows like game, drama, 13

reality TV, and lottery shows are labeled as entertainment programs. Compared with information show, entertainment program is the genre of television that audience has no need to think for most of time (Xie, 2009). And such entertainment programs have a large audience (Jordan, 2008). What’s more, many entertainment shows can be syndicated and rebroadcast on network; they can be sold to other networks and their formats can be sold to media of other countries. The reality competition show series was a good example.

There have been 46 version of in the whole world had been aired till now

(Fremantle Media, ND). The Got has spun off in more than 50 territories

(Fremantle Media, ND).

Reality TV, which is attractive to lots of audiences, shows unscripted dramatic or humorous situations, unexpected events, and usually features ordinary people instead of professional actors (Hill, 2005). And it is a genre between entertainment show and documentary, but more entertaining than documentary. The participants in the show have no script to act and they had to face those unexpected elements that may happen anytime during the show. “Reality TV gives the viewer not the authenticity and explanation of the documentary, but the spectacle of the everyday and a focus on the performance of identity”

(Orlebar, 2011, P111).

Reality television exploded as a hit during 1999-2000 (Hill, 2005). The first season of in 1999 got about 10 million viewers in UK and according to data, the second season gave the channel more than 70% increase on their average broadcast share 14

(Hill, 2005). The series began broadcasting in the from 2000 and

was one of 10 most watched shows on television from 2000 to 2006 (Carey, 2012). Since

the unexpected hit of reality TV like Big Brother and Survivor, this brand-new genre of TV

shows caught many an audience’s attention even on a global scale. But meanwhile critics

and commentators began to question this popular genre of TV programs. They thought that

such show would fade out soon after its boom (Xie, 2009). After these years of changing,

mixing and innovation, reality television is still alive and even more popular. Various

sub-styles of reality television have been on air. Game, competition, sitcom-style reality shows come out one after another. One decade later, “Survivor brought TV into a new age that made formulaic scripted fare an embattled if not endangered species” (Shales, 2009).

And the show was regarded as one of top 10 best of TV of the decade (Shales, 2009). The

26th season of US version Survivor is on air in 2013. And the show is one of the most

popular shows in America and got several since the first season’s launch.

The US version of the Amazing Race is shot approximately twice a year and it has been

broadcasted for 21seasons till 2013. And the 22nd season premiered on February 17th 2013

(CBS, 2012). Almost every episode of the show ranks the first (See Table 2). At the same time, various versions of Pop Idol gain popularity in America, Europe and other continents.

There are and which have been broadcasted 7 seasons. And there are already 49 countries’ versions aired till 2013.

15

Table 2

Rating of the 22nd season The Amazing Race in U.S.

Airdate Rating Share Rating Share Viewers Households 18-49 (Millions) 2013/2/17 5.5 8 2.5 6 9.57 2013/2/24 4.0 6 1.9 4 6.95 2013/3/3 5.4 8 2.5 6 9.24 2013/3/10 5.5 9 2.4 7 9.27 2013/3/17 5.3 8 2.3 6 8.91 2013/3/24 5.6 8 2.4 6 9.33 2013/3/31 5.6 9 2.3 6 9.24 2013/4/14 6.0 9 2.3 6 9.76 Airdate Rank Rank Rank Rank Timeslot Timeslot Week Week (Viewers) (18-49) (Viewers) (18-49) 2013/2/17 1 1 13 14 2013/2/24 2 2 <25 <25 2013/3/3 1 1 15 15 2013/3/10 1 1 14 13 2013/3/17 1 1 16 13 2013/3/24 1 2 14 17 2013/3/31 1 1 14 20 2013/4/14 1 1 19 18

From U.S. Nielsen Rating & Wikipedia, 2013

People nowadays can watch different reality shows every day on cable. Because of its unscripted and interactive characteristic, reality television attracts a large number of audiences. What’s more, because of its low production cost, high profit and rebroadcast availability, it is also production companies and networks’ choice (Joyner, 2010). Almost any network has at least one reality show on air every week. Fox even has the Fox Reality

Channel. The profitable market of reality TV is nothing to be sneezed at. 16

While the reality show is growing rapidly in western countries, a talent competition show Super Girls’ Voice（2004） brought unexpected attention and popularity in Mainland China. Super Girls’ Voice was not the first reality show aired in China, but since then, the prosperity of reality TV indeed stimulated the entertainment TV market of

Mainland China (Xia & Wang, 2007). Audiences become more and more curious about this new genre of TV programs. Chinese media professionals later found the attractive reality television market of China. From so many Chinese reality shows aired till 2013, there are a certain number of foreign introduced shows except local and original created ones. No matter what ‘nationality’ the show is, they all run follow the similar formats that audience sitting in front of the TV set determine the life cycle of show. People may think original created shows should have more audience and rating. But it is not the case. Some original created reality shows such as Come On, Men, Fei Chang You Xi of

(SMG) only broadcasted one or two seasons ( TV, 2007). Meanwhile, foreign introduced shows became much more popular than local ones and were shot and broadcasted for more seasons in China’s market. Since of China’s Got Talent

Show in 2010, the show has been broadcasted for four seasons and SMG has extended the contract with the show’s owner Talpa Media for the other three seasons’ copyrights (Zhu,

2013). Thanks to the development of and technology, the audience nowadays has more access to foreign TV shows through the Internet. Numerous foreign shows were recorded and uploaded on video sharing websites ( Business, 2012). When the author typed ‘the got talent show’ on yuku.com, the biggest and most popular video 17

sharing website in China, 528 results appeared. And when typing ‘the voice,’ 7645 results appeared. Foreign reality shows have had good reputation in Chinese audience’s eye (Zhu,

2013). And the amount of foreign shows of the web site has become the success point of viewing war of video sharing websites (Zhu, 2013). But there are still invisible obstacles on the way of foreign shows’ entrance to the China’s reality TV market. Language, culture, law regulations and other factors make it much more difficult for foreign introduced programs grow and develop in Mainland China.

1.2 Statement of the Problem

Countries with large media holdings such as the United States and have grown more mature and have more high-end broadcast and production system than

China. With advanced shooting, post-production technologies and experience, few media production companies and investors from these countries began to aim at the entertainment television market of China (Gong, 2012). But no one is sure whether the share of China’s market and industry growth potential will increase or not in years to come. In China’s huge entertainment television market, whether a foreign show can be welcomed depends not only on its reputation; the domestic media industry, current development situation, local regulation and limitation and the diverse culture all affect the show.

Since China is a developing country, and also because of Chinese custom and tradition, there are more limitations and regulations in the Chinese broadcast and television system, which in some part obstruct Chinese local shows’ growth, affect good foreign 18

shows’ introduction into China (China.com.cn, 2003). According to the Cutback on

Entertainment announced by China’s State Administration of Radio, Film and Television

(CSARFT), "For every satellite TV station, no more than two entertainment programs can

be aired during prime time from 7:30 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. every night" (CSARFT, 2011).

In last few years, global television co-production became more common than before (Selznick, 2008). But culture shock still exists everywhere in the era of globalization. Refer to official data, 339.7 thousand Chinese students go aboard for study, which occupy 14% of the whole number of the oversea students of the world and rank the first (Overseas Chinese Education Report, 2012). Meanwhile, the number of foreign students in China is higher than 290 thousands (China News, 2012). A large number of foreign people live in China while many Chinese people go out of country for learning and living. With such statistics, it seems that eastern and western cultures have been well combined in these years. But that doesn’t mean Chinese audience accepts all the culture of foreign TV shows.

1.3 Purpose of the Study

The purpose of this study is to research the current reality television market of

China for foreign introduced programs. To know well the situation and investment availability, the outstanding foreign reality programs can be successfully introduced into

China. And for Chinese production workers, the shooting and post-production technologies 19

can be advanced during the reality television co-production of the Chinese version of the

show.

Many western business and trade corporations regard China as a promising market

and focus on the huge Chinese market of their business. All-American companies such as

Apple, Nike and the Gap have expanded their business in Mainland China (Epstein &

Meredith, 2010). Starbucks and Coca Cola both regard China as their top profitable market

(Epstein & Meredith, 2010). Those American companies directly invested around $ 3.6 billion into Mainland China in 2009 (Epstein & Meredith, 2010). Because of the high amount of population and the growing needs for entertainment, China is also a large and profitable television market for media and production corporations to launch and develop their TV shows. “The media and entertainment business is facing new opportunities and challenges, as it markets its products and services to the 1.3 billion people that make up the most populated country in the world” (Ernst& Young, 2012). For Chinese local media workers, it is also a brilliant and great opportunity for growth to co-produce with foreign media companies. Nevertheless, if the target audience and local culture tradition are well handled, foreign reality shows can become the same hit in China like in western countries.

The differences in history, culture and tradition, especially the culture shock of eastern and western countries, affect the audience’s choice for watching shows and the growth of a show (Zhao, 2005). In order to realize the real Chinese audience’s taste for reality shows and market of reality TV for interested foreign media investors and local 20

production workers, the research analyzed three shows which were introduced to Chinese

audience from 2010 to 2012. How the three different introduced shows caught the audience

and got success are studied in following chapters.

Through the detailed case study, China’s market of reality TV is analyzed and the key factors for co-produced shows’ popularity are summarized. In this way, western media corporations can better invest and develop their shows in China’s market with the low production cost and high revenue. Another goal of the study was to encourage Chinese media professionals and workers to innovate and create good and even brand-new types of

reality shows.

1.4 Research Questions

1. What’s the impact of popular western introduced reality shows on Chinese

audience and media staff?

2. What can foreign media investors achieve through the introduced reality shows

in china?

3. What’s the difference between China and Western market for reality TV?

4. How can a company produce a profitable and Chinese-welcomed reality show in

China? What are the key factors?

1.5 Significance to the Field

The study examines the key factors for foreign introduced shows to succeed in 21

China’s market, and conclude whether it is right for foreign media investors and media companies to invest or co-produce the reality TV in China’s market. The study encourages more creativity and innovations from Chinese local media as well. In the long term, the healthy competition, high profit and mature television market make the Chinese reality TV grow well and let China to be a leading media country in the future. 22

Chapter Two: Review of the Literature

2.1 Introduction

Entertainment TV shows are one kind of indispensable types of TV shows people watch (Wang, 2011). Reality TV has most become the subject of viewers and media academics interest in the 21 century. The popularity of any reality show always brings critic reviews and good comments. “Adopting constructed situations, reality television is a mix of several types of shows. It can be regarded as a situation comedy as the show is based on certain settings and characters that cannot leave the show. It can be regarded as documentary because the show is the factual records of human behavior and relationship from hidden cameras. It can be regarded as drama as the show has detailed exploration of participants’ behavior and actions. It can be also regarded as game show since the participants in the show usually compete for the final prize. It can be regarded as because the show reflects some social issues and participants’ personal confession. It can be regarded as lifestyle television as the show focus on changing the persona and showing the changing social relations” (Orlebar, 2011, P45). More and more production companies and media corporations of western countries noticed the obvious advantages of reality TV and create and develop many popular and successful shows since 2000 (Orlebar, 2011).

The hit of reality TV also affects the media market of Mainland China. Various reality shows broadcasted since the success launch of Super Girls’ Voice in 2004 (Hu, 2006). This genre of television is welcomed by Chinese audiences (Hu, 2006). So, are there any potential business co-operation opportunities for foreign media companies in reality TV market of China? If the answer is yes, what’s the impact of introduced reality shows in 23

China’s market? What’s the difference between China’s and western television market?

And how can a company produce a popular and welcomed reality show in China?

The literature review addresses three areas related to the Chinese reality TV market

and co-production opportunities. The first section addresses researches about the current

China’s market and prospect of future. The second section focuses on studies related to the

China’s broadcast system and structure, which is totally different from western television

markets. Finally, the last section discusses studies about culture of the reality television and

the global co-production.

2.2 Body of the Review

2.2.1 China’s Television Market Research

China is a country with a large population. At the end of 2011, the population of

Mainland China was 1.34735 billion (National Bureau of Statistics of China, 2012).

Watching television has been part of Chinese people’s daily life (Zhang, 2009). To get to know how big and how profitable the China’s television market is, foreign production companies and syndication corporations should first learn well the audience market of

China. Zhang (2009) notes that television has been regarded as a symbol of modern civilization. The audience now have been much more diverse than ever before. Since more and more channels came out and foreign programs’ entrance to the Chinese television market, the television industry in the China’s market becomes intensely competitive (Wu &

Li, 2006). 24

According to Zhang (2009), the number of Chinese owning a television and the number of households containing one has increased in past thirty years. In 1987, the number of in use in China was 116 million. And the number of television viewers aged 5 or older was 590 million. By 1992, there were 207 million televisions in use in China and there were 806 million television viewers. In 1997, the number of television in use grew to 317 million with 1094 million television viewers. The number of television in use continued to grow to 448 million in 2002 with 1.15 billion television viewers. And the television population reached 1.188 billion in 2005. 98.1% Chinese households own television while 32.6% of them own more than one. “China is now the country with both the greatest number of televisions and the greatest number of people watching television in the world” (Zhang, 2009). The study also indicated that Chinese people spent much time in front of television. The average time spent on watching television has increased from 118 minutes in 1992 to 174 minutes in 2002. Television plays a particular role in Chinese mass culture. And the top television genres that Chinese viewers like watching are various entertainment shows (Zhang, 2009). Entertainment shows have been ranked as one of top four genres of Chinese television (Zhang, 2009). The study also stated that Chinese audiences are not satisfied with quality of many programs.

They want to hear or see more stories about normal people on TV.

The other implication of the Zhang (2009)’s study is the unique television-viewing phenomenon with Chinese characteristics. In China, family is the core environment for 25

television viewing; and the most watched programs for family viewing are entertainment

programs. In most Chinese families with children, children decide what is watched.

Children who control the remote dominate what TV shows the family watches.

During the time of global economic recession in 2007 and 2008, China overtook the United States and ranked the world’s second largest merchandise exporter; and its’

GDP and the net exports grew 11.9% in 2007 ( Economic Institute, 2008). Compared with slow recovery of powerful countries like USA, the economics of China and civilization demand steadily rise up in recent years (Liu, 2009). This trend also stimulates the extremely huge entertainment industry. For China’s entertainment industry, it is a good timing for developing and expansion. Xie (2009) stated that people all over the world were facing the 'Lipstick Effect' of entertainment media industry. Lipstick effect was the economic theory that when facing economic crisis, consumers' desire for goods would change and people would buy many more cheap make-ups like lipsticks instead of luxury goods. In the environment of global financial crisis, people lived with less income and severer pressure; there grew in nature a need for improving life conditions and civilization, adjusting the rhythm of life and releasing tension. And then, the need for entertainment appeared.

Xie (2009) writes that every financial crisis led to the growth of entertainment media industry in the history. And the study gives two example of lipstick effect. One example is the industry of Hollywood movies. In the 20's and 30's, when there was a huge 26

financial crisis happened and lots of industries were in low production, the industry of

Hollywood movies developed fast and became mainstay of the United States’ economy.

American people preferred to pay some pennies to go to the theatres for the relaxation of daily life and for the hope of living, even when they got welfare every month and lived frugally. It was in that time that numerous classic arts work were born, like Chaplin's movies, Tom and Jerry, movies of Shirley Temple and so on. And entertainment consumption became a good way for Americans to escape reality. The booming of

American culture during that time brought people confidence and hope of life and brought up the 'American Spirit' that was talked in modern life. Another example is the flourishing of Korean dramas in Asia market from 1997 (Cai, 2007). In 1997, the financial crisis of

Asia made a lot of Asian countries’ huge losses of economy. But the government of South

Korea encouraged developing Korean culture and media industry, and established the

Basic Law for Cultural Industry Promotion in 1999 by allocating $148.5 million to this project, which made the revenue of Korean dramas, games and ever grow up in the time of crisis (Cai, 2007). As a result, popularity of Korean culture brought South

Korea a great opportunity of products' output and development of its travelling industry.

And the phenomenon that Korean films, TV dramas and pop music were immensely popular abroad was called the Korean Wave by academics.

Xie (2009) also points that during the holidays of the Spring Festival 2009, the entertainment TV programs were more welcomed by audience than other TV shows in

Shanghai, and the rating of the entertainment channels became much higher than drama 27

channel and news channel. It indicated that the financial crisis made people lose their jobs

and money, but it was a chance for the entertainment media industry to develop. 2009 was

a good year for the Chinese entertainment programs industry (Xie, 2009). Media workers

were able to innovate more new show ideas and catch those new culture needs of Chinese

people. They were able to develop and create new brand of large entertainment shows and

protect those popular and successful brands of shows. With the booming of entertainment

shows, those reality programs in the entertainment field would flourish and bring a lot of

business opportunities of surrounding products and other industries.

Not only Chinese professionals have noticed the big market growing space of its

country, but the world-scale organization also has noticed the profit opportunities of the

huge Chinese media market. With spending of more than $100 billion, China has overtaken

Germany in 2011 to become the third largest entertainment and media market, while the

first one is USA (PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), 2012). There are thirteen countries

spending more than $25 billion in Entertainment and media in 2011, in which the United

States spent $464 billion (PwC, 2012). Global spending on entertainment and media rose

4.5 percent in 2010. China’s overall spending on entertainment and media grew by 13.9 percent to $85.5 billion in 2010. And it is expected to continue to see strong growth over

2012 through 2016. China’s spending was expected to reach $148 billion by 2025 with

PwC’s expected 11.6% compound annual increase (PwC, 2012).

PricewaterhouseCoopers also notes that the US would continue to dominate 28

consumer-spending market through 2016. And China, among the countries with more than

$10 billion in consumer/end-user spending, would be the fastest-growing market for consumer/end-user spending through 2016. For major advertising markets, China would

also be the fastest-growing advertising market with 14.6% CAGR (Compound Annual

Growth Rate) from the world’s 13 largest advertising markets.

All three studies demonstrate that China’s Market of entertainment television was

promising and profitable. The numbers of Zhang (2009)’s Chinese audience research

manifests that China was a country with the greatest number of people watching television

in the world. And entertainment television was one of top four favorite genres of programs

among Chinese audience. Xie (2009)’s research states that it was a good timing for

Chinese entertainment television to develop in the era of 'Lipstick Effect' of entertainment

media industry. The study of PwC (2012) provides the growing trend of China’s

entertainment market during 2012 through 2016.

2.2.2 Broadcast Structure Research

No matter how large and profitable the market is, the prosperity of television

industry still depends on another important factor, the market structure and system.

Compared with China’s market, the American television industry has a more mature and

developed market. Xiao and Chen (2010) discussed and analyzed the success of American

television market structure and the key factors to its success. According to the study, the

success of American television industry owed much to its rational structure of broadcast 29

system and effective market operational mode. Such television broadcast system made the

United States a country of huge television programs exports and consumption. The

American TV stations got their programs mainly from four sources: network TV programs,

syndication shows, pay-per-view television and local self-produced shows. And network, syndication and pay-per-view television were all based on the separation mechanism of production and broadcast. Network television helped local television stations air programs with low cost and good quality and share the economics profit of network. Syndication television grew the value of TV programs in many ways and stimulates television production industry. The relationship between television network and its affiliated local TV station was another essential character of American television system. The television network owned a number of its own local TV stations and supplied those stations national

syndicated TV shows to air. Those affiliated local television stations had their own

independent property right of the station and had exclusive broadcast right of the network’s

national programming. Xiao and Chen (2010) state that such separation system of

production and broadcast lowered the production cost of production for television networks.

For advertisers, they could buy one-time ad slots for the national and local scale, which

lowers the trading cost of national advertising as well. For affiliated local TV stations, such

mode reduced their huge production cost and lessened their pressure of station operation.

The funds saved from prime time television production could be used to produce local news and public broadcasting programs, although the network programs occupy the most part of advertising slots. That was also the reason why there were not many independent TV stations in the United States. Famous television networks NBC, CBS, ABC and FOX supplied 30

around 15 to 18 hours’ program to their affiliated local TV stations per day. The television network and its affiliated stations were deeply interdependent. Television networks needed their affiliated stations to get the access to the local market, while local stations needed their network’s syndication shows to gain economic benefit.

Xiao and Chen (2010) note that the government regulations of broadcast also had great effect on the American television industry and market system. In order to increase television-programming diversity and limit the market control of the top three broadcast networks (NBC, CBS and ABC), the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) implemented The Financial Interest and Syndication Rules (Fin-Syn Rules) in 1970

(Croteau and Hoynes, 2006). The rules prohibited network participation in two related arenas: the financial interest of the television programs they aired beyond first-run exhibition, and the creation of in-house syndication arms, especially in the domestic market (Fin-Syn Rules, 1970). In 1970, FCC instituted The Prime Time Access Rule

(PTAR) to restrict the amount of network programming that local owned by or affiliated with a network may air during the evening. The PTAR applied only to network owned or network affiliated television stations in the 50 largest markets. The rule restricted these stations from airing more than three hours of network programming during -hour prime time block each evening (The Prime Time Access Rules, 1970). The two rules motivated the formation of a mature television production industry and brought more and more diverse and innovative television programs. The American television market became competitive under the rules. The two rules were eliminated later because of the boom of cable, and Internet. Nevertheless, the rules have altered the television and film entertainment landscape. Most broadcast networks had their own production company or have co-operation with film production companies (Xiao and Chen,

2010). The production department gradually separated from the broadcast department.

Chinese media professionals also know the importance of separation of production 31

from broadcast system. And the separation mechanism is one the hot topic for discussion in

Chinese media scholars for years. Shanghai Media Group (SMG)’s restructuring in 2009 started the reformation of Chinese broadcast industry. Lv (2010) analyzed the background of Chinese radio and television industry for the separation mechanism and discussed the four major modes now applied to Chinese media broadcast networks. The study manifests the problem that would occur during the reform of Chinese broadcast system and the opportunities and challenges Chinese media met during reform period. The separation of production and broadcast was a mode that helped improving the quality of TV shows produced by TV stations, lowering the production cost, diversifying the program content, changing the operational mechanism, and reforming the current self-producing and

broadcasting mode of Chinese TV stations. Lv (2010) also notes that there were two perspectives of the separation mechanism in Chinese television. One was that television networks just bought, scheduled and broadcast the programs from production companies

and did not produce TV shows. In this way, the production and broadcast were completely

separated. The other perspective is that television networks authorized independent

producer or company to produce some part of its shows. The current national condition of

China and the nature of Chinese television industry determined that it was impossible for

Chinese television industry to run under the complete separation mechanism. The study

also points out that the shortage of television program quantity and the lack of television

show with good quality were obvious in current Chinese television industry. Because most

Chinese television networks and stations run the mode of self-produce and broadcast, the

quantity and quality of the shows were generally not good. Besides, the resource of 32

television network and stations were not in good distribution. Due to the self-produce and

broadcast mode, the programs could only air on its channel for limited time, which not

only wasted the material and technology resource, but also assigned the human resource

improperly. The study takes Shanghai Media Group (SMG), TV, TV and

Hunan TV as examples to indicate four different initial separation modes, the whole,

partial, comprehensive and step-by-step modes, in current Chinese television market. Lv

(2010) states that China should pay attention to utilization and development of channel

resources, the system of program examination and broadcast and the symbiotic relationship

of affiliated TV stations and independent production companies. Those were all problems

and challenges China would meet during the process of broadcast system reform.

Theses two studies of broadcast structure show different television broadcast

structures of the United States and China from the view of Chinese media scholars. China

is on its way of reformation of the television broadcast structure. The success of American

television industry depended on its rational structure of broadcast system and effective

market operational mode (Xiao and Chen, 2010).

2.2.3 Culture behind the Reality TV and Co-producing Culture

Why is reality TV so popular in the early 21st century? Doubtlessly, reality shows some part represent the condition of the audience. King (2006) notes that reality TV was part of a general cultural condition. King (2006) argues that reality TV played an important role in the cultural formation of dispositions, habits and interests. The Resort, an 33

Australian/ program that was canceled after six weeks’ airing, was selected as

an example to prove the connection of the reality TV and the condition of audience. The

program followed the rule of “the many watch the few” (King, 2006). King’s study states

the fact that the many whole watched the few do so because the many wanted to “learn the

successful and unsuccessful elements of being fit to be seen as one of the few” (King,

2006). The audience’s fascination with reality TV and the contestants in the show was

more like the fascination with “a contest of self-definition under conditions of

surveillance” (King, 2006).

Television always plays an important role in reflection of the country’s culture.

Reality television shows are reflecting and shaping ideas of family in U.S. culture.

Edwards (2010) demonstrates that the reality TV reflected and helped shaping changing

“American family” ideals. Numerous American reality shows had described a newfound

family diversity. Generally, traditional family consisted of a wage-earning father, a stay-at-home mother and dependent children; but this type of traditional family could be rarely seen nowadays in reality shows (Edwards, 2010). Those traditional families were replaced by “” like post-divorce, single-parent, blended, and gay or lesbian families (Edwards, 2010). Because of the increase in divorce rates and single-parent households, decline of wages and women’s start of working as labor force, new and diverse familial forms appeared gradually (Edwards, 2010). There were several reality TV examples such as British 911, MTV’s The Real World that proved the new

American family culture. Such reality shows got high rating because it pictured real people 34

and families struggling with long-running cultural problems that have no solutions

(Edwards, 2010).

As the science and technologies innovation, it is possible now for people in China to attend the next day’s meeting in USA by airplane. Even people around the world can hold the meeting face to face at the same time wherever they are by the Internet. Much communication leads to globalization. Globalization affects people’s live, options and culture. Globalization also affects the world’s media. More and more media corporations consolidated to create a few large, transnational, horizontally and vertically integrated media companies (Selznick, 2008). Selznick (2008) states that international co-productions had created a particular kind of global culture. Selznick (2008) summarized the international co-productions’ obvious and significant benefits and weakness for those participants in media industry. Selznick (2008) examined several internationally co-produced television programs such as Highland: The Series, The Odyssey, Pride and

Prejudice, Jesus: The Complete Story and children’s program Rolie Polie Olie and Plaza

Sesamo in the study. According to Selznick (2008), co-productions in television occurred before 1980s. By the 1970s, there had already been pressure of production budgets and advertising competition for the public broadcasting not only in the United States but also in

Europe and Asia (Selznick, 2008). European public stations began co-producing programs at that time. US cable networks also started co-production with European-based stations and NHK in Japan at the same time. International co-productions are “the most effective response strategy to the new economic pressure reshaping the television programming 35

environment, in the USA and abroad” (Selznick, 2008, P20; Hoskins and McFadyen, 1985,

P232). In the field of cultural economics and media finance, international co-production occupied a unique and essential position.

Selznick (2008) also states that except for the economic benefits of international co-productions which scholars and media industry players had seen for years, there were other benefits of culture for international co-productions. For small companies, co-production was the only way to take part in the large programs’ production. For larger media companies, they could lower their risks by co-producing programs with other domestic companies. It could also lower their productions costs by working with other partners. And their interest was to increase their presence in overseas markets. By means of co-productions, their risks and the investment fund to create a good production were lowered. What’s more, co-produced programs benefited from their production participants and their markets. The content and format were more likely to attract various audience, markets and different domestic regulatory requirements (Selznick, 2008). The programs were developed and innovated in all markets; and the programs could get the access to those co-production participants’ markets. Additionally, those international co-productions were more likely to do well in third market because of their multicultural audiences

(Selznick, 2008). Through the co-production, media workers would learn from other international partners. When working together, media workers learned those advanced technical skills from coworkers. It was also a good way to know international audiences and their viewing tastes, which helped them to produce shows that could be sold overseas. 36

Furthermore, international co-productions developed national industries and helped

eliminating national differences and connecting global communities as well (Selznick,

2008). International techniques, actors, locations and other international factors nowadays

made the co-productions beneficial; the international co-productions at the same time had the potential to expose audiences to “global” TV and culture (Selznick, 2008).

According to Selznick (2008), the drawbacks of international co-productions could not be ignored while there were more benefits. Increased administrative costs and organizational difficulties kept media makers back from global co-productions.

Programming content, styles, program length, production funding, domestic regulation, and many other factors varied from country to country. All those factors raised the costs of international co-productions. In addition, international co-productions created more programming of the homogenous styles, which also affected the quality of the show. Media makers may not care about same style programming, but that really affected whether their co-produced programs could sell or not in oversea markets (Selznick, 2008).

The first two studies manifest that reality TV played its own role in the reproducing cultural formation of dispositions, habits and interests. And while television played an important role in reflection of the country’s culture, reality television shows were reflecting and shaping ideas of family in U.S. culture. The study of global co-production culture summarizes the benefits and drawbacks of international co-production.

37

2.3 Chapter Summary

The literature above is all related to the Chinese reality TV market and co-production opportunities. In the area of China’s market research, the Chinese audience now has been much more diverse than ever before. The number of Chinese owning a television and the number of households containing one continuously increase in recent thirty years, which means the Chinese audience market is still growing now. China has overtaken Germany in 2011 to become the third largest entertainment and media market

(PwC, 2011). China’s entertainment television market is promising. Since the economics development of China, the entertainment and culture demand rapidly rise up. For China’s entertainment television industry, it is a good timing for developing and expansion. The structure and operation mode of television broadcast and production determine the growth of television industry. With the mature and rational structure of television and production, the United States becomes a media empire country with mature television industry. China has noticed the importance of reformation of the structure of the whole broadcast and production and now is on its way of reform. In the last part of culture and international co-production research, the benefits and drawbacks of international co-production are discussed and concluded. The international co-production is still beneficial though there are drawbacks like domestic regulation, administrative costs and organizational difficulties.

38

Chapter Three: Methods

3.1 Introduction

Not only Chinese people, but also the whole world’s demand on entertainment actives grows rapidly in recent years because of the economics and culture development

(Xie, 2009). Meanwhile, globalization stimulates the people’s desire for various cultures.

Among so many entertainment methods, watching television is a daily entertainment activity for many ones (Office of National Statics, 2010). Through TV set and other mobile devices, people can watch television everywhere like at home, in the office and on public transportation. In UK, among six traditional media (magazines, newspapers, games, radio, internet and television), men consumed averagely 10.8 hours watching television per week while women spent 11 hours on television per week in 2009 (see Figure 1). According to the data, people living in UK spent most time on television watching among six entertainment media. Compared with other entertainment shows, reality television is a genre of programs that has a large number of audiences and is produced with high profit and low cost. Getting popular in such a short time, reality television is also a genre of television with great potential and has a large growth space. Reality television is as popular in China as in other western countries. In Mainland China, there appear many reality shows of different theme, such as job , , talent competition, even diving since 2004.

From 2010, some foreign introduced reality shows aired on TV and achieved good reputation and attention. That is a sign for foreign media companies that China is a profitable market. For Chinese domestic media companies, it is a sign that the market has become more and more competitive and there needs more and more “” 39

television shows created with a good quality.

Figure 1

From Today’s Gamers, 2009

The following research questions are addressed in this study:

1. What’s the impact of popular western introduced reality shows on Chinese audience and

media staff?

2. What can foreign media investors achieve through the introduced reality shows in china?

3. What’s the difference between the China and Western market for reality TV?

4. How can a company produce a profitable and Chinese-welcomed reality show in china?

What are the key factors?

40

The research is a case study of three foreign introduced and co-produced reality

shows that air in China. The most popular reality shows in recent years is Contestant TV or

Talent TV such as and So You Think You Can Dance. Such reality shows have large and diverse audiences. The three shows in the study are China’s Got Talent, The

Amazing Race: China Rush and . Although they are all introduced from foreign countries, their air mode, production format and audience market are totally different. The study discusses three shows’ content, production and popularity to analyze the introduced foreign reality shows’ current situation and future in China’s market.

3.2 China’s Got Talent

Dragon TV, a satellite channel of Shanghai Media Group (SMG), launched the first

season China’s Got Talent in June 2010. SMG is China's second-largest broadcaster, following (CCTV) because of its company size and reach.

Meanwhile, the Got Talent franchise is one of the fastest growing international franchises till 2013; under the format of Got Talent, it has spin-offs in 39 countries and receive high rating and share in each country. Similar to America’s Got Talent and Britain’s Got Talent,

China’s Got Talent runs the Got Talent format. According to the contract with Fremantle

Media, the owner of the format, SMG had to keep the originality of the Got Talent show.

Open to all ages and all professions, contestants such as singers, dancers, magicians and any other diverse or even unknown talented participants in China attend the pre-audition

and have the chance to win the final title and prize of China’s Got Talent. After the

pre-audition, there are a certain number of contestants chose by three judges in each 41

audition and then get the ‘pass’ to the final competition. The contestants have to get at least

two ‘Yes’ from three judges to get that ‘pass.’ Three judges are unchanged until the finale

episode of the show. The members of panel of China’s Got Talent in 2010 were Zhou

Libo, a famous Shanghai local comedian, Yineng Jing, female actress and , and Gao

Xiaosong, well-known pop music and . The premiere of the first season got the unexpected welcome. There were 400 million viewers watching it. The show got an 8 percent audience share in Shanghai and a 1.37 percent share in 26 other provinces. And the second episode made its rating of 500 million viewers, which increased 100 million viewers in one week. According to the report from UK’s DailyMail, there are more than half a billion people know and have watched China’s Got Talent. And it makes such talent show the most popular in the world (Thomas, 2010). And from the show’s partner video sharing website .com, the clips and featured videos of the show were viewed and shared over 45 million times.

Different from America’s Got Talent and Britain’s Got Talent, there were some

changes for the Chinese version because of the different Chinese market and current

Chinese entertainment programs’ competition situation. In the second and third season, the

judges were changed once or twice in pre-audition episodes. But in the finale of second

and third season, there was a media jury panel consisted of 101 (in Season 2) and 143 (in

Season 3) media agencies who participated the final decision of the Got Talent of China. In

the third season, the show’s duration was extended by half an hour because of the high

demand from viewers. And rules were changed in little to attract more domestic 42

audience. According to the report, it was not easy to change the format of the show at first.

The British production team of the show did not allow any change of the original format of

the Got Talent show. Jin Lei, the director of the show, said that Chinese production team

even had the idea of producing by themselves at that time. Because the China’s television

market is totally different from Britain’s and now contestant show is the most popular.

Every TV station has at lease one contestant reality show on air each week. The change of

show might make the show more attractive to Chinese audience. After several rounds of

negotiation, Fremantle Media and their British production team made concessions. That’s

how the format of second and third season got the little change. But the show still kept 90

percent of Got Talent format. With such little change, the second and third season also got

high rating and share. “The premiere of season three on Dragon TV in Shanghai continued

the program's domination of ratings, with more than 16 percent of local viewers tuning in

and just under three percent of viewers watching nationwide” (Global Times, 2011). The show reached a potential audience of 800 million viewers, most domestic in China, but also via the show's broadcast in other Chinese-speaking areas including Singapore and

North America and via SMG's Dragon TV satellite service. SMG reported that over 50,000 performers participated in the second season, compared to 20,000 ones taken part in its first season in 2010 (The Hollywood Reporter, 2011).

China’s Got Talent was not the first foreign introduced reality show; it was not the

first talent show produced on national scale. But China’s Got Talent was the most popular

and most successful of foreign introduced shows until 2011 (Entertainment 163, 2010). 43

With the brand effect of Britain’s Got Talent, Dragon TV successfully beat other TV stations in the war of reality shows, especially in the field of contestant show. According to the Wangyi News, some local television station had planed to cooperate with Fremantle

Media to co-produce the Got Talent show in earlier years. But because of the

communication problem, two parties did not reach an agreement. Later Fremantle Media

contacted SMG to show their intention of cooperation. SMG paid Fremantle Media the

copyright fee of four seasons. And in January 2013, they extended the contract for another

3 seasons. The whole production cost of first season was lower than 10 million RMB

(around $1.6 million) while other contestant shows cost around 10 to 15 million RMB in

total per season.

Due to China’s current national condition and entertainment television competition

sphere, it does not allow the team to take one month to edit one episode of the show like

British production team. And the lack of staff also made the production team work under

an extremely high pressure. With the co-work, the production team learned a lot from

British team. Before the shooting, the British team gave the Chinese staff the tips and experience of the show shooting and contestant searching, which gave a developing media country a good course of reality TV production. “For all successful talent shows, 70 percent owes to the setting from production team, and only 30 percent depends on pre-audition.” the British production team told the Chinese staff. That changed the Chinese co-workers‘ traditional perspective of talent show. Furthermore, China’s Got Talent was extended as several other programs airing on Dragon TV like Talent Quotes and Talent 44

Gala. The show not only helped to increase the rating, but also brought new programs on

air. It saved production cost for other new programs’ launch and kept current Got Talent’s

audience. Those popular contestants also became frequent guests in other shows of SMG.

Thanks to the co-operation, Fremantle Media promised and brought the winners and

popular contestants of Britain’s Got Talent and America’s Got Talent to the finale show and

other large entertainment show like Dragon TV’s Spring Festival Gala, which successfully

attracted got talent’s audience to other shows.

The first season of the show ranked averagely the second in pre-audition episodes.

But the finale ranked the no.1 in the whole Mainland China’s market (see Table 3). And men and women share was balanced. At the same time, the share of 45-55 years old audience was the highest and the share of young generation was not low. The show was accepted by audience of all age (see Table 4).

45

Table 3 Rating of China’s Got Talent (%)

Rating Rank National Show Time Episode in in rating Shanghai nation 2010/7/25 Pre-audition 1 7.96 1.37 2

2010/8/01 Pre-audition 2 13.09 2.10 2

2010/8/08 Pre-audition Pre-audition 3 12.92 2.16 2

2010/8/22 Pre-audition 4 16.49 2.83 2

2010/8/29 Pre-audition 5 18.46 2.69 2

2010/9/12 Semifinal 1 20.73 2.87 2

2010/9/19 Semifinal Semifinal 2 18.94 2.47 2

2010/9/26 Semifinal 3 20.46 2.87 1

2010/10/1 Finale Finale 34.88 5.70 1 0 From CSM media research & Baidu.com, 2010 46

Table 4

Rating of China’s Got Talent

25 cities rating and share in China

Audience share Rating

Men 47.7 1.6

Women 52.3 1.774

4-14 years old 4.5 0.774

15-24 years old 12.7 1.433

25-34 years old 12.7 1.389

35-44 years old 13.3 1.331

45-54 years old 28.8 2.639

55-64 years old 16.5 2.569

Older than 65 years old 6.5 1.42

Educated 1.9 0.648

Elementary-level 5 0.684

Middle school level 25.8 1.524

High school level 44.5 2.373

Upon Bachelor degree 22.8 1.703

From CSM media research & Baidu.com, 2010 47

The hit of the show brought hot topics among audience and media professionals.

“For the three judges, they did not do much extremely critical comments and personal

attack to performers.” Jin Wenxiong said. Zhang Dianwu, another media expert, stated that

China’s Got Talent Show was a reality TV different from other competition shows. There

were no particular rules for the performers and it created a to realize dreams for

ordinary people. Zhang also mentioned that there were impressive elements in the show

which other shows should learn. Most participates had his/her own touching backstory,

which moved lots of audiences. Professor He (2011) said that the show expressed what the

society lacks. According to him, when a show knows what the society lacks, it can catch

the audience’s eye. Miao Di (2011) said that the show was a good example of localization

for other national stations. And its grass-root popularity, that the show expressed that ordinary people can realize the dream in the show.

On the other hand, the show received lots of critical reviews from audience. An

Internet user who named Aichanggedeya wrote that the show always focused on the backstory of performers (Chi, 2013). The winner of the first season was an armless pianist and singer. And in many pre-audition episodes, the show used the disabilities or poor background of performers to attract the audience. Most audience thought such touching stories were fake and their purpose was to make audience to be moved. Another issue audience complained was that too much advertising occupied the show.

48

3.3 The Amazing Race: China Rush

The Amazing Race, airing on CBS, co-produced with ABC Studio, has won eight

Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Reality- Competition Program till 2013

(www..com). In the show, there were 11 teams, grouped by two members, competing against each other team in a trip around the world for about 25 days. Teams had to take and pass a series of mental and physical challenges at each destination spot (www.cbs.com).

Only if they completed the tasks of each destination, they would know their next destination and tasks. The team arriving the last was eliminated at every destination spot during the contest progresses. And the first team arriving at the final destination won $ 1 million. (CBS, 2012)

Disney-ABC International Television Asia Pacific signed a rights deal of the

Chinese version The Amazing Race with SMG, under which SMG produced one season of the show, titled China Rush. Disney provided consultation to the production team before

the production. The show was broadcast in English, with Chinese subtitles, on SMG’s

International Channel Shanghai (ICS) (Waller, 2010). (www.icshanghai.com) ICS, one channel of SMG, is Shanghai’s only and professional English Television Channel. Its target audiences are those high-educated Shanghainese residents and foreigners who live and work in Shanghai. Among the whole foreigners living in Shanghai, 80 percent of them know ICS and 60 percent watch the channel frequently. ICS airs news, entertainment, fashion programs and movies. Almost all programs of ICS are in English, with some in

Japanese. The channel broadcasts to 4.7 million families in Shanghai and has a wider 49

audience on digital TV and Internet. (www.icshanghai.com)

Based on the international “Amazing Race” show format, The Amazing Race:

China Rush featured 10 teams, each comprised of two members, racing through 11 Chinese

cities. Running under the franchise's same elimination rule, the show designed challenges

for the 10 teams and they had to complete all the tasks to have the access to the next

destination. The winner team would have a world tour that valued 400,000 RMB (approx.

$ 62,500). The host of the show was Allen Wu, the former host of The Amazing Race Asia.

After the Grand auditions, contestants of first season were chosen from a variety of

backgrounds and nationalities, which included Americans, Australians and foreign reality

TV stars. (CNNGO, 2010) Considering the show aired in , the final 10 teams of Season One were all foreigners. There was no Chinese contestant in the first season. The show started airing on ICS from August 2010 and aired on China Central

Television International Channel (CCTV 9) after ICS’s premiere. Due to the English broadcasting, ICS had comparatively smaller audience market. Most audience of ICS were foreign residents in Shanghai and local residents who know English. As a result, all the programs airing on ICS had lower rating and share than any other Chinese-language broadcast Channels of SMG. Nonetheless, the first season of China rush got higher rating than other programs of ICS. After the good reviews and effect of the show, SMG signed another two season’s contract with Disney in October 2010 (smg.cn, 2010). Considering

the audience shortage, the contestant format of the Season two was changed. Different

from the previous season that featured foreign contestants living in China, the second 50

season has a mixed cast between native Chinese and foreigners living in China. All the contestants had to be able to understand and speck English. They could use Chinese or

English during the competition process. And the host in the show broadcast in both English and . And then the Chinese-language version of the show broadcasted on

Dragon TV while English-language version aired on ICS weekly in 2011.

Although the show broadcast on every Sunday afternoon on Dragon TV, it still got good reputation and comments. The rating and share is 10 – 30 percent higher than other same-time programs of Dragon TV. And the rating and share of the show airing on ICS also grows 15 – 45 percent higher than the first season. The Amazing Race: China Rush became now a key program of ICS.

Mentioning the production of China Rush, around half of the production team was foreigners from US, UK and other countries. Even the director of the three seasons was an experienced American director who was living in Shanghai. It is a real international team produced an international franchised show. It was also the first introduced reality television program in China Market that broadcast in English language. The show displayed a mix of foreign and Chinese local culture. Lots of culture shock occurred in the show. After the addition of Chinese contestants in the second season, the competition became more serve because they had the language advantage to foreign contestants. The most important is that the Chinese audiences were willing to accept such mixed culture shows. It is obviously ‘a fresh wind’ on TV screen of so many reality televisions of all Chinese contestants. But in the national scale, the show may not have growth space and hit potential since the language 51

broadcasted in the show. Even if there had been Chinese version of the show airing on

Dragon TV, the major language of foreign contestants in the show was still English, a foreign language in mainland China.

China Rush was very welcomed by young generation and English speakers. 80% of appliers of the second season are under 30 years old. The author did the interview with Jin

Zhang, the director assistant of the three seasons of the show. According to Zhang, the show’s appliers rise rapidly one season after one. Especially after the version aired on Dragon TV, the show attracts more Chinese young audience to apply for the third season. Zhang said that there were about 50 Chinese and 50 foreign team staff in the production of the first season. And in the second season, the percentage of foreign team member is 33%. And in the third season, it is 25%. All the postproduction of three seasons was finished by a local production company not ICS. Since there was no consulting of

Disney during the production, the tasks and destination routes were all designed by ICS and the co-operated production company.

3.4 The Voice of China

The Voice of China is introduced in 2012. The show is the franchise of The Voice of

Holland, a reality talent show. The show was launched in the United States by NBC in

2011. The premiere of The Voice got the highest 18–49 rating for a series premiere on a major . The Voice of China was consisted of blind audition, battle round, and live performance vote. There were four well-known and professional singing artists as 52

the judges. Four judges, who would be the coaches of contestants later, chose their team

members from contestants through a blind audition process at first (NBC & Wikipedia,

2012). Their decisions were based only on voice instead of looks. Each judge decided if he

or she wanted that singer in his or her team during the blind audition; if it happened that

two or more judges want the same singer, the singer had the final right to choose coach

(NBC & Wikipedia, 2012). After the blind audition, the coach mentored and developed

his/her own team for later competition. During the battle rounds, the coaches pit two of

their team members to sing the same song together in front of audience in the studio. And

then the coaches chose the one of his/her team to advance and the other to eliminate (NBC

& Wikipedia, 2012). After several rounds of battles, only strongest singers of each team

remained and advanced to the live show performance (NBC & Wikipedia, 2012). During

the final live competition, the audience voted to save their favorite singers and the coaches

decided whom to be the one to stay at stage for his/her team (NBC & Wikipedia, 2012).

The one chosen by coaches would compete against other three teams’ strongest singers to

win the name of “the Voice of China” and the opportunity of (NBC &

Wikipedia, 2012). The premiere of the show aired on Zhejiang TV on July 13th and got the unexpected welcome and hot discussion on major Chinese website. It hit the top of hot topics on Weibo (The Chinese like ).

The blind audition separates The Voice of China from other similar talent shows.

And it is a key and special characteristic of the show. The coaches hear the contestants’

performance when they cannot see their face because of their rotating chairs. Once the 53

coaches feel impressed by the voice, they can push the button on their chairs to choose the contestant. The chair then swivel, and the coach can finally see the look of the voice.

Another attractive point of the show is the emphasis on professional training. The selected contestants have one-month vocal training by their coach after the blind audition. (Liao,

2012)

What worth mention is that the background story of some good talented contestants moved a lot audience after the premiere of the show. Family affection and hard life of contestants were discussed and the good voices of them are appreciated on Weibo.

Zhejiang TV successfully gets the high rating and attention from national audience. The launch of the Voice of China is also a sign that Chinese TV stations have noticed the future business opportunities with foreign reality shows. Lots of introduced shows are brought to

China TV screens after several years’ airing. The Got Talent and The Amazing Race format both runs several years in other countries before introducing to China. But the Voice of

Holland is a new show compared with those old programs. And it is such a great success that Zhejiang TV has noticed the potential profit and popularity to co-produce with the

Voice of Holland.

The show was commented as “foreseeable profitable project, successful mode, detailed plan and perfect integration” (Zhang, 2012). Table 5 is the statics of the audience share of Zhejiang TV in the area of Zuzhou. It clearly shows the difference of rating and share before and after the launch of The Voice of China. Just after the premiere, the share 54

of Zhejiang TV increased by 9 times. And it continued to stay upon 5 since the premiere.

And from the second episode, the show always ranked as no.1 on national scale (see Table

6). On the other side, the critical review appeared gradually on Internet. The background stories of contestants were thrown into doubt. On weibo, many users thought it was a show to compete whose life was harder.

Table 5

The rating of the Voice of China in Suzhou

(Zhang, 2012)

21:10-23 Every Before After 8/24 7/13 7/20 7/27 8/3 8/10 8/17 :00 Friday premiere premiere

Zhejiang Rating 0.3 2.4 1.2 3.2 2.1 2.2 2.6 1.9 3.4 TV Share 1.3 8.99 5 12.3 8 7.8 9 7.7 13.1

55

Table 6

The rating of the Voice of China in Mainland China

(Zhang, 2012)

Time Rating Share National rank

7/13 1.477 4.11 2

7/20 2.717 6.93 1

7/27 3.075 7.89 1

8/3 2.725 7.67 1

8/10 3.310 9.74 1

8/17 4.019 11.39 1 56

Chapter Four: Results

Analysis of the three cases of Chinese introduced and co-produced reality shows revealed findings within the areas of the research questions.

4.1 Research Question One

The first question asked the impact popular western introduced reality shows have in the China market for media workers and for the whole Chinese society.

4.1.1 The Awareness of Copyrights

Introduced foreign programs make the Chinese media workers aware of the copyrights of the airing shows. In many countries, unique and attractive characteristics of some pop reality shows are copied and plagiarized in their own shows. Such phenomenon is also usual in China market. The Super Girls’ Voice, the popular contestant show in 2004, run the basic mode of the idol franchise. Fei Cheng Wu Rao, a well-known dating program, has the same set and basic format of a Holland dating show. In order to get high rating and share, some TV stations plagiarizes successful foreign reality television formats or essential elements of foreign shows without purchasing their copyrights （People’s Daily,

2012）. Since there is no particular rules or regulations on television copyrights in China, not many media workers care about the copyright problems. And in the country of different culture, it is not easy to convict them plagiarism if the show’s major format and content is not the same. The three reality shows mentioned in Chapter three are all legally introduced and have the copyrights for broadcasting in China market. Before the launch and 57

promotion of The Voice of China, there have been some similar talent shows airing at the beginning of 2012. The attractive point of the show is blind audition round which origins from Tapla, a Holland production company. Tapla who owns the format of the voice of, announced the public notice to all competing companies in may 2012 and pushed every coping ones to stop the airing before July 12th, the date of the Voice of China’s Launch

(Zhu, 2012). According to the report, during that time, the shows that run the same blind audition were Feichang 6+1 of CCTV and Amazing Voice of TV. The legal action warns television producers’ awareness of copyright regulation and law. In 2013, there are around 30 introduced shows broadcasted, which includes dating, game, talent, cook and other various type of reality shows (Chi, 2013).

4.1.2 More Attention to Good Programs of Other Countries’ Markets

With the trend of introducing foreign pop reality television, Chinese television workers began paying attention to the foreign reality shows. As introducing the foreign shows lowers the production cost and increase the audience share, TV stations and domestic production companies are eager to find the next popular and profitable show to purchase and co-produce. That is to say, television staff emphasizes the new and popular shows in other countries’ market. During the process, Chinese professionals know well about the show as soon as it becomes hit. SMG, the second largest media in China, organized foreign shows viewing every week in the company. And other Chinese media corporations also do the same viewing meeting regularly.

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More attention to other markets’ TV shows also stimulates the development of

China’s domestic reality television. Knowing well the world’s market of the reality

television and learning the good tips and technologies from other media developed

countries, Chinese media will know how to develop its own reality television and make the

market more mature.

4.1.3 American Dream, Fairness, Competition

Television watching can change one’s view gradually according to the report. And

born in the era of reality television, the young generation of China has different view and

characteristics from old Chinese generation thanks to much time of television watching.

Most reality television from western countries, especially the talent show, runs the

mode ’you can make it if you want it.’ American Idol, X factor all make audience believe the sprit of the American Dream. The theme of China’s Got Talent is “believe your dream, believe the miracle!” which led to the new “Chinese dream” era in China. Nine years of reality TV’s broadcast and production proved that audience still love to watch grand audition show. And people believe it is a way to be a star when performing their talent in the reality television. People become willing to show themselves in these nine years. Other game reality television like the Amazing Race let audience know more about the western competition sprit. The traditional Chinese competition sprit “Competition comes after friendship” does not work in nowadays. People now more contend to be the best and the winner. Western introduced television also express their culture of fairness. The audience vote system was introduced from western shows. And audiences’ desire for fairness grows 59

rapidly. The reality television become more transparent in China’s market and less black case works can be done now.

4.2 Research Question Two

Question #2 is what foreign media investors can achieve through the introduced reality shows in China?

4.2.1 The Potential Huge Market

With a population of over 1.3 billion, China should be indeed an obvious market for talent shows and other reality television. According to the case study of China’s Got

Talent, there were 400 million viewers watching the premiere of the first season. The show has reached its expected audience of 800 million viewers. The audience number of premiere has exceeded the United States’ 300-million population. Even the

English-language show The Amazing Race: China Rush has the great potential of more audience rating and share. The China’s market is a profitable market waiting for domestic and foreign investors to share. And the immaturity of the China’s market and the current intense competition of domestic reality television makes it easy for foreign media companies enter, sell and co-produce their reality television. 60

4.2.2 Franchise and Derivative Income

According to the three introduced shows mentioned in Chapter three, the foreign

partners of the shows all provide consultation and some also provide certain number of

staff of their own production team to help the show production in China. The show air in

China share their theme logo, music and original frame. And the audience research, talent

search and promotion work are all work for Chinese partners. With much less work, the

co-produced company gains comparatively higher copyright income. And for production,

they have no need to do much as produce their original shows. They just need to share their

experience and provide the editing and shooting methods of the show. Such risk-free introduction of shows to China’s market may also bring unexpected income besides the franchise fee. Like The China’s Got Talent, the national tours of talents in Mainland China and other countries also bring profit to Fremantle Media. The derivative income of the show is also profitable and promising in China’s market.

4.2.3 Low Production Cost

It is profitable to introduce shows into China’s market. Furthermore, co-production of reality television must be profitable. There is still no originally co-produced reality shows airing in China’s market now. But the most attractive reason why reality television is so popular in television production companies and TV stations is its lower production cost, higher rating, and re-air ability. The production cost of the reality television is still higher in media leading countries like USA and UK compared to in China. Production cost 61

in China is comparatively much lower than in developed countries. And the audience share

is even higher because of the large population.

4.3 Research Question Three

The following research question is the difference between China and America

market of reality TV.

4.3.1 Regulations and Rules

Due to the current national condition of China and the history of Chinese television

industry, the China’s market is not as mature as western television market. And the rules

and regulations are totally different as well. Like FCC, State Administration of Radio, Film

and Television (SARFT) announced regulations for the entertainment and reality television

airing in China recently.

According to the report, China has the largest number of television viewers in the

world - an estimated 95% of its 1.3 billion people. Two-thirds entertainment television has

been cut since January 2012. The number of entertainment shows aired during prime time

each week has dropped to 38 from 126. Effective on January 1st 2012, China’s 34 satellite channels are limited to air two entertainment programs each week and the maximum of the entertainment show during 19:30 to 22:00 is 90 minutes. And for the content of reality television, there are also some regulations that there is not in western countries.

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4.3.2 Audience’s Taste and Current Competition Situation

During globalization era, culture shock still exists between eastern and western

countries. Language, tradition, and national condition are all the factors that affect the

culture difference and different audience’s taste. Thanks to the boost of Internet and video

sharing website, the younger generation of China has the access to western culture and get

used to it. But older Chinese people still keep Chinese tradition and culture. And they still

are the larger part of the Chinese television audience. As a result, some successful elements

of the western reality shows or even the whole show cannot be suitable to China’s market.

The Amazing Race: China Rush is a good example. Due to the target audience and the

language difference, the show attracts people who understand English. And the whole

foreign contestant mode of season one limits the show’s development. After the addition of

Chinese-born contestant and Chinese-language broadcast, the show now targets all Chinese audience.

The current situation of China’s reality television market seems in a mess because every TV station wants to be the winner of rating war. To get the first rank, the competition is severe now. To get used to the Chinese competition, introduced programs also need to be changed to fit. Like China’s Got Talent, the format was changed in some part to make the show more competitive. But 90 percent of original show is kept. And the change did not affect the viewing; the rating and share are still high. The original successful format may not work in China’s market because of the different audience.

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4.4 Research Question Four

The last question is how a company can produce a profitable and

Chinese-welcomed reality show in China? What are the key factors?

4.4.1 The Brand Effect

Like in other industry, the brand effect also works in television industry. China’s

Got Talent and The Amazing Race: China Rush are both good examples. After several years’ broadcast, these two shows are known by many audience through news reports, online video sharing even in the countries there is no airing of the two shows. The reputation of the show and curiousness of audience make the show popular before premiere. With the original brand effect and large scale of promotion and propaganda, it is less risky to produce a reality show.

4.4.2 The Professional Production

Except for good promotion and brand effect, production is the most important part of a reality show. No matter how great the original show is and how big the market is, the reaction of audience depends on the production of the show. The three cases mentioned before all get the consolation from the original production team. Most produced by

Chinese staffs, the shows still look originally.

4.4.3 Airing Landscape and Target Audience

Every reality show has its own target and its own airing landscape. Like China’s 64

Got Talent and The Voice of China airs on satellite channels and their target is obviously national audience. And since their nature of talent show, they don’t have particular age range of target. But for the Amazing Race: China Rush, the major target of the show is still high-educated, high-end Shanghai residents, although the show has started broadcasting

Chinese language for Dragon TV.

4.4.4 Fresh, Special, affecting, Unexpected, The prize and News

Mentioning the elements to produce a good and popular Chinese reality show, the format of show must be fresh; the participants in the show must be special; the back-story of participants must be affecting. There must be something unexpected happen during the show; and the prize of the show must be attractive; there must be news related to the show after every episode. The success of the premiere of The Voice of China mainly owes to its fresh and brand-new blind audition format. The format of the show is even fresh in the

United States. Every reality show owns some special participants who have special background stories or special characteristics, which is the attractive point of the show to catch audience. “From all successful talent show, 70 percent owe to the setting of production team, and only 30 percent depend on pre-audition.” (The Guide to Produce

Talent Show, 2010). The setting of special participants is obviously a key element to produce a good reality program. Another key factor works everywhere is affecting element.

The moving story or hard situation of participants is always a good way to attract women audience. The premiere of The Voice of China won many audience’ tears for one selected girl who sings for her dad in heaven. Unexpectedness is a factor to catch audience, which 65

satisfies the curiousness of the audience. Audiences like and are willing to watch the

unexpected results. During the second season of China’s Got Talent, one of the three judges,

Gao Xiaosong was detained for drunk driving and four-car crash. To the production team and audience of the show, it is unexpected and even shocked. The show had to change the judge in a short time, which made the show the hottest topic with most attention in that week. Because of the bad effect, the prepared episode to air had to be reedited and the production team had to decide the alternative judge as soon as possible. Although this is not good news for the show, but the following episodes indeed attracted more audience who are carious about the result and the running of the show without the original judge.

Meanwhile, the prize is also a key factor to attract the participants. With the more participants, the interest of audience grows at the same time. To keep the show in audience’s mind, surrounding news is essential. Certain amount of news after every episode of the show is a good way to keep audience’s eye on the show. The news can be the backstory of the production and participants or any other reports that fits audience’s interest.

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Chapter Five: Discussion

5.1 Introduction

Reality Television originates from radio game show and talent competition to

stunt show to dating show to documentary-style series. Now unscripted drams, makeover shows, dating shows, talent shows and other diverse shows which you can image or not are all under the genre of reality TV. There were more than a dozen reality shows in prime-time on American major networks and cable in the 2007’s fall season (Mets, ND). The audience can watch any different reality show like "The Biggest

Loser," "," "," on any given night (Mets, ND). In

China, reality programs, especially talent shows, are welcomed since 2004. In these nine years, some foreign pop reality television is introduced into China’s market and gets the good reputation. The previous studies researched the current market and future trend of

China’s entertainment television market. And culture behind the reality television and co-production are discussed in the previous chapters. China is and will be a profitable and promising market for foreign reality television to enter now and in next decades.

The purpose of the study is to analyze China’s reality television market for foreign good shows to enter. China is a developing country with huge population and a typical country that has a big media market for TV programs. That is to say, learning well about the media market and current situation of China’s television industry can help getting to know other developing countries with potential TV programming market. A lot of developing countries, like China, have some local restrictions for their programming; that 67

is another reason why their media industry grows very slowly. Realizing what the suitable show is for Chinese audience will help media companies and foreign investors exploring new markets to get profit and spreading different cultures.

5.2 Discussion

The tremendous potential market in China will bring a lot of profit. More and more opportunities have appeared since the early 1990s in the film and television industries.

According to the studies in Chapter two, the current financial climate is good for the development of Chinese entertainment television. In 2005, Shanghai Oriental Nick Media

Co., Ltd was found in China by Shanghai Media Group (SMG) and Nickelodeon Children

Channel of Viacom Co. Ltd which is the third biggest media company in the United States.

With solid foundations, the company not only introduces western children programs, but also let western people know the Chinese children programs much better.

To enter the China’s television market, it is essential to know well the system and structure. Not like the United States and the United Kingdom, China has not such mature systems of TV Programming and Media Markets. China now is still in the process of separation of broadcast and production and reform of the whole broadcast system. And with the development of social media, rating and share is no longer the tool to determine whether the show is good or not. The topics of the show on Weibo and the viewing on website became a new way to judge the success of the show (huxiu.com, 2013). It is an advantage for foreign introduced shows because many audience may have watched the 68

original version on website before it is introduced. Those audiences may expect more from

the Chinese version of the show and bring hot topics on Internet.

The international co-production brings not only obvious benefits, but also

drawbacks. Besides the economic benefits the global co-production brings, the

international co-production lowers the risks and the cost of the whole production and

increase the presence of co-production partners in oversea markets. The format and content of the show under international co-production can attract various audience, markets and meet different domestic regulatory requirements. Through the co-production, media makers can learn from other international partners. Considering the weakness of international co-production, all the factors such as domestic regulation, different program length and production raise the costs of international co-productions in some part.

International co-productions may create more programming of the homogenous styles, which will also affect the quality of the show. Although there are drawbacks, the international production is comparatively more beneficial to self-production. International production is the production trend for the world’s television industry.

5.3 Recommendation for Future Research

The study puts emphasis on the China’s reality television market for foreign introduce programs. There are some other study-worthy parts of China’s reality television 69

not included in the study. Since the reality television is so popular in Chinese audience, the

problems occurs one after one. Many TV stations try any way to make their shows have

high ratings. Some of them copy and plagiarize the successful format and special elements

from foreign reality television and did not purchase the copyrights. This has been severe

problem not only in China, and in other Asian countries. More researches about the copy

right of reality television should be done for the healthy growth of reality television. Every

reality show has its emotional moment to move and attract audience. But more and more

moving back-stories of reality shows are pointed out as fake by certain insiders. Is the reality television really real? It should be further researched either the popularity and rating or the initial characteristics of the genre of reality TV is more important. Under the environment of much foreign introduced reality television, how do the original-created

“made in China” shows develop in the market? More attention should be paid to domestic produced shows in such a competitive time of Chinese reality television.

5.4 Conclusion

The introduction of foreign reality television to China indeed impact on the China’s market and production teams. Production teams become aware of the related regulation and laws about copyrights of the shows. They begin pay attention to the good shows in foreign market to search next hit introduced show, through which Chinese teams will learn more from successful format and latest trend of foreign markets. More and more foreign introduced shows airing on TV screen also change and form the views of Chinese audience.

Except the impact on China, the foreign production companies and investor gain a lot from 70

co-production as well. With the largest market of audience, the foreign co-production partners do not only get the franchise fee of the show, the derivative income is also profitable. And the co-production will save them lots of production cost. Nevertheless, the market of China is obviously different from market of USA and UK. During the co-production, foreign partners must be aware of the different and strict regulations and rules of China’ market. And the audience’s taste is also different due to the eastern culture.

With the advantage of brand effect, professional production and large target audience, foreign introduced show can be popular in China’s market. And to produce a good and popular reality , the fresh, special, affecting and unexpected elements must be added to the show. Besides these successful factors, the prize of the show must be attractive and there must be related news of the show reported after every episode to catch more expected audience’s eye.

In many Americans’ minds, China is a faraway country and they have no idea of the country at all. Some people knew China because of KungFu. Someone knew China because of Olympics 2008. China is no longer the poor country it was before for many years. With the fast development of technologies and economics, the demand on culture and entertainment life is growing up with a high as well. In the urban parts of China, there is at least one TV set in a family on average. In another word, the demand on TV programs is much huger than ever before in China. China is the country with the biggest population of the world. There are more than 13 hundred million Chinese people living on the earth. In comparison, the population of the United States is about 3 hundred million 71

which is 10 hundred million less than China. That is to say, if there is a program that one-fourth Chinese audiences are watching, it is just like the whole America is watching the show. And the media is in a progress of advancement. There is an enormous business chance in the media market of China. There is a huge profit in TV programming in China’s market. A smart media professional or investor will not ignore the promising business opportunities in China, especially in popular Reality TV market.

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