Sub-prime Times and Niches

    Besides broadcasting long-running crowd-pleasers like “Citadel of Happiness” in prime time on weekend evenings, Hunan TV never underestimates the potential of less choice time slots, and carefully conceives of programming for them. The efforts have paid off in spades. In the first half of 2009 its afternoon viewership (13:00 to 17:30) and those who tune in by late evening (22:00 to 24:00) accounted for 4.67 percent and 5.37 percent respectively of the national total, both the highest.

    Why give up on a good thing? According to Sheng, the GBS has repositioned its subordinate TV stations to meet the demands of different subgroups, making each station professionally attuned to its niche viewers. For example, the TV drama channel focuses on TV series appealing to retired people and men. The cartoon channel provides popular animated series and movies, as well as creative and educational shows, to make it the first choice of most children around the country. In this way, different channels attract people of different ages with different interests, but cover the whole spectrum. And as the staff gains more experience, they build even more detailed and intimate pictures of the niche audiences they court. A virtuous circle of success has formed composed of professional stations fending off the vicious cycles of failure spawned by the international financial crisis.

    Of equal importance to increased income is reduced expenditure. “Since the beginning of 2009, we have merged the advertising departments of our affiliated TV channels and other media into one advertising section, gaining us resource efficiency,” and this, notes Sheng, “avoids waste and strengthens communication.”

    Again, the decision proved sound. More and more viewers have tuned in, luring more advertisers. Under unfavorable economic conditions, Hunan TV Station keeps producing miracles.

    Love for Fun a Perpetual Opportunity

    The success of Hunan TV and GBS as a whole may be taken as confirmation of the substantial demand generated by the huge Chinese market. Appetites for recreation and distraction in fact grow, instead of fall, in times of economic turmoil. In the case of China, where the people, 1.3 billion of them, are getting better-off and more sophisticated, mass media remains a gold mine not yet fully explored.

    When an increasing number of Chinese look for foreign movies on the Internet, often grappling with poorly translated subtitles, they are sending the message that their need for fun and information is not sated, suggesting vast untapped opportunities for the media industry, in and out of China.