Ben,
“I now have several Chinese close friends with good English who frequently download American TV shows from the Internet. ”
Do you know how many Chinese ppl dunt with gud Eng?

Chinese TV only targetting the local Chinese ppl, not foreigners…its still a national system, not global ~
There are many different types of programme 4 difference age groups, not everybody luv popular series, fashion MTV~

I believe that the quality of programing will change~China is developing!
Love China forever~ OH~YEAH~

Since a chinese province -as you showed some posts ago- is huge in population, any large chinese population could have a decent pool of talent, able to make good shows (A province of 90 million should have some people good at TV, right?).

I completely disagree that centralisation would help Chinese TV at all. See The Wizard’s comment for a good explanation why, an explanation that is far more succinct and intelligent than I could come up with. I have some sympathy with Jeremy’s comment, but not being a capitalist I have my doubts about the Market, and I would like to point out that local content quotas are fairly common around the world and in some places actually seem to be well-managed and therefore quite effective at guarunteeing local people quality local TV. So far as any TV can be called “quality”, of course.

And (remember the first paragraph as you read this) Chinese TV does actually have some pretty damn good programming. 小兵张嘎 (somebody please check the ‘ga’, I’m not sure of the character) and 铁道游击队, as in the recent TV series, not necessarily the original films, are two personal favourites. And I’m sometimes quite impressed with the programmes my wife watches (she’s the TV watcher; I stick with films, books or the internet). The first two series of 环球格格 are quite fun, and although 幸福像花一样 was not exactly my cup of tea, it certainly was a well-put together series.

In China, I’d say (I don’t really watch Chinese TV but I should probably start) the problem is that there’s a relatively limited amount of content permitted under the strict guidelines of the Communist Party. I read an article recently saying that the endless costume dramas one sees often act as clever allegories for current political intrigue.

But then again…I don’t watch Chinese TV so I don’t really know. I do know the news……….sucks.

Interesting article. You simplify a few things, such as overlooking the fact that Chinese television is much more d3mocratic than American television in many respects: particularly those regarding local origination programming.

American television used to work just as the current Chinese dynamic does.

Local stations created more than token “news” broadcasts.

A typical network-affiliated station in a medium-sized (and large) city up until 15 years would have a broadcast week that offered:
Local news. Local public affairs programming. Local religious crap programming. A local movie package, perhaps with a local talent hosting it, and local sporting events of some variety. This would be rounded out with syndicated programming (reruns of programs and original programming), movie package deals for films already past their network and cable peaks, a national news program (usually network affiliated), and then they’d switch to their prime time network feed (ABC, CBS, NBC, and FOX, with UPN/WB/CW/PAK/ION/I much later on.

Independent stations often added more local origination programming as well as doubling up on syndicated programs and movie package deals. Some even carried more local sports (AAA baseball, high school sports, region pro-wrestling, etc.).

This all changed in the nineties. The dreaded infomercials became commonplace and the massive, corporate swallowing up of stations (thus rendering them cookie cutter carob copies of other stations under the same ownership) basically being run like a franchised MacDonalds (same crap on the menu but the customer service might fare better or worse). The FCC basically removed all responsibility to local communities from most stations and the local origination programming disappeared.

The young talent, and positions for young talent to start their careers dropped .Quality dropped. Any sense of community dropped. This really hit home for medium-small sized cities. It applies to radio, local newspapers and television stations, too. In fact, where I’m living, the local stations are little more than network carriers and “infomercial” whores. Two affiliates have token “news casts” that really have sweet f. a. for local news. In fact, Time-Warner cable started up a cable news channel for this region and it has more news coverage on my city than the local channels in my city – and its “local office’ is little more than a camera man/editor and the on-air reporter (she works her butt off, too).
20 years ago we had 4 options for local news and it was indeed news! Some of the anchors that got their start here went on to become important players in National Network and Cable news organizations. Not anymore. This is where the relative few young kids start their careers, or the detritus that got the hard luck part of life end their careers here.

What you get on the idiot box is basically the same thing the rest of the nation gets. Local “news” is barely there, and when shit hits the fan (i. e. a serious emergency) you have nowhere to turn to for information, since ht radio stations in one city are simply ISDN’d to a hard drive of pre-programmed, pre-recorded crap out of Texas, etc. “Local” television is the same.

There’s hardly anything “local” about it. The mandatory “HDTV” b. s. that congress and the N. A. B. have forced on the nation only ensures more bland, centralized, Stepford television and the death of local origination programming, come 2009.

China may have a lot of crap on television, but at least it’s coming from the city/provinces. It might be watered-down or cuckhold’d by the TV Danwei, but it offers more opportunities, more jobs, more choices, and they do possess local flavor.

It’s hardly the “pod people” situation that American television has become.

In fact, broadcast television has gotten so bad (mostly because religious crack pot jihadist “special interest groups” and the FCC won’t allow anything aimed at adults to be allowed to behave like an adult) the number of people going to cable continues to increase (I use Dish Network and Direct TV satellite as part of the “Cable” label, with HBO, etc.) .

Much of our “public airwaves” is little more than slicker-looking, over-produced crap that mimics what has been airing in Asia for decades: the “reality show,” the Variety show posting as a contest, prime-time game shows, prime time soap operas, etc.

American network television resembles Japan/Hong Kong/South Korea/Thailand/Philippino/Chinese TV now, more than ever.

With a few exceptions, most of those “downloaded” television shows your friends are enjoying were probably made for extended (i. e. F/X, TBS, TNT, SCI-FI, U. S. A., etc.) and pay (HBO, Showtime, etc) cable.

A minority of people control our entertainment industry, as you hinted at in your article. It is exceedingly rare for fresh-out-of-Uni talent to find a place to put their work in motion so it can develop. That’s not the case in China, as you’ve clearly illustrated.

In an odd way your piece does make an argument for centralizing China’s television using the American model as a reference. I think that would do more harm than good in China. As more private money flows into China’s television market, and with its large, diverse population (compared to other parts of Asia, for sure) and localize bits of culture – something really good could come it. Maybe not in large doses, but at least in some kind of dosage. The fact your fresh-out-of-uni producer has the progressive mindset to make a small, Fuzhou-based program with an international (i. e. YOU) co-host is pretty damn progressive, even if someone from another thread wants to argue that they think you’ve possibly tokenized yourself (I don’t share that visitor’s opinion, but their argument had logic behind it. I can’t deny them that. Misguided? Perhaps, but not illogical.).

As for video conversion: I MENTIONED THIS IN TWO PREVIOUS POSTS, but hopefully you’ll hear me this time:

http://www.videohelp.com

Thatsite should steer you in the right direction and help you find what you’re looking for.

Keep on keepin’ on.