In the exhibition hall of the 2002 Beijing International TV Week held last week, the booth of the company Enlight Media attracted almost every visitor.

The company had built a glass pyramid opposite the hall entrance. Each wall of the pyramid was decorated with giant posters featuring TV programs produced by the company.

In a sense, the extravagant booth showed the unparalleled strength of the firm, China's largest private provider of TV programs.

The Beijing-based firm now turns out two hours of programs each day on average. These are broadcast to an estimated audience of 300 million from more than 200 local TV stations around China.

Many of Enlight's programs have almost become household names in urban areas, such as its flagship entertainment show "China Entertainment Report" and "Sports Line," which provides die-hard sports fans with first-hand information.

Although it was founded only four years ago, the firm has so much confidence that it has boasted that it will build itself into "China's AOL Time Warner" in the near future.

Over the past four years, the company has been developing at a sky-rocketing pace, benefiting from the dramatic progress of China's budding entertainment industry.

In 2000, the company's advertising revenue stood at 20 million yuan (US$2.4 million). In the first half of 2001, its advertising revenue reached 40 million yuan (US$4.8 million).

The Enlight Media success story is only one of many.

In China today, there are many other local private TV production companies striving to strike gold from the seemingly gigantic Chinese mainland market.

TV companies boom

Statistics indicate that private firms have been the main force of Beijing International TV Week in recent years.

Take the year 2000, for example. Among the firms taking part in the event, 317 were private companies -- twice the number of state-owned TV stations present.

The ratio this year was even higher, according to initial estimates.

Wandering in the exhibition hall, visitors soon found themselves in a sea of private TV production companies.

Sun Liang -- creative director of Beijing Dison Dynasty Film and TV Culture Communication Co., Ltd. -- said: "This year, more private firms are attending TV week."

Most of the companies are based in Beijing, Shanghai or south China's Guangdong Province -- three of the country's richest areas.

Some of the firms -- such as Enlight Media -- provide mainly entertainment and sports shows to TV stations.

Others, such as Guangdong-based Great Star, have established their names by shooting TV drama series.

Most companies are making a profit.

When they sell TV dramas and other programs to TV stations, private entertainment companies get advertising slots in return.

A 20-part TV series costs about 4 million yuan (US$480,000) to make, on average. The company may get double that amount from advertising revenue.

Enlight Media's "China Entertainment Report" makes an even bigger profit proportionately. The cost of a 30-minute installment is estimated at between 30,000 and 60,000 yuan (US$3,600 to 7,200), while advertising revenue may hit as much as 270,000 yuan (US$32,600).

Such a high and instant economic return is considered one of the major reasons for the sector's boom.

Another reason, according to industry insiders, is the "inner requirements of the industry itself."

Hu Zhifeng, an associate professor from the Beijing Broadcasting Institute, said: "The high television penetration, the improvement in living standards and the increasingly fierce competition for viewers, set higher requirements for China's entertainment industry."

According to Hu, large TV stations tended to produce programs for themselves for a long period.

There are now more than 3,000 TV stations in China, based in prosperous townships, counties and cities. Competition for viewers has become white-hot, which requires programs to be more entertaining.

However, it is impossible for any single TV station to produce all the programs it shows. It is up to the many media entertainment firms to fill the vacuum.

Wang Changtian, president of Enlight Media, said: "It is unrealistic for TV stations to send their reporters to every corner of the country. We solve this problem for them."

At present, 90 percent of the programs on China's cable TV stations are produced by private companies, according to Hu.

"As the separation of the broadcasting and production of programs becomes the trend, the prospect for private TV companies becomes brighter," Hu predicts.

Making movies

While some companies concentrate on providing TV programs, others have gone so far as to make movies.

Among them is the Beijing-based Huayi Brothers Taihe Film and TV Co., Ltd. -- the investor of this year's big comedy "Big Shot's Funeral" -- and the Shanghai-based New Generation Film and TV Co., which invested in young director Li Xin's latest color feature, "Dazzling."

Before the regulations were changed in February this year, there were difficulties for those venturing outside the TV industry.

According to Hu Zhifeng, private companies had to cooperate with or pay a big sum of money to one of the 38 state-owned film studios to make films in the past.

The charge was sometimes as much as 700,000 yuan (US$84,500).

Because of the slump in the Chinese film industry, investing in film-making is much more risky than in shooting TV drama series.

Chen Weiming, president of Zonbo Media Company, said: "So far, few film productions with private investment have made money."

Things are getting better, however. In early February, in a bid to fuel the struggling local movie industry, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television promulgated a set of new regulations.

The new rules encourage private companies to invest independently in film production.

Wang Zhongjun, president of Huayi Brothers, said it is now "perfectly justifiable to shoot our own movies."

Insiders believe the rules will eventually lead to a boom in private investment in film-making.

(China Daily May 15, 2002)