TV dramas go online, copyright prices soar

In 2006, the online copyright for 80 episodes of the blockbuster TV drama My Own Swordsman sold for a modest 100,000 yuan ($15,720).

Just five years later, the price paid by Internet portal Sohu for rights to another hit television series - New Princess Pearl, which has nearly 100 episodes - soared to 30 million yuan.

Then there's the deal by Qiyi, a video website run by China's largest search engine Baidu, to pay 1.5 million yuan for the rights to each episode of another TV drama.