CSM is a market research firm owned by global market research house TNS and a company controlled by CCTV. CSM has released a report about China’s TV drama industry in 2004 which Xinhua has summarized. These are some of the key points in the Xinhua summary:
– In 2004, 156 TV stations in 33 cities nationwide broadcast more than 180,000 episodes of 1,500 different TV drama series.
– The above total represents a 5.8% increase from 2003.
– Most of the dramas are Chinese legends plays and “life” dramas.
– Because of recent limits on cops and robbers / crime dramas put in place by SARFT (State Administration of Radio, Film and TV), the number of such dramas went down to under a quarter of the previous quantity.
– Historical dramas (literally ‘old clothing dramas’ 古装剧) also decreased slightly.
– Dramas based on Chinese legends (传奇剧) were the darling of Chinese TV in 2004 making up 20.5% of all dramas watched.
– Urban life dramas (都市生活剧) also did well. ‘Big Sister’ (大姐) and ‘The Camphor Tree’ (香樟树) were the most popular dramas on satellite TV in 2004.
– 70 foreign dramas (1,297 episodes) were approved for broadcast. 45 of those were from Hong Kong and Taiwan; programs from Korea were the second most broadcast foreign dramas.
– The TV drama market in China is worth 4.3 billion yuan.
– Xinhua: China TV drama report
– CSM home page
The image is a screenshot from the TV drama Longfei Xianggong (龙飞相公)