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Time Warner eyes bigger market

(China Daily/Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-10-10 08:40

Time Warner, the world's leading media and entertainment conglomerate, is eyeing China's faster market expansion after the government issued a new plan to encourage private and foreign investment in the cultural sector, a senior company executive said on Friday.

Company officials are "particularly interested" in the plan to lower the market access threshold for the entry of private and foreign capital to the cultural fields, and "excited" to learn that multimedia broadcasting, Internet and mobile TV would be promoted actively, said Stephen J. Marcopoto, president of Turner International Asia Pacific Limited, the broadcasting division of Time Warner, at the World Media Summit (WMS).

China's reform and more open policies enabled the world's third-largest economy to form close partnerships with global industry leaders in telecommunications, automobiles, banking and retailing and consumer goods, he said.

However, access has been limited for international participation in the entertainment industry, and partnerships were not made in this area as they were in other leading markets, said Marcopoto.

"We support moves to increase access to international content and media properties in a manner consistent with global norms and look forward to further growth and development to come in this area," he said.

Cooperation, collaboration and partnerships are the "formula for success" in this new age of media, he said.

The entertainment arena is a "more fertile" ground for Chinese and international media companies to cultivate, he said.

Turner's landmark expansion in China dates back to 2001 when its CETV, now a partner with the Tom Group, became the first international television channel in China.

Reciprocally, CCTV-9, the English channel of China Central Television, which was carried by Time Warner cable systems, landed in major cities in the United States.

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"China's global development will benefit from ties that would create a dynamic international media industry, and fully adhering to the country's broadcasting code," Marcopoto said.

The rapid digitization of China's pay-TV system, and the expansion of broadcasters and the broadband penetration provide a solid foundation for such growth, he said.

China would become a leader in this influential industry, as it moves from a domestically oriented participant to an international industry leader, he said.

"It will grow its own Time Warner. We at Turner want to, and will continue to be, part of that transformation," he said.

Also on Friday, Richard Jeremy Sambrook, director of the BBC's Global News, expressed satisfaction with the UK-based broadcaster's programs in China and said he hopes to tighten its partnerships with Chinese peers.

BBC is looking forward to launching a TV platform with a Chinese partner and cooperating with Chinese partners in developing English language learning through the Internet and by mobile phone, the director said.

BBC has set up an English language teaching team and the website bbcukchina.com in China to gain audiences and awareness of its brand, said Sambrook, a co-chairman of the World Media Summit that kicked off in Beijing on Friday morning.