Universal Archives ~ Business China : news for investors in China

MEDIA: Tencent, Alibaba in Music Swap as Regulator Gets Involved

By newsdoug on September 13, 2017

Bottom line: A new music re-licensing deal between Alibaba and Tencent, combined with a meeting between the copyright regulator and major online music sellers, hint at attempts to create a more level playing field in the space.

Alibaba, Tencent in music cross-licensing deal

A couple of items from the music sector are in the headlines today, showing how tricky the situation is becoming with copyrights and online licensing in China. One of those has two major players, the music services of Internet giants Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) and Tencent (HKEx: 700), signing an agreement to cross-license music to each other when one of them owns the rights to such music. The other has China’s copyright office actually calling a meeting between those two companies and two other major players, NetEase (Nasdaq: NTES) and Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU), to discuss issues confronting the industry.

Two issues appear to be driving these two deals that appear to be related. One is concerns from the music industry that rights to their songs will become fragmented and confined to single platforms under the current licensing system, limiting consumer choice. Similar concerns might also be what’s driving the regulator to get involved as well. An interesting footnote to this might be whether the same thing could soon happen in the video licensing arena, which shares similar issues. Read Full Post…

MEDIA: 25 Years After Japan, China Eyes Hollywood with Paramount Interest

By newsdoug on February 29, 2016

Chinese clamor for Paramount Pictures stake

China’s growing love affair with Hollywood is reaching new peaks, with word that major studio Paramount Pictures may be preparing to sell a stake of itself to a Chinese buyer. Such a deal would be the highest profile investment yet in an ever-growing string of Chinese tie-ups with Tinseltown over the last 2 years. In some ways the movement looks strangely similar to Japan’s invasion of Hollywood more than 25 years ago, which saw Universal and Columbia Pictures sold to Japanese buyers.

That parallel may lead some to wonder if this latest Chinese drive into Hollywood could end with similarly disappointing results that saw both studios sputter under Japanese ownership. Prickly US-China relations could also add an element of discomfort to this new budding love affair, since Beijing enjoys a far less friendly relationship with Washington than Tokyo. Read Full Post…

MEDIA: Rupert Murdoch Tip-Toes Back To China With Theme Park, Retail Plans

By newsdoug on May 25, 2015

Bottom line: Rupert Murdoch’s shift in China strategy towards less controversial retail and entertainment projects looks smart, but is likely to meet with lukewarm success due to lack of awareness of 20th Century Fox among Chinese consumers.

Rupert Murdoch just can’t seem to ignore the China story for too long, with new reports saying his Twenty-First Century Fox (Nasdaq: FOX) is finalizing plans for a theme park in a country that has been quite elusive for the aging media mogul. The theme park approach certainly looks safer than Murdoch’s previous attempts to enter China with more traditional media like TV and movies, and mirrors what some of the world’s other top media companies have done. Of course that means Murdoch and Fox are coming a bit late to this particular show, and the fact that 20th Century Fox theme parks aren’t exactly a well-known brand means his media empire could face a steep uphill ride finding a Chinese audience. Read Full Post…

Bona Opens New China Back Door 博纳欲与美国同行合拍电影中国同好莱坞恋情升温

By newsdoug on April 20, 2012

Bona in co-production talks The growing new love affair between Hollywood and China is taking yet another step forward, with news that New York-listed movie maker Bona Film (Nasdaq: BONA) is in talks with several major US studios to co-produce films for the China market. (Chinese article) In fact, such co-productions aren’t completely new, and many of the other studios have used them in recent years to circumvent a strict quota system that limits the number of foreign films that can be imported to China each year. But Bona’s plan looks particularly aggressive, presenting a potentially interesting proposition for foreign investors looking to buy into the China film story. According to the reports, Bona is talking with a number of major studios, including 20th Century Fox, Universal, Sony Pictures (Tokyo: 6753) and Paramount (NYSE: VIAb) about co-producing movies for the Chinese market. Furthermore, the company’s chief executive says his ultimate goal is to make 2 such co-productions a year. Such a large number would mark a big opening into China for the foreign studios, which until recently were only allowed to collectively export 20 of their films each year into China, now the world’s second largest movie market. Beijing recently increased the total by saying it would allow another 13 movies into the market each year using high-tech formats like 3D. Still, the appetite and potential for high-quality films in China is clearly capturing Hollywood’s attention, leading to a recent flurry of moves into China by the major studios. One of those moves, in fact, saw 20th Century Fox’s parent News Corp (Nasdaq: NWSA) take a 20 percent stake in Bona Film itself last month (previous post); accordingly, I wouldn’t be surprised if 20th Century Fox ends up signing the first co-production deal with Bona in this new round of tie-up talks. Bona’s talks come as other major studios are making their own new moves into China, amid increasing signs that Beijing wants to open the industry to more outside investment. Disney (NYSE: DIS) and DreamWorks Animation (NYSE: DWA) both announced new animation joint ventures in China earlier this year (previous post); and HNA Group and Wanda Group have both discussed major new moves to open and expand their domestic theater operations to accommodate the expected big influx of Hollywood-quality movies. (previous post) Another name to watch could be Huayi Brothers (Shenzhen: 300027), one of China’s other major privately held film studios with foreign experience, though that company has tended to focus more on co-productions with other Asian firms. Either way, these foreign-focused Chinese studios could make an interesting investment play into the market as it prepares for major expansion, with the potential to perhaps someday rival some of the major US entertainment giants.

Bottom line: Bona Films’ aggressive pursuit of foreign co-productions reflects the recent opening of China’s film industry, which is forging growing ties with Hollywood.

After Years, Baidu Does the Right Thing 百度多年来的一个正确之举

By newsdoug on July 20, 2011

I have to congratulate Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU) for finally doing the right thing, or at least taking a step in the right direction, by signing a deal with 3 major record labels, Universal, Warner (NYSE: WMG) and Sony Music (Tokyo: 6758) that will see it do the once unthinkable and actually pay for copyright protected music. (company announcement) Of course there’s a bit of irony here, as Baidu previously said it will continue to offer pirated copies of music from those three labels and others via its highly popular free music swapping service, which has been criticized for years for allowing the illegal sharing of copyrighted music. Baidu’s move comes just weeks after leading video sharing site Youku (NYSE: YOKU) announced a similar tie-up to offer legal films and TV shows from Warner’s library to its premium customers. (previous post) I’ll be a bit cynical here and note that Baidu went for years Baidu goes legal with new music tie-up without seeming to care about copyright protection before finally becoming “enlightened”, and have no doubt that its change of heart is coming at least in part due to heavy pressure from regulators who are trying to stamp out China’s rampant piracy. While it’s one thing for a little old lady from the countryside to sell pirated DVDs from a cart on the side of the street, it’s quite an embarrassment for Beijing when many of its top Internet companies like Baidu also engage in such practices, and clearly we’re going to see a move by major Net firms to slowly phase out their sites that encourage copyright infringement over the next few years. As that happens, look for more deals like the one just announced by Baidu, and also look for the company and its peers to suffer a bit when they finally close down their popular but illegal song- and video-swapping services.

Bottom line: Baidu’s slow embrace of copyright protection marks the beginning of a cleanup of pirated material on China’s Internet, which will benefit content providers but hurt Web firms.

百度与环球唱片、华纳唱片<WMG.N>、索尼音乐<6758.T>三大音乐唱片公司签署正版音乐使用协议。我必须要为百度<BIDU.O>这一正确之举或至少向正确方向迈进了一步的行动而表示祝贺。该协议将使百度要为使用受版权保护的音乐付费。当然，有点儿讽刺的是，百度之前曾表示，会通过其非常受欢迎的免费音乐交换服务继续提供盗版音乐。免费音乐交换服务多年来因允许非法分享正版音乐而备受抨击。几个星期前，优酷<YOKU.N>宣布要向其优质客户提供来自华纳的电影和电视节目。我要在这稍微尖刻一点：百度多年来都好像不在乎版权保护问题，直到最近才突然“恍然大悟”，而毫无疑问的是，这部分是因为百度受到了来自监管者的强大压力。中国监管机构正努力打击盗版。农村老妇在街边卖盗版碟也就罢了，很多像百度这样的顶级互联网公司居然也这麽做，对於中国政府来说确实不怎麽好看。未来几年，我们肯定会看到，大型网络公司会逐渐关闭其涉嫌侵犯版权的网站。若果真如此，预计还会有很多像百度刚刚宣布的那种协议的出现，而当这些非法的音乐和视频服务被关闭後，相关公司应该会感受到一些痛楚。

一句话：百度最终签署正版音乐使用协议，说明清除中国互联网上的侵权内容正逐渐开始，这将使内容提供商受益，而使网络公司受伤。