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发帖数: 4825 | 1 http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405297020373530457716650
BEIJING—Government restrictions are driving young Chinese to turn off their
TV sets and turn on their computers. Advertisers and Western studios are
right there with them.
China's streaming-video sites once were derided by the global entertainment
industry as homes of stolen movies and television shows. But many sites have
cracked down on piracy and are offering original programming, as well as
licensed Western movies and TV shows such as "Gossip Girl" and "Mad Men."
As a result, ad revenue for Chinese video websites operated by Youku Inc.,
Tudou Holdings Ltd., Baidu Inc., Sohu.com Ltd. and others surged to 1.48
billion yuan ($235 million) in the third quarter, up 48% from the second
quarter, according to market-data firm Analysys International.
Enlarge Image
CVIDEO
CVIDEO
The Youku-GM series 'Miss Puff' features a man who drives a Chevy Cruze.
Some sites are starting to offer some premium content, charging Chinese
consumers for each viewing or on a monthly basis. "People are getting used
to paying for content," said Gary Wang, chief executive of Tudou, which has
about 12 million paying mobile subscribers.
Tudou, which gets 300 million visitors a month, has paid millions of dollars
for exclusive rights to broadcast some Hollywood films, he said, though he
didn't offer specifics. In October the company began offering Walt Disney Co
.'s "Cars 2" animated movie for 20 yuan, or about $3, a view.
Advertisers such as General Motors Co. are responding by buying banner ads,
time before shows and in some cases helping to produce their own Chinese
programming. Chinese online-video ad rates accelerated last year, rising 40%
—50% in some cities—compared with a 25% rise in overall Internet
advertising, according to WPP PLC's GroupM Interaction ad-buying arm.
Youku teamed with GM last year to produce "Miss Puff," an animated online
video series about a tech-savvy single woman in Beijing. Her handsome suitor
drives GM's Chevrolet Cruze.
[CVIDEO]
"It's a real business, a growing business, and it's only going in one
direction," said Dede Nickerson, head of production and strategic
development for the China arm of Sony Corp.'s Sony Pictures.
The rush has unleashed bidding wars for rights, leading to predictions of an
industry shake-up. Last year LeTV.com, a streaming-video website owned by
Leshi Internet Information & Technology Corp., paid about 20 million yuan
for the Internet rights to "Legend of Concubine Zhen Huan," a Chinese-
produced TV series about a young woman in the court of a Qing dynasty
emperor. The amount was a record at the time, said Leshi Vice Chairman Liu
Hong, but since has been eclipsed.
"The price of copyrights is going up," Mr. Liu said. "The market is going to
become very tough." He said LeTV will prosper because it has an extensive
back catalog of programming bought when prices were lower.
Tony Chen, president of the China arm of GroupM Interaction, said he expects
some streaming-video sites to close their doors. "It's not a healthy model
and not a sustainable model," he said. "I don't know how much more money
they can burn."
More than 200 million households in China have cable-television access,
according to analysts, but relatively few subscribe to premium services.
Industry groups blame Chinese media restrictions, which censor content,
limit the number of channels available and cap the amount of foreign
programming. China's censors last year began cracking down further, limiting
the number of entertainment shows China's satellite broadcasters can offer
during prime time and criticizing popular time-travel dramas for their "
excessively casual" approach to history.
Also, China's market for video on demand—which allows consumers to order
individual programs through their TV sets—is just now gaining viewers.
Research firm Media Partners Asia Ltd. estimated that revenue for on-demand
services in China will rise to $1 billion in 2020 from $120 million in 2010.
Consumer video-on-demand spending in the U.S. already reached $1.8 billion
in 2010, according to the Digital Entertainment Group trade organization.
"Despite China's large pay-TV subscriber base, its commercial relevance is
limited at present," said Media Partners Executive Director Vivek Couto. "
Online video has stepped up and taken that market."
China's video sites can offer more content in part because much of what they
air is approved by China's Ministry of Culture, which also oversees DVD
releases, and not by broadcast-TV regulators. Mr. Liu, of LeTV, said his
firm and others avoid running afoul of Beijing by cutting out programming
that questions the government, could be viewed as pornography or touches on
forbidden subjects like organized crime.
As competition intensifies, China's video websites have begun producing
their own material to differentiate themselves. A popular show made for the
Web can cost less than $1 million, according to Tudou. Through ad sales,
product placement, merchandise sales and licensing the content for broadcast
on television and other channels, the cost can be earned back in a matter
of weeks, Tudou said. Illustrating the stakes, Youku and Tudou are battling
each other over rights to some content.
Youku, which is listed on the New York Stock Exchange, posted a loss of 47.5
million yuan in the third quarter on revenue of 262.5 million. Tudou, which
trades on the Nasdaq Stock Market, earned 52.5 million on revenue of 149.7
million yuan in the same quarter. Programming accounts for much of their
costs: Youku spent 26% of its revenue on content, while Tudou spent 28%.
There are efforts afoot to keep Chinese viewers in front of TV sets. At the
Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last week, Lenovo Group Ltd. unveiled
its Smart TV, which uses Google Inc.'s Android operating system and
includes video-on-demand, traditional-TV and Internet applications. The TV
set, developed in partnership with broadcaster Shanghai Media Group Inc., is
expected to ship in April in China.
—Yang Jie in Shanghai and Olivia Geng in Beijing contributed to this
article.
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【在 u***r 的大作中提到】
: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405297020373530457716650
: BEIJING—Government restrictions are driving young Chinese to turn off their
: TV sets and turn on their computers. Advertisers and Western studios are
: right there with them.
: China's streaming-video sites once were derided by the global entertainment
: industry as homes of stolen movies and television shows. But many sites have
: cracked down on piracy and are offering original programming, as well as
: licensed Western movies and TV shows such as "Gossip Girl" and "Mad Men."
: As a result, ad revenue for Chinese video websites operated by Youku Inc.,
: Tudou Holdings Ltd., Baidu Inc., Sohu.com Ltd. and others surged to 1.48
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