While Meteor Shower 2 is currently being filmed in Xiamen, it will air across the strait in Taiwan and faraway in Korea.

What do you do when you have made China happy? You bring the happiness to the globe.

A year ago, we wrote an article on how provincial media companies like Hunan TV were beginning to break loose the centralization of Chinese television based on CCTV (appropriately named the Central Chinese TV). “Be Happy, Be Chinese” seems to no longer be enough for Hunan Broadcasting Systems (GBS) as it announces several major developments that will increase the company’s global connections. Among these are the serious push for Hunan TV World, collaborations with international companies and the exporting of its shows to foreign stations.

Selling Meteor Shower and more overseas

Hunan TV has already begun to sell many of its dramas outside mainland to gain greater influence. Most recently, Hunan TV’s “Let’s Watch Meteor Shower Together” will be aired both in Korea and Taiwan soon. While the Korean channel is a fairly small cable catered to Chinese dramas, the Taiwanese station broadcasting Meteor Shower will be SETTV, one of the biggest Taiwanese stations. It’s probably too much to hope for any big waves to come by either of the broadcastings, but since the success of Super Girls, GBS has shown in recent years that it is through gradual and steady planning rather than one-hit wonders that it succeeds.

This is not the first time that Hunan TV had done this. Ten years ago, the wide popularity of Hunan eTV’s Huan Zhu Ge Ge caused the drama to be aired all over East and Southeast Asia, as well as Russia and the Ukraine. HZGG further became the major reason for the limitations of Chinese dramas in Korea. In 2008, Hunan TV invited two Thai artists from channel TrueVisions on its singing competition “Just the Two of Us” in 2008. The show was later broadcasted in Thailand.

Current(in red) and Planned (in orange) coverage of Hunan TV World

Ambitious plans for a new global channel

Hunan TV’s new channel Hunan TV World also has big ambitions. Backed by the Hunan cultural-export fund and GBS’s own ambitions, the new channel is attempting to garner attention from the Chinese population around the world. Hunan TV World has already stepped into action with a campaign for a hosting competition, and hopes to produce its own original programs with a more global flair. One of Hunan TV World’s first projects was an overseas search for hosts. It may also play a role in Super Boys 2010 by hosting international regions in Australia and the US. With a youthful team (average age =23), Hunan TV World is taking bold steps to increase GBS’ global standings and could be a major player in spreading Chinese entertainment overseas.

Although Li Xinru (center) became famous by starring in the Chinese remake of Ugly Betty, she will move on with the Confucius series. Like her dramas, Hunan TV programs will be original with the help of more international collaboration and GBS's own development.

Collaboration with international companies

GBS isn’t alone in its quest, neither. It has recently announced several partnerships with both international companies and those at home. For one, Hunan TV has signed with British ITV to develop original show formats.

Ouyang Changlin, president of Hunan TV, said he believes that the collaboration will bring Hunan TV’s entry into the international market one step closer, and the company looks forward to the delivery of the new shows to its audience across China.

China’s television format industry, which has been relatively untapped until now, has tremendous potential for international growth, said Lee Bartlett, managing director of ITV Studios.

source: hktdc

This collaboration, unfortunately, appears to be more similar to Hunan TV’s one-sided collaboration with Korean records label DoReMi (which trains and produces records for Hunan artists such as Yu Haoming and boyband Top Combine) than with TrueVisions. While ITV will help Hunan TV to develop new shows, it will not export any of Hunan TV’s shows back to Britain. It is nevertheless a step up from Hunan TV buying remake rights to shows like Just the Two of Us, Strictly Dancing and Ugly Wudi (Betty). There is hope, though, that Hunan Globe’s partnership with Multicultural Radio Broadcasting, which owns Chinese radio channels and stations in California, New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, will allow Hunan Globe increase its publicity in the US.

Super Girl Jiang Yingrong and Super Boy Zhang Jie are two stars of Hunan TV's singing competitions. This will be the first year that GBS will host both a female and a male competition on satellite. (credits to lehninguh for the gif)

New subsidiary companies and channels

At home, GBS has announced the formation of a new film company and the buying of another satellite channel. This include Shengshi Film (Shine Show), the much publicized co-investment with Shanda that has eeMedia manager Long Danni as president, which has already worked with  Hunan TV to produce Mango Training Camp, a showcase of possible actors for its Huan Zhu Ge Ge remake. Although Shanda Intl. has the majority stake in Shengshi film, it will probably work closely with Hunan TV. Its next collaboration is a director-seeking competition that will replace Mango Training Camp in May. The new Shanda collaboration bring the much-needed capital to GBS, allowing it to combine its creative genius with greater production value. Shengshi has already pledged 100 million yuan in the next 10 years for the director development competition alone.

Meanwhile, the buying of Qinghai Satellite TV means that GBS will own two satellite channels and more publicity in mainland. Qinghai TV has already begun airing shows like Huan Zhu Ge Ge, and has begun publicizing its own version of Super Girls – Blossoming Flowers, a collaboration with Hunan eTV. The hilarious commercials released feature GBS stars like Tan Weiwei, Jiang Yingrong and Zeng Yike.