The world’s most populous nation boasts the largest number of internet users, at 564 million. In recent years, the emergence of Youku Tudou, iQiyi, PPTV and Sana have increased the popularity of online video websites in China. Youku Tudou, China’s biggest online video giant, features commissioned programmes from a myriad of channels including Hong Kong’s TVB and CTE and also user-generated content.
Besides acquiring programmes, online video platforms like Youku Tudou have started to include more local productions via user-generated content. Youku Tudou has a revenue sharing programme that allows qualified participants to be paid from advertisements in their videos, which encourages more user-generated content.
Last November, Tencent Holdings Limited and HBO announced a strategic partnership at the Tencent Video V Conference in Beijing for Tencent Video to be the exclusive online partner for HBO in China.
Tencent Video will be the sole official provider online to offer award-winning HBO drama series including Band of Brothers, Boardwalk Empire, Game of Thrones, Rome, The Newsroom, True Detective and a number of other leading TV and movie titles from HBO and HBO Asia.
Charles Schreger, President of Programming Sales, HBO said, “The HBO brand is synonymous with ground-breaking original programming. The storytelling as well as the scale and scope of production on series such as Game of Thrones and Boardwalk Empire, is simply unmatched in the entertainment industry. This partnership with Tencent Video ensures that Chinese fans will now be able to enjoy our dramas at the high level of quality they were meant to be experienced.
This is a great partnership for both companies and for the Chinese consumer as well.”
Strategic partnerships
Last year, Alcatel-Lucent closed the sale of its subsidiary, Alcatel- Lucent Enterprise – which provides communications and networking solutions – to China Huaxin Post & Telecommunication Economy Development Centre for €202 million in cash proceeds.
Alcatel-Lucent retained a 15% minority stake in the divested business, as well as a commercial relationship with it in support of its growth ambitions under new ownership.
The divestment of Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise forms part of Alcatel- Lucent’s commitments under The Shift Plan launched in June 2013 – to refocus itself as a specialist in IP, Cloud and Ultra-Broadband Access while realigning its balance sheet, implementing cost savings of €1 billion and generating at least €1 billion through selective asset sales by the end of 2015.
Internet content delivery
Akamai Technologies, Inc. also announced a strategic partnership agreement with China Telecom Corporation Limited’s cloud division, CT Cloud. CT Cloud offers quality cloud services to customers. As part of the strategic partnership, CT Cloud has agreed to offer an integrated solution incorporating Akamai’s full suite of media delivery, web performance, and cloud security offerings with its own Cloud services to Chinese businesses looking to grow their global web presence. In addition, the partnership is designed to enable close cooperation between the two companies in the areas of technology and network access, thus strengthening Akamai’s China CDN offering for accelerating content from global customers to Chinese consumers.
“With trade in and out of China continuing to increase, Chinese enterprises require a high performing, secure, and always available Web presence to compete in today’s multi-national marketplace,” said Wu Xiangdong, General Manager of CT Cloud. “Enterprise web infrastructure must be agile and scalable, providing users with a consistently fast and reliable experience. Our choice is to partner with Akamai to provide our enterprise customers with superior Internet content delivery across the globe.”
Under the partnership, CT Cloud plans to leverage Akamai for content delivery network (CDN) technology that will be available for the delivery of its Cloud services. Akamai enables operators to deploy a highly scalable, completely turnkey CDN that leverages the same technologies found within the Akamai Intelligent PlatformTM.
“China Telecom is one of the largest Internet service providers in China, serving the global Internet market,” said Sanjay Singh, Senior Vice President & General Manager of Asia Pacific & Japan, Akamai. “We’re excited to complement CT Cloud’s solutions with Akamai services to tap into the fast-growing China cloud and CDN market. Akamai sees increased demand for delivering content to Chinese Internet users from global customers.
Co-productions
China has also upped its number of co-productions, working with several broadcasters and producers in the Asia-Pacific region. This year, Singaporean Prod-Co IFA Media will co-produce with China Intercontinental Centre (CICC).
Crossroads: The Silk Road will be shot in four countries across Asia’s most beautiful landscapes. This landmark coproduction is the 3rd of CICC and IFA Media collaborations, from The Chinese Hajj for National Geographic, to Rebuilding Sichuan for Discovery Channel Asia (nominated for Best Social Awareness Programme at the 2011 Asian TV Awards).
Huaso Film/TV Digital Production, the joint-venture production company of Sony Pictures Television (SPT) and CCTV6’s HuaCheng Pictures, has concluded a deal with Croton Media to co-produce a local version of the highly popular and critically-acclaimed comedy Mad About You for audiences in China.
In addition to Mad About You, Huaso has produced local versions of other popular SPT scripted and non-scripted formats in China, including talk show Dr. Oz, as well as competition series Raid the Cage and Dancing Nation.
