8 December 2014: China's producers, programmers and platforms are making new best friends all over the place.Chinese online platforms are making new best friends around every corner, and the country's voracious content appetite is being fed in myriad ways, including an even stronger push towards original content creation, no apparent end to the appetite for Chinese versions of great big branded international formats, and exclusive content deals with the likes of HBO. There's also a new attitude and approach to the regional and global market for mainland productions, which may drive higher investment, increase global appeal, and create even more interest in domestic productions. The most recent deal, announced at the end of November, puts high-end HBO Original titles on Tencent Video "in the very near future". The exclusive online licensing agreement across multiple screens bodes well for international rights owners. This is despite new regulations that cap the amount of foreign content on online platforms from 2015 as well as increasingly tough censorship requirements to bring online content into the tightly controlled content fold. Titles involved in the Tencent-HBO "strategic partnership" include Band of Brothers, Boardwalk Empire, Game of Thrones, Rome, The Newsroom and True Detective. HBO Asia Originals will be included although the three made-in-Asia productions - Dead Mine (2012), Serangoon Road (2013) and Grace (2014) - have not yet been mentioned by name in any of the official announcements. The Tencent-HBO announcement came a month after Sohu boss Charles Zhang took centre stage during Mipcom in October talking about an end to piracy, the beginning of an online pay model and welcoming foreign partners from everywhere. Tencent was in Cannes at the same time, talking about original production, including its decision to return a second season of All3Media/Zoo Productions' format Are You Normal?.Not two weeks later, Youku Tudou chairman and chief executive Victor Koo talked to delegates at the annual Casbaa event in Hong Kong about the mega-platform's content ambitions, including the first local version of Endemol's Big Brother. The 10-episode Chinese version of the reality show will go live on Youku Tudou in early 2015.Youku Tudou has also acquired exclusive China rights to produce Talpa format, The Voice Kids. The Chinese version will be available on the Tudou platform, which skews younger and more edgy. The Voice Kids expands Tudou's existing slate of 30 original shows and 500 episodes, including titles such as Weekend Show, The Show and Tudou K-pop. Tudou says two thirds of its core production teams are from top local producers such as Hunan TV and Jiangsu TV. The platform is also co-operating on web original content with at least 10 Asian companies, including Korean broadcaster SBS and conglomerate CJ, and Japan's Fuji TV.Youku Tudou talks about new kinds of partnerships to develop entertainment in China. "Tudou's cooperation with Talpa fits into the new partnership approach, designed to help build Youku Tudou's multiscreen media and entertainment ecosystem," the company says. Details of how content creation partnerships are structured have not been disclosed, but it's clear that significant investment is being put into original content development.Koo outlines an original content creation vision that also includes using big data to adapt shows in a way not previously possible. Youku Tudou currently has more than 500 million active users across multiple screens, annually generating more than 200 billion views. "Our model is... a hybrid between Netflix and YouTube," he says, adding that a recently inked partnership with e-commerce giant Alibaba is about "coming together to think about new ways to grow our business". Hunan TV, perhaps best known at the moment for the local adaptation of Korean format Where Are We Going, Dad?, isn't sitting back and letting newer players take all the spoils. The broadcaster is aggressively building out its mobile/online platform, MangoTV, both acquiring content from the international market and holding back its own shows for exclusive use by Mango. Hunan Broadcasting System's head of programme strategy and international business, Beryl Yan, says Hunan shows have been sold in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Thailand. There has also been regional interest in Hunan formats such as X-change, now in its seventh season, and Divas Hit the Road. On the back of this format success, Hunan is promoting new reality show, Grade One, which follows seven children from different backgrounds living away from home in a school hostel. Celebrities are invited in as teachers. Yan says Hunan TV's mission and responsibility is to create role models for young people and children. She adds that this is driving the broadcaster's goal to produce more educational programming for all age groups and, at the same time, "to produce something that will reflect social issues among teenagers and create public awareness".Enterprises such as Changzhou Creative Industries Park are hoping to capitalise on China's all-round bigger production ambitions and burgeoning platforms. Backed by the area's municipal government, the six-year-old facility houses software, animation, online gaming and other media services. The park - home of franchises such as Dinobob - has an annual production capacity of 10,000 minutes of animation and acts as a hub and agent for animation producers in the area, says deputy chief Tony Stone. Beyond mainland borders, Chinese media companies are also building production relationships across genres and platforms, including digital platforms, and borders.During Mipcom in October, animation house Fantawild - the production house behind Boonie Bears, the TV series and feature film - said it was in discussion with a Hollywood entity on a new co-production; details are still under wraps.Boonie Bears has already sold to Brazil and Indonesia, and at home is one of iQiyi's top three titles. Season four is in production, with a scheduled release in 2015. The movie, meanwhile, has secured releases in the U.S., Russia, Philippines and Korea, and re- mains a top-grossing animated film with box-office revenues of more than US$40 million. Beijing-based Uyoung, meanwhile, is venturing into the international space for the first time in a co-production with U.S.-based Little Airplane Productions. The animated P.King Duckling, aimed at four to seven year olds, is the story of an adventurous bird with big dreams but not a great deal of common sense. The series, created by Little Airplane's president Josh Selig, is the company's second Asian project after Super Wings!, a U.S./South Korea/China co-production between FunnyFlux Entertainment, QianQi Animation and Little Airplane. Stefanie Zhang is Little Airplane's new resident producer in China. For older mainstream audiences, shows such as China's Princess Changge - based on the popular comic Chang Ge Xing - are testament to high- end production ambitions and the new globalproduction landscape being shaped. The epic youth idol history title is set in the Tang Dynasty and tracks Princess Li Changge, who is as gifted as she is stubborn about what to love or hate and, finally, through about 50 episodes of martial arts action, vengeance and captivity, she becomes a trusted aide and a messenger of reconciliation. The series will be shot in Turkey. Filming is scheduled for the second half of 2015 and the series could run to 50 episodes.Producer Zhejiang/China Huace Film and TV Co Ltd says it has assembled an international team, with original author Xia Da, as the artistic director. The aim is a "historical idol masterpiece of unique and fantastic visual feast".The production house also says the series "exhibits the traditional culture, cultural customs, cuisine and history original of the two countries - China and Turkey - and the profound friendship between the people".Huace Film and TV is the principal investor in Princess Changge, with cooperation from Xia Da Studio, which created the show. Budgets have not been disclosed.A second production on Huace Film and TV's slate is The Last License, set during World War II and based on the story of Dr Ho Feng-Shan, known as "China's Shindler". The show, scheduled for a 2015 release, stars Huang Xiaoming, Zhang Xinyi and Scarlett Johansson, and is directed by Mao Weining (Eternal Oath, Battle Flag).Huace Film and TV bosses also say they are working with studios and market leaders in the U.S., U.K. and Europe on developing new drama and variety content as part of bigger ambitions to become an international media group with a strong online component. Also as part of this 2015 plan, Huace is building a Chinese film and TV "experimental zone", which it describes as "a film and TV platform for international communication".If online and digital deals hog some headlines, there's also a very traditional angle to much of the business being done.Huace Film and TV's general manager and director, Zhao Yifang, says the company is marketing about 6,000 hours of local programming, including 100 episodes of factual series Wei Dao (Taste) and 52 episodes of travelogue Tai Hao Wan. Drama titles include The Virtuous Queen of Han, a landmark co-production with Hong Kong's PCCW Now TV, The Wife's Lies and The Deer and the Cauldron. At this year's Mipcom, Huace sold about 2,000 minutes of animation, Zhao says.China's all-powerful state-run behemoth, China Central Television (CCTV), meanwhile, is as bullish as ever about its factual business, which is spreading to Spanish-speaking territories in a new deal with Miami-based Somos Distribution. The three titles in the latest deal are A Bite of China, Tea, Tale of A Leaf and Silk Road. CCTV hopes to expand these six hours with other genres, including kids and drama such as Drug Case on Mekong River and Nirvana in Fire.At the same time, China's international distribution path is strewn with the same age-old issues faced by most content trying to find a home away from home.Some of the biggest challenges Chinese rights holders face in distributing their titles around the world include story-telling techniques and cultural differences, says Guan Yue International's Yan He, who represents Red Arrow - China.This is not an isolated opinion. Despite its global and growing syndication business and its commitment to consistent high-quality content, Huace says "the biggest challenge for us right now is to figure out how viewers of different races and social backgrounds could like our content and have a knowledge of Chinese traditional culture". (Reporting by CJ Yong. Written by Janine Stein)ContentAsia Issue 6, 2014