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Drama retains top formats spot in China
29 June 2020
Censorship and regulatory issues have derailed China’s formats market somewhat, but the country remains able and willing to invest in big-budget adaptations and co-development, particularly as part of reciprocal international distribution arrangements.
At the same time, China still tops the list of high-profile IP disputes. These include the long-running and recently settled argument with Korea’s MBC over the Chinese version of Korean blockbuster, The Masked Singer.
Star China Media-affiliated mainland production house, Shanghai Canxing Culture Media (China’s Got Talent, So You Think You Can Dance), produced multiple seasons of a singing show called Guess the Masked Singer, and claimed the property as its original IP.
The arbitration application was filed in early 2019. In April this year, Chinese arbitration body CIETAC ruled in favour of MBC, and ordered Canxing to pay all outstanding rights fees as well as the cost of the arbitration proceedings. MBC, which fought this one for about five years, hasn’t disclosed the amount awarded.
According to ContentAsia’s Formats Outlook, China dropped to fifth position on our chart (by volume) in full year 2019 compared to fourth position in 2018. China had 31 titles in 2018 and 25 in 2019.
One of last year’s new titles was Fremantle’s singing contest The Chart.
Game show dropped from five to two titles, factual halved from two to one, and drama went from 16 to 13.
Drama had the largest share of China’s format adaptations, making up more than half of all titles.
Shows include all3media’s Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries, BBC’s Life on Mars, Endemol Shine’s Broadchurch, Fuji TV’s First Class and ITV Studios’ Jekyll & Hyde.
Other formats players in China last year were TV Asahi with sports format, Beat The Champions S3; Armoza with Dance Smash; NBCUniversal with Saturday Night Live; and Endemol Shine with Family Food Fight.
Fremantle’s final format under the old production model was World’s Got Talent, before the company migrated to a licencing structure driven by the company’s Singapore-based licensing hub.
Discovery made an entry with Say Yes To The Dress.
Right hold...
Censorship and regulatory issues have derailed China’s formats market somewhat, but the country remains able and willing to invest in big-budget adaptations and co-development, particularly as part of reciprocal international distribution arrangements.
At the same time, China still tops the list of high-profile IP disputes. These include the long-running and recently settled argument with Korea’s MBC over the Chinese version of Korean blockbuster, The Masked Singer.
Star China Media-affiliated mainland production house, Shanghai Canxing Culture Media (China’s Got Talent, So You Think You Can Dance), produced multiple seasons of a singing show called Guess the Masked Singer, and claimed the property as its original IP.
The arbitration application was filed in early 2019. In April this year, Chinese arbitration body CIETAC ruled in favour of MBC, and ordered Canxing to pay all outstanding rights fees as well as the cost of the arbitration proceedings. MBC, which fought this one for about five years, hasn’t disclosed the amount awarded.
According to ContentAsia’s Formats Outlook, China dropped to fifth position on our chart (by volume) in full year 2019 compared to fourth position in 2018. China had 31 titles in 2018 and 25 in 2019.
One of last year’s new titles was Fremantle’s singing contest The Chart.
Game show dropped from five to two titles, factual halved from two to one, and drama went from 16 to 13.
Drama had the largest share of China’s format adaptations, making up more than half of all titles.
Shows include all3media’s Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries, BBC’s Life on Mars, Endemol Shine’s Broadchurch, Fuji TV’s First Class and ITV Studios’ Jekyll & Hyde.
Other formats players in China last year were TV Asahi with sports format, Beat The Champions S3; Armoza with Dance Smash; NBCUniversal with Saturday Night Live; and Endemol Shine with Family Food Fight.
Fremantle’s final format under the old production model was World’s Got Talent, before the company migrated to a licencing structure driven by the company’s Singapore-based licensing hub.
Discovery made an entry with Say Yes To The Dress.
Right holders who dropped off China’s charts in 2019 include Dori Media, Perfect World Pictures (The Awakening and The Little Nyonya), Nippon TV (Pharaoh! S4 & S5) and Warner Bros (Gossip Girl).
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