UK AND CHINESE GROUPS IN BROADCAST VENTURE

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A unit of ITV, the UK's largest commercial broadcaster, has linked up with Hunan Satellite Television, one of China's most commercially successful state broadcasters, jointly to develop formats that could be first broadcast in China and later exported.

The deal between ITV Studios and Hunan is an indication of the importance China could gain in the global television market in spite of Beijing's censorship and state control of the media industry.

Under the agreement signed on Monday, Hunan TV will license several formats over the coming three years. ITV and Hunan TV will co-develop, create and own the new formats together, ITV said. Hunan TV plans to start broadcasting the programming this year but also hopes ITV can take the shows they make overseas.

This is a departure from the traditional co-operation model between Chinese broadcasters and foreign content providers, where most agreements are single-format deals, under which the Chinese side licenses mature shows developed and run elsewhere.

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“This is the first partnership between a Chinese and a foreign broadcaster and it is the first deal under which formats will be created out of China,” Lee Bartlett, managing director of ITV Studios, told the Financial Times.

ITV will own the rights for overseas distribution of the content the two groups co-develop. “Hunan TV is happy with that because they hope this will help them get out there on the global market,” said James Ross, regional director for ITV Studios Global Entertainment in Hong Kong.

The co-operation comes as China's media industry is undergoing thorough changes. While the government continues to insist that all broadcasters must be state-owned, it is also pushing them to become commercially viable and international.

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China has one national broadcaster, China Central Television, and one state-owned broadcaster from each province, which are banned from investing in broadcasting outside their home provinces. However, provincial broadcasters have gained de facto control of rivals through content production and programming agreements.

Hunan TV has proved successful in addressing a young audience with entertainment programmes. ITV and Hunan TV will also concentrate on unscripted programmes – shows with studio guests rather than soap operas – because their ideas and common human feelings “travel more easily”, Mr Bartlett said.