MUMBAI: China?s Mei Tian Mei Yu (Mei Tian) and H& R Century TV (H&R), in conjunction with Metan Development Group (Metan), Warner Bros. International Television Production (WBITVP) and the creative team behind ?Gossip Girl?, have joined to develop a modern new teen drama series (30x60min) set in China.

Instrumental in bringing the parties together, Metan, a company founded by international TV veterans Marty Pompadur and Larry Namer, together with WBITVP, will provide development and roductionconsultation on the project, which is poised to launch a new era of the modern drama series in China.

H&R president Zhong Junyan said, "As one of the leading film and drama production companies in China today, we?re excited to be working with such an amazing team of international TV professionals. With its keen understanding of global production, Metan has joined together with Warner Bros. International Television Production, creating an extraordinary consultant team to help Mei Tain and H&R forge a newv form of drama series in China."

Metan?s president, CEO Larry Namer said, "Metan is pleased to be involved with this exciting collaboration, underscoring our ability to once again create positive connections between Hollywood with China. We believe that bringing together such a talented team will result in one of the biggest and best drama series ever seen in China, as the country enters this new age of TV production."

Warner Bros. International Television Production senior VP, creative, format development and sales Andrew Zein said, "We are delighted to be working with Mei Tan and H&R to bring this new series to one of the most vibrant and exciting countries on the planet, China".

Set to debut to Mandarin-speaking audiences in November 2012, the series is about the lives of the students of the prestigious Shanghai International University, the school of choice of the rich and powerful. One?s social status reaches a new level once admitted into the school. Each week, the main characters? trust, love and friendship are tested, with all the behind-the-scenes tales recorded in a blog. In the beginning, they are confused and lost; however over time, they discover who they really are and eventually find the right path to pursue their dreams.

Production is set to begin in June and a nationwide casting search will begin later this month. Chinese actress Yang Mi will have a recurring role on the series.

MUMBAI: IMG Media has launched a new action sports channel, EDGEsport, for the Asian market aimed specifically at the active and athletic urban young adult.

The channel will feature top action from key sports disciplines such as surfing, snowboarding, BMX, mountain biking, skateboarding, Supercross, skiing, base jumping, freestyle motocross and wakeboarding. In addition, there will be films, documentaries, athletic profiles and biographies, lifestyle programming and magazine shows ? all in High Definition.

IMG Media MD Adam Kelly said, "We are investing in action sports as we see the long term potential in this area. Our belief is that with the right approach and development this content will deliver the audiences of tomorrow for sports channels and platforms around the world. EDGEsport will help deliver the exposure needed for our clients to develop their distribution initially in Asia and then in the rest of the world."

IMG Media is producing the programming and distributing the channel globally and has already secured deals in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Malaysia with others in different stages of negotiation. The channel is being broadcast across various Pay TV cable, satellite and IPTV platforms.

EDGEsport will have over 700 hours of content from launch and will show major events such as the World Snowboarding Championships, ASP World Surfing Tour, BMX Supercross World Cup Series and H2O racing.

Other top events will be added to the EDGEsport channel throughout the year and the programming also has the ability to be simulcast digitally online and to mobile.

MUMBAI: Zee expects to obtain the landing rights in China soon, six years after applying for it.

Having already run a profitable syndication and sales business in China, the Subhash Chandra-promoted media company aims to cater to the audience in the Mandarin country with its entertainment content in the toughest media market in the world.

"We haven?t officially got the landing rights yet. It is work in progress. We expect to get the approval soon," a Zee spokesperson said.

Zee has been pursuing the landing rights in China ever since it applied in 2006.

According to a PTI report, a Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson has stated that "Zee TV has got the landing rights in China," while briefing reporters on the talks between India?s Foreign Minister S M Krishna and his Chinese counterpart Yang Jeichi.

Indiantelevision.com had earlier reported that Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (Zeel), India?s leading broadcasting network overseas, was looking at a 9 per cent growth from its international business this fiscal and would see income up from advertising, syndication and other operations while subscription revenue would stay almost flat.

Zeel has paced up its localisation strategy in global markets, which keeps it far ahead of its rivals. Zee Aflam, for instance, has seen reasonable growth and reached break-even status within three years. Other localisation experiments are already on in Malaysia, Russia and, to a limited extent, in France in partnership with Canal.

MUMBAI: Celestial Tiger Entertainment (CTE), the recently-launched independent Asian media company, has announced several major content licensing deals for Video On Demand (VOD) rights with multiple platforms in China, including iQIYI, Sohu, You On Demand and Youku.

The deals establish CTE‘s presence as a content distributor in Asia in addition to its operation of six branded pay TV channels across Asia Pacific. The deals encompass feature films and television content from
the Lionsgate library, enabling CTE to further penetrate China‘s booming 2 billion-plus RMB ($300 million) video-on-demand market.

Lionsgate, a diversified global entertainment company, is partnered in CTE with Saban Capital Group and Astro‘s Celestial Pictures.

CTE executive VP, content sales and distribution Wendy Reeds said, "These VOD deals represent just the first step for CTE‘s content distribution in China. CTE has a strong library of film and television content from Lionsgate, as well as original CTE productions, that we are proud to bring to viewers in China."

CTE noted that its content licensing deals meet a growing need for copyrighted content in the intensely competitive 2 billion RMB Chinese online video market, which is poised for continued strong growth after a 170 per cent increase in 2010 over the previous year.

As the exclusive sales agent for all of Lionsgate‘s content in Greater China and Southeast Asia, CTE has access to a vast array of commercially successful and critically-acclaimed films and television series, and the licensing deals announced included Quentin Tarantino‘s ‘Reservoir Dogs‘, ‘Monster‘s Ball‘, ‘Dune‘, the action franchise ‘Crank‘ and the television series ‘Mad Men‘.