Bottom line: Foundering prospects of cross-border tie-ups involving DreamWorks and Paramount shows the love affair between Hollywood and China may be entering a new phase of lowered, more realistic expectations.
DreamWorks Animation eyes sale of China JV stake
The old saying says that what goes up must come down, and that certainly appears to be the case with new reports of the unraveling of two more China-Hollywood tie-ups. The latest reports say that US giant DreamWorks Animation is looking to sell out its stake in Oriental DreamWorks, its landmark China animation joint venture that was launched with fanfare 5 years ago. At the same time, another report is saying a $1 billion film production tie-up between two Chinese partners and Paramount is reportedly running into trouble due to turmoil at the Hollywood studio.
The unraveling of these two major deals comes just weeks after another deal involving Wanda Group’s planned purchase of Dick Clark Productions also appears to be coming unglued. In that case the culprit is China’s recent currency controls, which were preventing Wanda from getting the necessary funds outside the country to complete the $1 billion purchase. But Wanda was apparently also worried it was overpaying for the asset. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: New China setbacks for Disney and Paramount look relatively minor, and reflect their growing involvement in a market whose fast growth is also driving Comcast’s pursuit of DreamWorks Animation.
DreamWorks’ China exposure draws Comcast
In a very rare occurrence, 3 top Hollywood studios are all in the China headlines today, reflecting the growing links between these media titans and a country that could become the world’s largest entertainment market in the next decade. Leading the headlines are relatively minor China setbacks for Disney (NYSE: DIS) and Paramount Pictures, which are facing new battles with Beijing censors and unhappy local clients, respectively.
Meantime, DreamWorks Animation (NYSE: DWA) is reportedly in talks to be bought by US cable TV giant Comcast (Nasdaq: CMCSA), and some are pointing out that a major driver behind the deal may be DreamWorks’ strong China exposure. That’s because DreamWorks Animation has bet big on the market, with a major joint venture in Shanghai that produced the latest installment in its Kung Fu Panda series. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: Wall Street Round-Up’s new venture funding from China Media Capital testifies to its rapid rise, using a similar formula to the popular US-based Business Insider financial news aggregator.
SMG backs Wall Street Round-Up
A fast-rising financial news website that looks like China’s answer to the popular US site Business Insider has just netted its latest funding, in the amount of a relatively modest 100 million yuan ($15 million). But what’s attracting the biggest interest in this story is the source of the funding, which is coming from China Media Capital (CMC), the new media investment arm of the aggressive Shanghai Media Group (SMG).
As a member of the media, this story is of particular interest to me because of the controversial nature of the funding recipient, called Huawerjie Jianwen, or roughly Wall Street Round-Up. The company was founded as a financial news blog in New York in 2010 by a group of young entrepreneurs, but its rapid rise didn’t begin until they returned to China in 2013 and re-registered the company here in Shanghai. Read Full Post…
There are at least three ways Netflix (Nasdaq: NFLX) can win in China. And they are realistic options that have worked for others.
But first, a few points about the situation in Chinese online streaming.
Point 1: The China entertainment market is rocketing upwards, and it will soon be the largest in the world. This huge opportunity is fueling a major fight between China’s cash-rich Internet and media giants. This hyper-competition is also creating a window of opportunity for Netflix because it has valuable things to offer to these competitors as they slug it out.
Point 2: Online media in China is very political and likely no foreign company will have control of a license or broadcast rights. So Netflix needs to be realistic about what is possible.
Point 3: The other big issue is the strong local competition. If Netflix wants to win in online streaming in China, they need to be prepared to fight for a long time.
The newest “Star Wars” movie is in two headlines this week, led by a strong debut for the seventh installment in the franchise that has just opened in China several weeks after its global premier. The movie is also in headlines related to a new initiative by the hyperactive China Media Capital (CMC), which has just formed a joint venture with a company that made some of the special effects for “Star Wars: The Force Awakens”. In this case CMC’s new partner is Base FX, a Beijing-based start-up with strong ties to Hollywood.
Much has been written about prospects for the new “Star Wars” movie in China, where the franchise isn’t very well known because none of the first 6 films in the series were screened in the country unit recently. To address that problem, the movie’s producer Disney (NYSE: DIS) has been working overtime to promote the film in China, with relatively strong results. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: Beijing needs to accelerate reform of traditional media in the face of rising challenges from players like Alibaba and Baidu, or risk seeing many of these state-run companies fall into irrelevance.
Alibaba challenges traditional media to speed up reform
A wave of mega-mergers sweeping through China’s Internet over the last 2 years saw its biggest deal to date announced late last week, when e-commerce leader Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) offered $4.6 billion for the more than 80 percent of leading online video site Youku Tudou (NYSE: YOKU) it doesn’t already own. The move marked the latest challenge to China’s traditional media industry, which has been monopolized for years by state-run broadcasters and printed publications.
If this latest mega-deal gets completed, a new Youku Tudou with access to Alibaba’s cash and other vast resources will almost certainly accelerate its challenge to traditional media by aggressively rolling out compelling new on-demand products and premium content. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: Rupert Murdoch could soon announce a new China film tie-up after meeting with President Xi Jinping, while Warner Bros’ new China production venture could see mixed results due to the market’s challenging nature.
Warner, Murdoch salivate at China film market
Media heavyweights Rupert Murdoch and Warner Bros are both in the headlines, each snooping around the fringes of China’s film market in search of ways to exploit the nation’s booming box office. In the latest sign that Murdoch may be set to re-enter the market after an earlier withdrawal, the aging head of Twenty-First Century Fox (Nasdaq: FOX) was in Beijing late last week where he got a rare private meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping. That meeting was chronicled in an upbeat report by the People’s Daily, the official newspaper of the Communist Party.
Meantime, Warner Bros was doing its own dance with China’s state establishment, announcing a film-making joint venture with a private equity fund owned by the nation’s second largest traditional media company. That deal saw Warner and China Media Capital (CMC) announce the formation of Flagship Entertainment Group, which will produce films in China for both the domestic box office and also overseas markets. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: SMG’s Whaley Tech division has become the focus of its drive into the new media realm, following Li Ruigang’s departure from his post as group chairman to focus on the unit’s development.
SMG chief tries hand at smart TV
I don’t generally hold out much hope for traditional Chinese broadcasters for making the transition to new media, since most are bureaucratic, state-run outfits staffed by an older generation that doesn’t really understand the emerging industry landscape. But 2 companies that have the potential make the transition are Shanghai Media Group (SMG) and Hunan Satellite TV, which are both making big drives into digital products delivered in on-demand formats over the Internet.
Of the pair, my favorite is Hunan Satellite, since the company has a strong track record of innovation that has helped it to build a national audience despite its location in the relatively backward interior Hunan province. But SMG’s longtime chief Li Ruigang is also trying to show he can take his company into the new media era, with word that he’s formally quit as chairman of his group to focus on development of its new media businesses. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: TVB’s choice of a Shanghai-based traditional broadcaster as its mainland partner looks like a bad selection to ensure its future, as such traditional media rapidly get overtaken by more nimble Internet-based players.
TVB places bets on Shanghai Gang
Hong Kong has been buzzing this past week over the latest mainland encroachment on its media sector, which is seeing leading broadcaster TVB (HKEx: 511) sell a stake in itself to a Chinese investor. But few have gone past the headlines to see what’s really behind this deal, and whether it can help to ensure the longer term survival of a company that has long dominated Hong Kong’s broadcasting scene. In a nutshell, TVB is placing its bets on a group of Chinese media high-flyers that I like to call the “Shanghai Gang”, because they are rooted in China’s largest media market and have strong ties to the city’s monopoly broadcaster, Shanghai Media Group (SMG). Read Full Post…
I’ve stopped using the term “love affair” to describe the romance between Hollywood and China over the last 2 years, as it no longer seems sufficient to describe the flood of tie-ups that have emerged since China became the world’s second largest box office. The Long March of new deals has now gained 2 more members, with word that US film giant Warner Bros (NYSE: TWX) is in a major new movie financing deal with Shanghai Media Group (SMG), China’s leading regional maker of filmed entertainment. In a separate headline, other reports are saying that real estate giant Wanda Group is also deepening its own involvement in movie industry finance, by filing to make a domestic IPO for its movie theater business. Read Full Post…
Retail village to debut alongside Shanghai Disneyland
An amusing rivalry between 2 US entertainment giants is rapidly shaping up in Shanghai, with developers of the new Disneyland (NYSE: DIS) resort announcing a major new retail development just days after DreamWorks Animation (NYSE: DWA) broke ground on its own massive entertainment complex in the city. The close timing of these 2 announcements may be partly coincidental, but the rivalry certainly isn’t. Hollywood followers will know that DreamWorks Animation chief Jeffrey Katzenberg was formerly the head of Disney’s famous animation division, and only left the company after a famous fall-out with former Disney chief Michael Eisner. Read Full Post…
