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LIU Huan was well known as a singer before 2008. But it was his rendition of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games’ official theme song that catapulted Liu into the stratosphere of domestic stardom.
When Liu announced earlier this year that he would not be reappearing as a judge on the new season of The Voice of China, it made headlines. The Voice of China had become the hottest TV program in China – losing Liu was a big blow.
First broadcasted in the Netherlands, The Voice was imported to China and its content localized. It ran on Zhejiang TV from July 13 and soon shot to the top of the ratings – 2.717 percent of TV viewers watched the second episode, while a record 5.036 percent viewership was recorded in September.
What’s more, television viewers made up only 20 percent of the show’s total audience. Four-fifths of viewers streamed the program on the Internet. In the first two days after the inaugural show, over 10 million people watched it online.
Importing Copyrights
The Karaoke-mad Chinese are particularly fond of music shows, but this is only one factor in the success of The Voice of China. One more important is the show’s pop star judges.
Forty-nine-year-old Liu Huan, who is incidentally a professor of Western music history, has the reputation of being the best male singer in China. The Voice of China marked his first appearance as a judge on any TV show. Liu’s participation generated tremendous excitement about the program.
The show’s format is also vital to its success. The live audience both listens to and watches a contestant, but the judges only listen – their chairs do not face the stage. If the judges like what they hear, they hit a button and their chairs swivel around. They are then committed to training the owner of the voice they’ve just heard – whether a beauty or not –for the next round of the competition. The dramatic swivel-around, change of expression on the judges’ faces, bitter comments, frank appraisals of looks and sharp quips all make the show a hit.
The Voice of China is also a stage for“small potatoes” to realize their dreams of stardom. In Chinese the phrase refers to ordinary Joes – truck drivers, country bumpkins, the “aesthetically challenged”and others who would have little chance of cracking the mainstream within the confines of the system. The only requirement to succeed on the show is a stellar voice – other factors are irrelevant. It gives all a fair go. For Chinese audiences The Voice of China most likely reminds them of another spectacular show that ran roughly seven years ago. Super Girl, which gained an international following, featured SMS voting, a first for a Chinese TV show. On the evening of August 26, 2005, the top three contestants in the final round of Super Girl received a total of over nine million SMS votes. The show produced a number of previously unknown singers who went on to dominate the domestic pop charts.
While The Voice of China arguably improves upon Super Girl in many respects, both shows owe their success to importing new, exciting forms of entertainment. Super Girl was, in essence, a copy of American Idol. The Voice of China, on the other hand, integrates local culture with the original Dutch version.
The Voice of China represents a trend prevalent in Chinese Television this year– copyright import. Four out of 10 music programs aired last summer were imported.
“There are only two kinds of TV programs on air at the moment: chair-swiveling ones and lights-going-out ones, “quipped Meng Fei, a host on Jiangsu TV. Chair-swiveling refers to The Voice of China, while lights-going-out alludes to his own program, You Are the One. The blind dating show is based on the British Take Me Out, and has maintained a four percent audience rating for several years now.
Your Microphone, My Voice
“Once we import a program, we really change things up,” admitted Tian Ming, CEO of Star China Media (SCM), which produces The Voice of China.
Tian Ming says Chinese television networks have gone through a number of phases in how they go about importing copyrights. In the early days, many TV stations copied outright foreign programs – often without permission from the copyright holders. After a while, Chinese TV networks started purchasing the authentic copyrights to programs, though the rules and regulations that came with the purchases were usually ignored. “We insisted on doing things entirely our own way and turned a deaf ear to the suggestions made by experienced foreign production teams,” said Tian.
Chinese producers eventually got around to studying original programs seriously, and discussing core issues with the copyright holders, said Tian. They would follow advice, while also “integrating their input with our own interpretation of the Chinese market,” said Tian.
Chen Wei, chief coordinator at The Voice of China, recalled his awe on watching the American version of the show. It reminded him of a program produced by Zhejiang TV in 2011, only much, much better. “We’re doing the same thing, but they’re doing it on a whole other level. It would be crazy not to utilize foreign expertise,” he said. As with most TV copyrights, everything down to the smallest detail is outlined in the copyright manual for The Voice. The purpose of the show, the operational protocol, the candidate recruitment strategies, the location of the band and audience, a map of the cameras and lighting... everything is in there. The copyright holder can change or rewrite content in line with different situations in different countries. In preparation for the launch of The Voice of China, the team from the Netherlands flew to China to give advice on the show’s production and even offered suggestions on the effective use of marketing on social and online media.
“The Dutch producers promised to help us get through the fine details of the show’s manual,” said Li Yuan, a project executor at the International Program Content Network (IPCN), the copyright agent for The Voice of China. He was the one who ensured the production team would fly to China to train Chinese producers. “At one point in time, there were seven consultants here to guide the live shooting. They monitored every detail,” he said. For a 90-minute show, there was more than 1,000 minutes of raw material.
The effort paid off. “The show was successful in over 40 countries and regions. The key to this success was loyalty to the original show and maintaining all the detail,” said Li.
But Tian Ming still holds that some changes should be made to cater to Chinese audiences, who “focus on human interest, and like good story development.”The Dutch version of The Voice attracted people with fresh – strange, some might say – performances, while contestants’backgrounds were sidelined. The Voice of China, however, spends more time on personal stories and slows down the narrative, building more emotional resonance between the contestants and the audience.
As sad stories emerged in greater numbers, the show provoked controversy. The producers were taking advantage of contestants’ lives to manipulate audience’s feelings, people said. But in the end the criticism just added to the show’s popularity and ratings.
separating Production from Broadcasting
The Voice of China also represents a real separation of production from broadcasting in China, mentioned many years ago as a major objective of television industry reform. Until The Voice of China, there were few instances of such separation.
Tian Ming, the producer of the show, is also director of Dragon TV in Shanghai. He initially intended to broadcast The Voice on Dragon TV, but was deterred by the 80-million-yuan price tag and investment-based profit-sharing scheme required by the show’s original producers. After negotiations with many provincial television networks, he eventually reached an agreement with Xia Chen’an, director of Zhejiang TV. Xia admits he was concerned over the fate of the program on Zhejiang TV. There was little appetite for big investment at his station, but Xia eventually prevailed and signed an agreement to run The Voice. Xia and Tian also signed a VAM (Valuation Adjustment Mechanism), whereby the producer and the network share both the risk and the potential reward from a show. The agreement included stipulations on sharing advertising revenue. If audience ratings surpassed two percent, revenue would be shared, with the producer receiving a larger share. But if ratings didn’t reach two percent and advertising revenue was lackluster, then the production costs of roughly RMB 100 million were to be borne by the producer alone.
“Our agreement reveals one of the advantages of separating production from broadcasting,” said Tian Ming. “If the program is very successful, advertisement rates may double, and both parties receive more profit.”
“In addition, our running investment was not limited,” Tian added. “If advertising revenue jumps, the production team spends more money on inviting big stars and better staff. They want higher quality, higher ratings – and more profit. Separating production from broadcasting forces us to think about how to make money by improving the show’s quality, rather than by cutting budgets to meet profit targets.”
Both parties say they are happy with the profit-sharing agreement. The Voice of China has been a massive success and a cash cow for all involved in production and broadcasting. Zhejiang TV recovered its costs within two weeks. Now that’s something to sing about.
When Liu announced earlier this year that he would not be reappearing as a judge on the new season of The Voice of China, it made headlines. The Voice of China had become the hottest TV program in China – losing Liu was a big blow.
First broadcasted in the Netherlands, The Voice was imported to China and its content localized. It ran on Zhejiang TV from July 13 and soon shot to the top of the ratings – 2.717 percent of TV viewers watched the second episode, while a record 5.036 percent viewership was recorded in September.
What’s more, television viewers made up only 20 percent of the show’s total audience. Four-fifths of viewers streamed the program on the Internet. In the first two days after the inaugural show, over 10 million people watched it online.
Importing Copyrights
The Karaoke-mad Chinese are particularly fond of music shows, but this is only one factor in the success of The Voice of China. One more important is the show’s pop star judges.
Forty-nine-year-old Liu Huan, who is incidentally a professor of Western music history, has the reputation of being the best male singer in China. The Voice of China marked his first appearance as a judge on any TV show. Liu’s participation generated tremendous excitement about the program.
The show’s format is also vital to its success. The live audience both listens to and watches a contestant, but the judges only listen – their chairs do not face the stage. If the judges like what they hear, they hit a button and their chairs swivel around. They are then committed to training the owner of the voice they’ve just heard – whether a beauty or not –for the next round of the competition. The dramatic swivel-around, change of expression on the judges’ faces, bitter comments, frank appraisals of looks and sharp quips all make the show a hit.
The Voice of China is also a stage for“small potatoes” to realize their dreams of stardom. In Chinese the phrase refers to ordinary Joes – truck drivers, country bumpkins, the “aesthetically challenged”and others who would have little chance of cracking the mainstream within the confines of the system. The only requirement to succeed on the show is a stellar voice – other factors are irrelevant. It gives all a fair go. For Chinese audiences The Voice of China most likely reminds them of another spectacular show that ran roughly seven years ago. Super Girl, which gained an international following, featured SMS voting, a first for a Chinese TV show. On the evening of August 26, 2005, the top three contestants in the final round of Super Girl received a total of over nine million SMS votes. The show produced a number of previously unknown singers who went on to dominate the domestic pop charts.
While The Voice of China arguably improves upon Super Girl in many respects, both shows owe their success to importing new, exciting forms of entertainment. Super Girl was, in essence, a copy of American Idol. The Voice of China, on the other hand, integrates local culture with the original Dutch version.
The Voice of China represents a trend prevalent in Chinese Television this year– copyright import. Four out of 10 music programs aired last summer were imported.
“There are only two kinds of TV programs on air at the moment: chair-swiveling ones and lights-going-out ones, “quipped Meng Fei, a host on Jiangsu TV. Chair-swiveling refers to The Voice of China, while lights-going-out alludes to his own program, You Are the One. The blind dating show is based on the British Take Me Out, and has maintained a four percent audience rating for several years now.
Your Microphone, My Voice
“Once we import a program, we really change things up,” admitted Tian Ming, CEO of Star China Media (SCM), which produces The Voice of China.
Tian Ming says Chinese television networks have gone through a number of phases in how they go about importing copyrights. In the early days, many TV stations copied outright foreign programs – often without permission from the copyright holders. After a while, Chinese TV networks started purchasing the authentic copyrights to programs, though the rules and regulations that came with the purchases were usually ignored. “We insisted on doing things entirely our own way and turned a deaf ear to the suggestions made by experienced foreign production teams,” said Tian.
Chinese producers eventually got around to studying original programs seriously, and discussing core issues with the copyright holders, said Tian. They would follow advice, while also “integrating their input with our own interpretation of the Chinese market,” said Tian.
Chen Wei, chief coordinator at The Voice of China, recalled his awe on watching the American version of the show. It reminded him of a program produced by Zhejiang TV in 2011, only much, much better. “We’re doing the same thing, but they’re doing it on a whole other level. It would be crazy not to utilize foreign expertise,” he said. As with most TV copyrights, everything down to the smallest detail is outlined in the copyright manual for The Voice. The purpose of the show, the operational protocol, the candidate recruitment strategies, the location of the band and audience, a map of the cameras and lighting... everything is in there. The copyright holder can change or rewrite content in line with different situations in different countries. In preparation for the launch of The Voice of China, the team from the Netherlands flew to China to give advice on the show’s production and even offered suggestions on the effective use of marketing on social and online media.
“The Dutch producers promised to help us get through the fine details of the show’s manual,” said Li Yuan, a project executor at the International Program Content Network (IPCN), the copyright agent for The Voice of China. He was the one who ensured the production team would fly to China to train Chinese producers. “At one point in time, there were seven consultants here to guide the live shooting. They monitored every detail,” he said. For a 90-minute show, there was more than 1,000 minutes of raw material.
The effort paid off. “The show was successful in over 40 countries and regions. The key to this success was loyalty to the original show and maintaining all the detail,” said Li.
But Tian Ming still holds that some changes should be made to cater to Chinese audiences, who “focus on human interest, and like good story development.”The Dutch version of The Voice attracted people with fresh – strange, some might say – performances, while contestants’backgrounds were sidelined. The Voice of China, however, spends more time on personal stories and slows down the narrative, building more emotional resonance between the contestants and the audience.
As sad stories emerged in greater numbers, the show provoked controversy. The producers were taking advantage of contestants’ lives to manipulate audience’s feelings, people said. But in the end the criticism just added to the show’s popularity and ratings.
separating Production from Broadcasting
The Voice of China also represents a real separation of production from broadcasting in China, mentioned many years ago as a major objective of television industry reform. Until The Voice of China, there were few instances of such separation.
Tian Ming, the producer of the show, is also director of Dragon TV in Shanghai. He initially intended to broadcast The Voice on Dragon TV, but was deterred by the 80-million-yuan price tag and investment-based profit-sharing scheme required by the show’s original producers. After negotiations with many provincial television networks, he eventually reached an agreement with Xia Chen’an, director of Zhejiang TV. Xia admits he was concerned over the fate of the program on Zhejiang TV. There was little appetite for big investment at his station, but Xia eventually prevailed and signed an agreement to run The Voice. Xia and Tian also signed a VAM (Valuation Adjustment Mechanism), whereby the producer and the network share both the risk and the potential reward from a show. The agreement included stipulations on sharing advertising revenue. If audience ratings surpassed two percent, revenue would be shared, with the producer receiving a larger share. But if ratings didn’t reach two percent and advertising revenue was lackluster, then the production costs of roughly RMB 100 million were to be borne by the producer alone.
“Our agreement reveals one of the advantages of separating production from broadcasting,” said Tian Ming. “If the program is very successful, advertisement rates may double, and both parties receive more profit.”
“In addition, our running investment was not limited,” Tian added. “If advertising revenue jumps, the production team spends more money on inviting big stars and better staff. They want higher quality, higher ratings – and more profit. Separating production from broadcasting forces us to think about how to make money by improving the show’s quality, rather than by cutting budgets to meet profit targets.”
Both parties say they are happy with the profit-sharing agreement. The Voice of China has been a massive success and a cash cow for all involved in production and broadcasting. Zhejiang TV recovered its costs within two weeks. Now that’s something to sing about.