Sino the times
China woos French and German TV exex but keeps U.S. players at arm's length
The authorities seemed to be saying "back off" when they announced a crackdown on outside investment in the country's film and TV industries only a few months ago. That's how it looked to Hollywood, anyway.
Yet senior Chinese officials gave French and German TV bizzers a definite come-hither message at the eighth Sichuan TV Festival Nov. 26-29.
Concurrent French and German days were sidelines to the main event, dominated by a local TV market and the Intl. Gold Panda awards.
"The Chinese aren't happy to be over-dependent on the U.S., so they are courting other countries that can offer alternatives," a French official in Chengdu told Variety, which was invited by industry body Television France Intl. to travel with the contingent and cover the Gallic mart.
Clutches of curious locals rubbernecked the confab, which saw Chengdu's Exhibition & Convention Center and adjoining five-star California Garden Hotel festooned with huge, brightly colored balloons.
Sixteen Gallic program sellers gained unprecedented access to Chinese TV bosses during a mini Gallic mart, the second organized in China by TV France Intl., promoter of French programs abroad.
Meanwhile, Teutonic doc producers huddled with local TV folk to discuss co-production opportunities afforded by the Beijing Olympics in 2008 -- all under the watchful eye of reps from the powerful State Administration of Radio Film & Television.
Interest in doing business together is mutual, despite quotas in China that restrict foreign programming to 25% of airtime -- none of it between 7 and 10 p.m. -- and the rock-bottom prices Chinese broadcasters pay for shows.
Last year a mere 800 to 1,000 hours of French drama, docus and animation sold to China, for an average of E1,500 ($1,758) per hour.
British program distributors report comparable prices for their shows.
It's peanuts next to more lucrative exports. For example, only last week Airbus signed a $10 billion deal to supply aircraft to China.
But like American firms, Europeans are dazzled by the prospect of entering a market in which more than 2,000 TV channels serve a mind-boggling 400 million TV households.
Media biz excitement about the Chinese market is fueled by glowing analysts' forecasts of how consumption there is going to evolve.
PricewaterhouseCoopers says spending on entertainment and media in China will grow 14.2% a year over the next four years (25.2% including the Internet), to $143 billion in 2009. That's a lot smaller than the $690 billion the U.S. market is forecast to be worth in 2009, but it will put China ahead of Japan, currently the region's largest market.
The Sichuan fest's French Day was part of an elaborate courtship that has been going on between France and China for some time, involving state visits and what is grandly referred to as the Sino-French cultural years, when in 2003 and 2004 each country celebrated the other's culture.
Events ranged from an Impressionist art expo in Peking to marking the Chinese New Year celebrations in Paris by illuminating the Eiffel Tower in red.
To date, most French program sales are made via Chinese intermediaries, who pay a one-time fee for a show and then get it past censors and sell it to a broadcaster. In France one of the key players is Tang Media, run by a Chinese supermarket owner in Paris.
However, in Chengdu two weeks ago Gallic distribbers established contact directly with Chinese webs.
"It is useful to meet and do business with the people who actually use our programs," says Jean-Louis Guillot, prexy of TV France Intl.
Animation house Moonscoop's Lionel Marty agrees: "The trouble with selling via distributors is that after the sale, you've no idea when and where and how many times a program is aired."
However, business in Chengdu was sluggish, Gallic distribbers conceded after two days of back-to-back meetings conducted via interpreters.
"It's complicated," says Sophie Cupillard, of Gallic producer-distrib Tele Images. "They don't want to buy; they want to partner with us or co-produce."
Nonetheless, some 100 Chinese buyers did put in an appearance. Among them was Guo Hua, deputy director of international of CCVT6, China's state-run movie channel and one of France's best customers, buying some 70 Gallic movies and telepics each year.
Some 40% of the web's foreign output is U.S. and 20% French. The top-rated foreign film this year was "Titanic," which had 100 million Chinese viewers. French comedy "Asterix and Obelix: Mission Cleopatra" drew 50 million viewers.
All content is carefully vetted by Sarft. And there are lots of no-go areas -- programs that contain nudity, sex or violence or express views or ideas that politically oppose China's are out of the question.
At the French TV mart, there was a gasp from embarrassed buyers watching a promo reel of "Venus and Apollo," adapted from the Toni Marshall film set in a beauty salon. The offending scene showed a client -- perfectly covered up by a pair of panties -- open her legs wide apart in full view of the camera.
Whatever their prudery about sexual matters, the Chinese display a growing interest in world affairs, says Jean-Luc Vernhet, director of France's TV archive, Institut National de l'Audivisuel.
INA received requests for docus about French presidents Charles de Gaulle and Francois Mitterrand. It also recently contributed footage for a Chinese doc series called "The Rise of Nations," about the development of the European Union.
But again, actual TV sales deals were elusive.
