|
|
| Starz Encore's John J. Sie: China Cable TV Can Lead the World With Passage of PNTR and WTO Membership |
Encore International Founder, Chairman Tells Entertainment & Media In
Asia Conference China's Cable Industry Needs Tiered Programming;
Management Expertise to Reach Full Potential Under WTO
LOS ANGELES, May 24 /PRNewswire/ -- China's cable TV system and the
programming community that feed it are on the verge of greatness and could
flourish with China's admission to the World Trade Organization and U.S.
Congressional passage of permanent normal trading relations (PNTR), according
to John J. Sie, founder, chairman and CEO of Starz Encore Group.
Sie, who is also chairman of Encore International, one of the largest U.S.
exporter of television programming to China Central Television, told the Asia
Society's "Entertainment and Media in Asia" conference that "with the passage
of PNTR, (the U.S. and China) will be joined much closer in a win-win
situation for the benefit of two peoples who have always shared genuine
feelings and bonds."
Sie delivered his luncheon keynote remarks before 300 people, including
Tian Congming, Minister of China's State Administration of Radio, Film &
Television, top executives from China Central Television, China's Film Bureau
and Ministry of Information & Industry, and U.S. entertainment industry
executives, including News Corporation Chairman Rupert Murdoch and Motion
Picture Association of American President & CEO Jack Valenti. Sie noted that
China's cable TV infrastructure across the entire nation is, in many ways,
more advanced than the United States. He said China's cable TV programmers
should introduce an "expanded basic" tier of channels, similar to that found
in the United States. More channels, Sie said, will entice China's 80 million
cable households to pay optional higher cable rates, generating sufficient
revenue to stimulate China's nascent domestic television production industry.
Currently, China's cable system offers only one tier of basic channels for a
minimal monthly fee.
"The secret here is not high-tech, but rather a business model that China
can deploy. China's cable offering is currently one tier of mostly
retransmission of 20-30 provincial broadcast channels, plus only 3-4 channels
originating from China. My suggestion to my Chinese colleagues is to look at
the possibility of creating an expanded basic tier at an optionally higher
price."
Sie estimates such a strategy could generate about $1 billion in revenue
to fund new programming and services. But if China is to generate new and
better domestic cable channels, it should first use more Western programming
to attract consumers. Using foreign programming as a catalyst will deliver
much needed short-term capital that can then be reinvested into Chinese
channels. Eventually, this can become the higher quality volume driver. Sie
is confident that China has an abundance of creative talent and business
acumen to meet that challenge. "Ultimately providing programming is the most
important thing we can do as members of the media, because we're exchanging
ideas, cultures, aspirations and values of the people -- something far more
important than manufactured goods."
Sie added that for China to become a worldwide force in cable and cable
programming, China's cable managers must look to the success of the U.S. cable
industry for lessons to be learned. "At the cable center and museum in Denver,
where I am a trustee, we have set up a fund to create a scholarship for
Chinese media executives to come to the United States. This year we'll start
with six executives, who will go through a crash course in cable industry
business, marketing and financial principles. This is on top of efforts such
as last month's first-ever Sino-U.S. Conference on Cable TV Management, which
we co-sponsored with the State Administration for Radio, Film and Television
in Beijing."
Sie added that similar to the U.S., China's domestic cable and telephone
systems should be allowed to compete for video, voice and data traffic.
"Governments cannot pick winners. Consumers and competitive technological
innovations will. For China to be globally competitive, it should ride as many
horses as possible, so that in the end it can be a true leader in the world
community," said Sie.
Sie also stated that he is confident that the PNTR will pass on Wednesday
because the legislation is "the right thing to do." Last week, Sie wrote all
435 members of the U.S. House of Representatives, urging them to vote for PNTR
with China. "As an entrepreneur and a U.S. citizen who has enjoyed the
opportunity to achieve business success in America under a democratic and free
enterprise system, I share the desire to see China open itself up
economically," Sie wrote. "Having left Shanghai in 1949, I take second place
to no one in my desire to see China open itself up politically as well. I can
appreciate the emotions of those who would like to use a blunt tool to achieve
that. But denying PNTR is totally wrongheaded; it would not open up China.
Instead, it would put a valuable tool in the hands of hard-liners in China who
oppose liberalization and validate their paranoia. To ensure fair trade
relations and foster democratic values in the largest nation in the world, a
far more effective instrument is called for, the passage of PNTR. It can bring
people together, and give American companies the opportunity to build business
relationships that are win-win on both sides of the Pacific."
Starz Encore Group LLC (Starz Encore) is the largest provider of cable and
satellite-delivered premium movie channels in the United States. Starz Encore
owns 13 domestic channels and currently counts approximately 62 million pay
units. Starz Encore offers up to 12 channels of the Starz Encore Super Pak,
which comprises STARZ!, the New Encore, Action, Mystery, BET Movies, Westerns,
STARZ! Family, Love Stories, True Stories, STARZ! Theater, WAM! and STARZ!
Cinema. Additionally, Starz Encore also has the only low priced movie pak for
price-sensitive consumers, the Encore Movie Pak, featuring up to seven theme
channels. Find programming information on the Web at http://www.starzencore.com.
Starz Encore is a wholly owned subsidiary of Liberty Media Group
(NYSE: LMGa, LMGb).
An affiliate of the Starz Encore Group LLC (Starz Encore), Encore
International (EI) was founded in 1995 to develop programming and channels for
international distribution and exchange, with a focus on Asia. EI is
committed to bringing the best programming from all over the world into Asia,
creating integrated media services for the region, providing reciprocity in
the United States to our foreign partners, and developing a mutually exclusive
relationship between the United States and EI's foreign partners.
EI is also involved in an unprecedented bilateral program exchange
agreement with China Central Television (CCTV) and C-SPAN, the non-profit,
non-government funded, public affairs programming network supported by the
cable industry. EI supplies daily, primetime programming for CCTV's general
entertainment network CCTV-8. In exchange, Chinese programming on CCTV-4 is
distributed directly in the United States through cable systems and through
the International Channel Networks and the C-SPAN Networks.
May 18, 2000
Congressman David E. Bonior
2207 Rayburn HOB
Washington, DC 20515-2210
Dear Congressman Bonior:
"I want to express my support for Permanent Normal Trading Relations
(PNTR) with China and urge you to support PNTR when it comes before the House
for a vote next week.
"If Congress grants PNTR to China, Americans will enjoy unprecedented
economic benefits and we will see a flood of new job creation. But PNTR will
do more than pull down trade barriers: it will tear down the wall that
separates the Chinese people from the principles of democracy and freedom.
"As a Chinese native who fled to Taiwan in 1949 and then came to the
United States, I am familiar with the Chinese revolution and the communist
system that followed. For years, I was unable to return to the country of my
birth. When I finally returned to my native land in 1987, my own mother still
refused to complete the trip with me. Her memories were so fresh and her fears
so great that she insisted on going no further than Taiwan.
"But over the past six years, as Chairman of the largest supplier of
foreign programming to China Central Television (CCTV-8), it has become clear
to me that change is actually happening in China. That change can best be
achieved person-to-person and PNTR will help significantly in expanding those
connections.
"The importance of individual contact was underscored for me just last
year. My company, Encore International, achieved a significant breakthrough,
negotiating an agreement under which CCTV-8 will broadcast our movies, drama
and lifestyles programming produced outside China during evening prime time, a
prized slot traditionally denied to foreign programmers. This makes 10 hours a
week of branded, foreign programming available to over 80 million households
during prime viewing hours. It is an important opening for the U.S. media
industry, an industry that gives the Chinese people a window on the world, an
industry whose export is more than manufactured goods; it is the export of
culture, ideas, entertainment, values and aspirations of the American people.
"Penetrating this growing market did not come quickly or easily. It was
the result of five years of building trust, understanding and mutual respect,
and demonstrating mutual benefits. It is just one example of patient bridge
building being pursued by many American companies.
"For me, two lessons stand out. First, the U.S. private sector can achieve
reciprocal business deals that foster economic benefits for Americans -- a
task that will become very much easier now as China will be admitted to the
WTO. In my own industry, for example, Americans are positioned to provide what
China's broadcasters need -- expertise in programming, marketing and business
management. Under the terms and conditions of WTO membership, China will also
open its Internet market, which already includes over two million users and
has the potential to encompass hundreds of millions more.
"The second lesson: The more America trades with China, the greater
influence we have in encouraging the world's biggest potential market to
accept established free market principles, and the rule of law. Consider a
concrete example: the evolution of Chinese attitudes toward protection of
intellectual property. Just a few years ago it was a totally foreign concept.
Today, a Chinese media content industry has taken shape. Its constituents are
just as anxious as we are to ensure copyright protection. WTO rules protecting
intellectual property will find new, fertile ground.
"Progress has been considerable. However, relations between the U.S. and
China could be easily reversed with a single vote. The rejection of PNTR would
set back the cause enormously. It would be seen as a gross insult by the
Chinese people as well as the Chinese government. Having obtained membership
in the WTO, they would see a U.S. decision to deny PNTR as relegating their
country to the status of a rogue state, cast among the small handful of
countries who are denied PNTR. Such a step would not just freeze U.S.-China
trade progress in its tracks, the denial would send it careening backwards,
pulling back with it much of the progress the American private sector has made
in opening the China market. In television programming, as in many other
sectors, there would be plenty of European and Asian media giants happy to
fill the vacuum.
"As an entrepreneur and a U.S. citizen who has enjoyed the opportunity to
achieve business success in America under a democratic and free enterprise
system, I share the desire to see China open itself up economically. Having
fled Shanghai in 1949, I take second place to no one in my desire to see China
open itself up politically. I can appreciate the emotions of those who would
like to use a blunt tool to achieve that. But denying PNTR is totally
wrongheaded; it would not open up China. Instead, it would put a valuable tool
in the hands of hard-liners in China who oppose liberalization and validate
their paranoia. To ensure fair trade relations and foster democratic values in
the largest nation in the world, a far more precise instrument is called for.
That instrument is PNTR. It can bring people together, and give American
companies the opportunity to build business relationships that are win-win on
both sides of the Pacific.
"Many of us in the private sector have worked long and hard to nudge China
into full citizenship in the world community. I urge you exercise the
leadership necessary to resist narrowly focused pressure groups and take
action that will further both U.S. economic and policy interests. I urge you
to support PNTR status for China."
Sincerely,
Founder, Chairman and CEO
(Signed)
John J. Sie
SOURCE Starz Encore Group LLC
back to topRelated links:
CONTACT:
Paul Jacobson of Starz Encore, 303-267-5821,
or 303-886-3584, jacobson.paul@encoremedia.com
