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China Media Capital boss Li Ruigang: We need better storytellers

One of China’s most powerful media executives, Li Ruigang, chairman of the country’s first state-backed media investment vehicle, has said that while his firm does not lack capital, it is lacking in storytelling skills and needs overseas help to develop an ecosystem that produces a pipeline of premium quality content.

Li Ruigang talks to CASBAA chairman Marcel Fenez

Li Ruigang talks to CASBAA chairman Marcel Fenez in Hong Kong today

In a candid interview with CASBAA chairman Marcel Fenez at the pay-TV industry body’s annual convention, Li suggested that money was not a constraint for China Media Capital, it was content.

“We lack storytelling expertise,” he said. “Content is important to us – but how to build a sustainable ecosystem that continues to create premium content?”

“We need help to move us to the next stage to build up an ecosystem to create more high quality content.”

China Media Capital, which was set up in 2010 to commercialise China’s media, recently struck a deal with Warner Bros to produce Chinese-language shows just before the visit of president Xi Jinging to the US, and has also forged partnerships with Dreamworks, IMAX and Merlin Entertainments.

More overseas investment is on the horizon, Liu added. “We continue to invest, and we’re looking at other countries. We do have an interest in putting money into content creation in the US and the UK, and we’re talking to a number of local studios.”

“In the past, we have brought formats into China like The Voice and China’s Got Talent. Going forward there will be more partnerships, and we’re looking at further co-investment opportunities,” said the documentary maker turned media investment magnate.

Would China’s investment in media overseas lead to a relaxation of the rules that forbid foreign investment in domestic media in China, Fenez asked Li.

“It’s hard for me to answer this question,” Liu began, before adding that the government’s desire to bring foreign expertise to the mainland was a sign that regulation is starting to loosen.

But the pace of reform is slow, he conceded. “The reason is that the government is testing the water. It is trying to protect local interests.”

On the joint-venture with Dreamworks, Liu described the California-based maker of Shrek and Kung Fu Panda as a tech company by definition, not a production company. “But we do produce content subject with government criteria,” he said. “We regard it as co-production. They set up the criteria, which we try to meet.”

“It is happening,” Liu insisted, “but in terms of a big change in regulation on paper, I don’t think that will happen immediately. There will be a lot of back and forth.”

Marcel Fenez and Li Ruigang

Marcel Fenez and Li Ruigang

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