Word: skies
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...neither Starry Sky nor CETV is taking the Guangdong market by storm. The channels ranked 14th and 19th among viewers in January, according to rating agency CSM. Both channels are probably more popular than the numbers suggest, however. Because they are transmitted by satellite, they can be viewed by almost anyone in China with a satellite dish. The government doesn't allow individuals to own dishes, but many do so illegally, and small cable networks routinely offer the channels to subscribers even though it's technically forbidden. By some estimates, there are more than 40 million households with access...
...Unless Starry Sky secures broader distribution rights, "there's no way it has enough viewers to make money in China," says Couto. Although Beijing is easing restrictions on foreign companies in many industries due to China's entry into the World Trade Organization, it's under no obligation to open up the broadcasting sector. "The government has no time line for granting more access," says a Western TV executive who often meets with Chinese broadcast officials...
...Other restrictions mean some Starry Sky programs don't quite match the realism of their Western prototypes. Although the judge on TV Court is genuine, the government wouldn't allow Her Honor to rule on real cases for fear of ceding sensitive legal issues to foreign TV executives. News Corp. has tried to add a sense of the unexpected by using nonprofessional actors and basing the episodes on actual Chinese court cases, but compared with Judge Judy, whose apoplectic reactions to evidence give her show a fierce moral compass, TV Court seems heavily scripted. "Look, she shed a tear!" says...
...Still, the show is one of Starry Sky's most popular. And at least it's on the air. Censors were not so generous with a situation comedy called Joyful Youth, which was modeled on the American hit Friends. During the review process, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television gutted most of one episode in which male characters bemoan the small size of a neighbor's breasts. The state agency then refused to issue the series a broadcast permit?although News Corp. had already shown several episodes without a permit, an embarrassing snafu that a company executive blames...
...Starry Sky's main competitor, AOL Time Warner-owned CETV, plays safer. Instead of trying to create lots of new programming for China, it relies on imported favorites, such as Tom and Jerry cartoons, a British cooking program and dubbed series from Korea and Taiwan. AOL also plans to expose the Chinese to American politics?Hollywood-style?by broadcasting the Emmy Award-winning White House drama The West Wing to its Guangdong audience. "We're not hemming ourselves in by copying Western formats," says Steve Marcopoto, president of Turner International Asia-Pacific...