Star bucks

Trade analysts say a hot film and TV market means top stars get paid too much, so shows have less to spend on improving production quality, Han Bingbin reports.

Why are Chinese TV series poorly made? Many experts say it's because celebrities are paid too much, taking a large part of the budget that could have otherwise gone to other aspects of TV production, such as costume, lighting and setting.

Thanks primarily to a growing market, today many Chinese TV stars are earning 10 times as much as they did a mere decade ago. In around 2005, A-listers were making headlines for being paid as much as 100,000 yuan ($16,295) for a leading role in each episode. Today, producers complain about the difficulty in getting superstars to play as leads in their shows for half of million yuan each episode.