Don't look at Zhou Xun, Look at Qinghai TV - Actress Zhou Xun is the green spokesperson for the new Qinghai TV.

Every Asian drama needs a Cinderella-like makeover, and it’s no different in the rest of the TV world. Today, our heroine is Qinghai Satellite TV, the  fairy godmother is Hunan Broadcasting Systems (GBS) , and the new wardrobe is green.

With its own owner GBS, Qinghai TV will start over on the 26th with a completely new set of programs, a new logo, and a new slogan -  “Beautify Qinghai, Greenify China,” making it the first Chinese station to embrace environmentalism in its aim.

“A green life brings us healthy bodies, and a green spirit brings us healthy souls. I hope that while “Our Part” and Qinghai TV works to promote green lifestyles, we can also bring green into people’s lives,” said actress Zhou Xun, Qinghai TV’s green spokesperson.

The channel’s purchase by GBS in January is also part of GBS’s ambition to form a large media powerhouse in China. By March, Qinghai TV, last year’s second least viewed Chinese satellite channel,  expanded viewership by 174% from last December.

Zhou Xun and children pour water from the Yantze, the Mekong and the Yellow River – all whose major source lies in Qinghai – to initiate the use of Qinghai TV’s new logo, the water droplet.

In an interview, GBS’s vice-station manager Zhang Huali said that this type of collaboration (aka buyout) will occur more and more in the future. Currently, each province in China has its own media company, which produces its own TV and radio channels, but Zhang Huali thinks that will change.

“We [Hunan Broadcasting Systems] predict that in the end, China can only have three to five broadcasting/media groups in the end,” Zhang Huali said. “Qinghai TV and Hunan TV’s collaboration reflects the direction of the future of Chinese TV – a conglomeration that must go beyond provinces, provincial governments, and media types,”

This is not the first time he said this. Last year, he spoke of the necessity of inter-channel collaborations when talent competition Super Girls formed a network of landbased channels that aired regional competitions. GBS has further proved its commitment to inter-media conglomeration by forming Shengshi Films with internet gaming typhoon Shanda last year and a collaborative agreement with internet company QQ this year.

Zhang Huali believes that only this way, can Chinese media groups go international. When asked whether in the future, only a few satellite channels or “groups” control most of the viewership, Zhang Huali said definitely.

“Only when such a situation occur can large companies form, and only then can we compete with international companies like Murdoch,” Zhang Huali said. “Otherwise, no matter how much the government puts in to bring the channels to Europe, to the Americas, only overseas Chinese will watch them.”

"Your mom is calling for you to work at Qinghai TV" - an ad featuring popular Hunan TV hosts He Jiong and Wang Han recruits employees for Qinghai TV.

While Hunan TV and Qinghai TV will belong to the same group (GBS has a 49% stake in Qinghai TV), they will still operate independently.. And though Qinghai TV will  be given easier access to Hunan TV’s dramas and shows, there will not a smaller price tag.

Zhang Huali said that to start Qinghai TV off, they will be allowed to borrow some glamour from Hunan TV. This is the most prominent in Blossoming Flowers, a talent competition modeled after Super Girls. A co-production between Qinghai TV and Hunan’s landbased eTV, the show quickly put Qinghai TV on entertainment headlines.

He says, however, this is not sustainable and Qinghai TV will eventually stand on its own set of shows.

New shows to be unveiled on the 27th include Gabeng Popcorn, a talk show that invites popular internet stars like Feng Jie, and A Million Dreams, a show that will give out 1 million yuan to help eight applicants fulfill their dreams.

source: sina ; sina ; baidu tieba; baidu tieba; Zhang Huali’s blog

This year, Hunan/Golden Eagle Broadcasting Systems (GBS) will be broadening its talent show series by not only having both a female (Blossoming Flowers) and a male (Super Boys) competition (not to mention a directing competition) on satellite at the same time, but also by having overseas audition regions for the first time.

Super Boys’ overseas auditions spots will be in Australia (Sydney, Melbourne Adelaide, Brisbane) , North America (Toronto, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Houston, Chicago and New York) and Malaysia (to be determined). Auditions will be held until the 25th, and you can sign up at either 2010superboy@gmail.com for American auditions or superboy@partyworldktv.com.au for Australian ones.

Commercial for Super Boys 2010:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcJdSv-uJiA

Perhaps no other event changes recent mainland music and TV as much as the rise of the show “Super Girls,” a “Chinese Idol” show by Hunan TV, in 2005. The show, which produced stars like Li Yuchun and Jane Zhang and completely took over half of the mainland music and idol landscape, continued to manifest itself in its variations – Super Girls in 2006, Super (Happy) Boys in 2007, and Super (Happy) Girls in 2009. It also led to the rise of other similar shows, including Dragon TV’s My Show, My Hero and Jiayou! Dragon Angels talent shows and Jiangsu TV’s “Singing Loudly.” This year, as Jiangsu TV finally give up its “Singing Loudly,” GBS moves forward with two versions of the show – Blossoming Flowers by its subsidiaries Qinghai Satellite TV and Hunan eTV, and Super Boys for Hunan Satellite TV.

Blossoming Flowers will be cohosted by landbased channel Hunan eTV and satellite channel Qinghai TV. Landbased channels can only be viewed by TV’s within that province, and eTV is probably one of the most famous landbased channels, known for its creativity and boldness in projects such as Huan Zhu Ge Ge. Blossoming Flowers, which seeks all talented girls over the age of 18, is one of the first projects by Qinghai TV after it was brought by GBS. It has the traditional eTV flair for fun, and borrows Hunan TV’s talent show stars Tan Weiwei, Zeng Yike and Jiang Yingrong as its spokespeople.

Blossoming Flowers commercials:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOFUXsXfzV8

Meanwhile, Hunan TV’s Super Boys looks outward for more talents like 2007 2nd place Su Xing and 2009 2nd place Li Xiaoyun, two singers who studied overseas in Australia. In addition to looking for singers, this move is also a bid for more talents and perhaps recognization for GBS’ new international channel – Hunan World. Read more about GBS’s international expansions here.

The other new draw of Super Boys is a side competition where a group of boys will be chosen pre-nationals to train for a boyband. Unlike the previous Super Boys boyband, Top Combine, this will begin training during the competition and then battle it out with the final six of nationals.

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.

Yay, company !(no pun intended)

2010 Super Boys (快乐男声) has received approval from SARFT. This year, preparation time will be less rushed.
Today at 11:53am Beijing Time – message sent from a cellphone

-Sina Weibo(microblog) of Zhang Huali, Vice-Director of Hunan Satellite TV

Super Boys has been approved by SARFT! After a three years, eeMedia will finally get a new dose of hot and talented singers.
In addition to Super Boys, another competition show named “Green China: Flower Blossoms” was approved mid-February. The show will be hosted by Hunan TV’s recently brought subsidiary Qinghai TV.