拉美点燃中国进口电视剧市场战火

    每当你看到一家在中国做生意的西方媒体公司时，可以肯定的是这家公司的主管们必定有过恶梦般的经历。中国政策对国外企业，特别是境外娱乐业机构，设定了苛刻的限制条件：从一般内容的审查制度（如电视上的同性恋文化和暴力内容），到严格限制国外影视的引进数量，以及难以企及的中国影视节目制作许可证。

    这些是国外公司进入中国传媒市场所要花费的成本。但它们能从中获得巨大的利益，这也是为什么许多公司仍愿意忍受这些让人头疼的要求。拿电视来说，广告商们正迫不急待地吸引中国不断壮大的中产阶级：全球管理咨询公司麦肯锡（McKinsey）称，过去三年里，中国的电视广告费翻了一番，达到了400亿美元。而且，这个数字将在三年后超过700亿美元。

    一旦传媒公司决定拍一部电视剧，能够给它们带来利益的不仅是蓬勃的广告市场。在中国，可以和电视内容制作方签协议的频道有几十个。如今，中国已经有290多个电视广播公司和1,300多个频道。中国无数的电视接收插座，加上飞涨的广告支出，意味着电视节目的制作将有更多的选择、更多的渠道以及更大的需求，从而吸引外国媒体公司来中国开展业务。

    这就是Televisa集团的发现。这家墨西哥公司是最大的西班牙语媒体，在墨西哥的黄金时段掳获了70%的观众，每年在电视内容制作上的支出超过10亿美元。它最有名的节目类型是在拉丁美洲享誉已久的拉美电视剧。这种长达一个小时的肥皂剧每天在黄金时段播出，覆盖整个拉美地区，叙事周期一般长达六个月到一年。不过，在过去的15年里，Televisa一直在悄无声息地向外部市场扩张，如今已经把这些电视剧带到了中国。而亚洲现在已经成为Televisa增长第二快的国际市场，增速仅次于拉丁美洲（Televisa集团视墨西哥为本土市场，而拉美则属于国外市场）。

    起初，Televisa只能在中国出售已经在墨西哥播出过的译制浪漫剧。但在2006年，它开始和中国本土制片方达成协议，为中国观众拍摄中文的原创浪漫电视剧。由于中国人的反感，它回避了“跨国制作”这样容易让人忽视本土人才的词，而把这种合作关系描述成“协作”。

    通过和当地制片公司合作，Televisa在中国发行了许多颇受欢迎的电视剧，其中一些作品更是取得了令人瞩目的成功。美剧《丑女贝蒂》（Ugly Betty）的中国版《丑女无敌》（Ugly Wudi）自2008年在中国开播以来吸引了1,100万忠实观众。美剧《丑女贝蒂》本身来源于哥伦比亚的浪漫电视剧《丑女贝蒂》（Yo soy Betty, la fea）。【目前美国最热门的《鸭子王朝》（Duck Dynasty）上周首播吸引了1,200万观众，由A&E有线电视网播出。广告狂人（Mad Men）平均每周收看人数为250万。】

    《丑女无敌》和联合利华（Unilever）的多芬（Dove）品牌达成了深度的植入广告协议——在所有情节中都出现了它的肥皂——这也暗示了为什么Televisa如此渴望在中国立足的另一个原因：在娱乐节目中，中国观众比西方观众对植入式广告的容忍度更高。这对Televisa来说是个好现象，因为它的电视剧观众大多为女性，其中许多人是家庭主妇，年龄在20到54岁之间。这个年龄段的观众正是广告商竞相追逐的群体之一。Televisa喜欢中国市场的另一个原因是：中国的观众们喜欢电视剧。Televisa中国总裁弗朗西斯科•奥提斯说：“中国市场习惯了电视剧。”   

    Whenever you see a Western media company doing business in China, you can bet its executives have had nightmares. Between censorship of everyday material like gay culture and violence on television, strict quotas on foreign content, and the near impossibility of obtaining a license to produce in the country, the restrictions China's policies place on outsiders are onerous -- especially outsiders in the entertainment business.

    That's the cost side of entering the Chinese media market. The benefits explain why companies put up with the headaches. Take television, for instance. Advertisers are rushing to attract the country's rising middle class: TV advertising nearly doubled to $40 billion over the past three years in China, according to McKinsey, and in three more years that figure will rise to more than $70 billion.

    Once media companies decide to make a show, they benefit from more than a skyrocketing ad market. China has dozens of channels with whom content producers can strike deals -- there are more than 290 Chinese television broadcasters and 1,300 channels in the country today. Coupled with ad spending, China's countless television outlets mean more options, more outlets, and a bigger appetite for programming, making it attractive for foreign media companies to do business in China.

    That's what Grupo Televisa has found. The Mexico-based company is the biggest media business in the Spanish-speaking world, capturing 70% of the primetime audience in Mexico and spending more than $1 billion a year on producing content. Its specialties are the telenovelas that have enjoyed a long history in Latin America -- hour-long soap-opera style shows that are broadcast daily all over the region in primetime, their narrative arcs lasting six months to a year. But in a little-noticed expansion outside its market, for the past 15 years, Televisa has been bringing them to China -- and now it counts Asia as its second-fastest-growing international market after Latin America (which it considers to be a foreign market from its native Mexico).

    At first, the company was limited in China to selling dubbed versions of telenovelas that had previously aired in Mexico. But in 2006, it started striking deals with local Chinese producers to develop original telenovelas in Mandarin for Chinese viewers. The company avoids using the phrase "co-production'' -- something the Chinese dislike because it takes attention away from local talent -- so instead the partnerships are described as "collaborations."

    Partnering with local production companies, Televisa has released a host of popular telenovelas in China, some to notable success. Ugly Wudi, a Chinese version of the U.S. hit Ugly Betty, which itself was a version of Colombia's telenovela Yo soy Betty, la fea, debuted in 2008 and captured 11 million regular viewers in China. (The hottest show in the U.S. today, Duck Dynasty on A&E, premiered last week to an audience of 12 million. Mad Men averages about 2.5 million viewers a week.)

    Ugly Wudi included a heavy product placement deal with Unilever's (UL) Dove brand -- the soap appeared all over the plot -- that hints at another reason why Televisa is so eager to be in China: Its viewers are much more receptive than Western audiences to product placement in its entertainment. That's good for Televisa, whose telenovela viewership is mostly women, many of them housewives, aged 20-54, one of the most sought-after demographics for advertisers. Another reason Televisa likes the China market: Its viewers like drama. "China is a market used to TV drama," says Francisco Ortiz, Televisa's president in charge of China.