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Foreign Firms Eyeing China OTT MarketBEIJING, Nov 30, 2012 (SinoCast Daily Business Beat via COMTEX) -- An increasing number of foreign film & TV producers and distributors cast eye on the Chinese mainland driven by fast-growing OTT (Over The Top of Internet) and broadband user markets there. Union Voole Technology Co., Ltd., the biggest Internet-based TV service provider there, entered into a strategic partnership with the Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp. in July this year and under the partnership, it will take charge of digital distribution of Internet-based TV business of the US firm in the Chinese mainland. In detail, it will gain the exclusive new media distribution right of about 200 pictures of the latter, including all those produced by the latter over the following three years. Keith LeGoy, vice president responsible for international business at the Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE), paid a visit to it days ago and people in the know disclosed that both sides were expected to reach an agreement over Internet-based TV business this time. They started cooperating with each other as early as 2007 and in-depth cooperation had been launched in the domestic copyright market. A top executive with the Beijing-based firm said in an interview recently that it always carried out a legal edition strategy since establishment in 2006 and the cooperation with those leading global film & TV producers and distributors would continue. And the cooperation with SPE this time would involve not only pictures that had been launched but also those would be launched. The Chinese OTT market grows fast this year and draws rising attention of the public with the entry of IT giants including Tencent, Lenovo, and Xiaomi Technology. According to a report by UK-based market research firm Digital TV Research, China will see the volume of Internet TVs rise to 93 million units in 2017 from two million units in 2010, overtaking Japan to rank No.2 in the world and becoming the fastest-growing market globally. People close to it said that it shifted business focus onto Internet-based TV business in 2009 and had achieved much in the field, ranking No.1 in terms of market coverage, corporate size, product maturation, cooperation depth, support maturation of operation service and so on. So far, it had entered into a partnership with over 20 provincial and city-level telecom operators across the country. In addition, it had reached an agreement with a list of TV makers including Skyworth, Haier, and TCL and more than one million TVs with Internet-based TV service of it had been launched. Besides, it had inked a contract with about 30 set-top box makers. (USD 1 = CNY 6.23) Source: www.bjd.com.cn (November 30, 2012) |