News and Research on Xinhua Finance Media Limited (XFML)
Business Description
Xinhua Finance Media Limited operates as a diversified media company in China. The company has assembled and built a group of media assets and strategic partnerships across various sectors of the media business in China.
The company has developed an integrated platform that includes the creation and production of content that is distributed across nationwide television and print media outlets and radio in Beijing and Shanghai. These outlets reach approximately 210 million potential television viewers, and the readers of major magazines and newspapers. In addition, the company’s market research business enables advertisers to analyze, understand and reach their targeted consumers.
The company’s content focuses on business and financial news as well as wealth management and affluent lifestyle programming. Its business operates across five groups:
Media production, which refers to the company’s in-house production studios that create and produce an array of programs, including business, entertainment, educational and animation shows;
Broadcasting, which refers to the distribution of the company’s programming through Inner Mongolia Satellite Television; its production and syndication of the Fortune China series of financial programs, including Fortune Morning 7 a.m., a financial news program in China; and its production and distribution of bilingual content for China Radio International’s EasyFM stations in Beijing and Shanghai;
Print, which refers to the company’s rights to sell advertising for and provide management and information consulting services to, Money Journal magazine and the Economic Observer newspaper;
Advertising, which refers to the company’s advertising agency that creates and places advertising for television, print media and campus billboards; and
Research, which refers to the company’s market research group that provides research services on products, advertisements and markets.
Products and Services
Media production
The company produces television programs and offers broadcast design services through its media production group.
Television production
The company’s television production operations create and distribute television programs, including drama series. Its production studios in Beijing and Shanghai are able to manage the entire production process. For its drama series production, the company cooperates with third parties who hold drama series production licenses, to produce the company’s drama series.
The company, for drama series, produces a pilot episode. It then shows the pilot to television stations, and if a television station wishes to purchase the series, it enters into a contract with the company, typically to produce 20 episodes. Sometimes the company produces an entire series before seeking a station to purchase the rights to broadcast it. The company has produced drama series such as Floating Dust, a series about hardships in life, and Marriage Vacation, a drama series about a modern family.
The company develops animation concepts and produces three-dimensional animation for advertisements, education and public instructions, engages in post-production for television commercials and creates special visual effects for television commercials and films. It has created approximately 100 episodes of animation for China Central Television. The company also creates animated public service advertisements for various government agencies.
Broadcast design services
The company’s broadcast design services consist of providing brand management services for television channels. It repositions television channels, which refers to the process of developing the branding and image of the television channel. To support repositioning, the company develops content, graphics and advertisements, including ‘bumpers’.
The company also develops other graphics and advertising for the channel, some of which is displayed through other channels or print media to promote the channel.
Broadcasting
Television
The company has a strategic partnership with Shanghai Camera Media Investment Ltd., or Shanghai Camera. Shanghai Camera has the rights to sell advertising for Inner Mongolia Satellite Television and provides most of its content. The company provides consulting and advisory services to Shanghai Camera, including the production or sourcing of the content and sourcing of advertisements.
The company produces or sources diversified content for Shanghai Camera that is broadcast on Inner Mongolia Satellite Television. This content includes Warrior and Access Hollywood: China, which began to produce with the company’s partner Small World Television.
Fortune China programs
The company produces (in its studios in Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen) and syndicates the Fortune China series of financial television programs. It produces nine different programs under the Fortune China name. One is broadcast by Hunan Satellite Television and two are syndicated to local television stations. Six are broadcast on Inner Mongolia Satellite Television.
The company produces Fortune Morning 7 a.m., a financial information television program in China. The half-hour program covers topics such as investments, Chinese economic data and personal finance. This program is broadcast on Hunan Satellite Television.
Some of the company’s Fortune China programs are syndicated to provincial and city channels in China. Under its syndication relationships, the company provides the program to syndication partners and pays them an annual fee. The company also sells sponsorship, which allows the sponsor the right to promote its products, services during the program. In addition, the company produces programs for third parties, providing studios, equipment, personnel and sometimes satellite transmission. The syndicated programs are as follows:
New Fortune Weekly is a financial program, reviewing and analyzing topics relating to the Chinese economy. The 90-minute program airs on weekends, typically Saturday nights.
Fortune People is a financial talk show in China, hosting guests such as economists, business executives, finance professionals and academics. The 30-minute program airs at different times during weekends, typically Sunday nights.
Inner Mongolia Satellite Television commenced broadcasting four new Fortune China programs in August 2006, bringing Fortune China programs to all places where Inner Mongolia Satellite Television has landing rights. These programs are Fortune Unlimited, which focuses on financial and investment related news, including financial events and influential business people, Fortune China Weekly, which analyzes important economic events of the week, Fortune Celebrity, which interviews guests in the financial arena, and Fortune Morning, which is a financial news program. In October and November 2006, the company began airing two other Fortune China programs on Inner Mongolia Satellite Television.
The company’s Fortune China studios also began to produce other diversified content for broadcast on Inner Mongolia Satellite Television with its partner Small World Television such as Access Hollywood: China and Warrior.
The company’s Fortune China operations also utilize the Xinhua FTSE indices produced by its affiliate, Xinhua FTSE Index Co., Ltd., bring experts from its parent onto Fortune China programs and broadcast the Xinhua Finance newswire on the bottom of the screen on some Fortune China programs.
The company also organizes financial and economic-themed events through television broadcasting operations. The events are attended by financial professionals, affluent persons and academia. Its Fortune China operations cooperate with the company’s print group and its radio operations to produce joint events, forums and meetings.
Radio
The company has a strategic partnership with China Radio International’s exclusive advertising agent, under which it has the rights to sell advertising for and the right to provide content to China Radio International’s EasyFM 91.5 of Beijing and EasyFM 87.9 of Shanghai. The exclusive rights to sell advertising also extend to program sponsorship.
China Radio International owns the EasyFM radio network, which broadcasts in Chinese and English. The EasyFM stations in Beijing and Shanghai reach the populations of these cities.
The company intends to only provide non-news content under this partnership. It maintains radio studios in Shanghai and Beijing that are responsible for advertisement and program production. The company provides content at intervals during the day, ranging from one minute to two hours in length. The content provided to these stations includes short English language broadcasts, forums on educational institutions, personal interviews, lifestyle programs and short talk shows. The company produces some of the content it provides, while the remainder is sourced externally. The company’s radio programs are produced and broadcast in Chinese and English and are intended to appeal to Chinese people who have bilingual capability, an attractive affluent demographic segment.
Newspaper
The company, for its strategic partner, the Economic Observer, has the rights to sell advertising and provides consulting services with respect to the newspaper. The Economic Observer’s content includes national and regional news and analysis, as well as news and analysis related to economic matters, capital markets, real estate and personal finance. It also contains the special ‘Observer’ section, which covers diverse areas such as technology, history and lifestyle. The Economic Observer regularly publishes special inserts such as the monthly real estate section.
Magazines
The company has the rights to sell advertising for and provide management and information consulting services, including with respect to distribution, to Money Journal. Money Journal is a wealth and financial magazine. It has writers and other content producers who create content for Money Journal.
Money Journal is a monthly financial magazine providing wealth management and investment information for the China market. Money Journal has an online version. It covers a range of topics from entrepreneurship and personal finance to content on affluent lifestyles. Money Journal contains a section of content that is provided under an agreement with Dow Jones. The circulation of Money Journal was 112,000 per month for November 2006.
The company has the rights to sell advertising for the financial pages of the Beijing Review for which it provides content. The Beijing Review is an English weekly news magazine in China with a circulation of 50,000.
The company, as a complementary service to the sale of advertising, provides marketing services, including organizing events for financial institutions. The events may include investment seminars or other forums on financial topics. When the company organizes events, it manages the entire process including the advertising or notices, the venues, the speakers, and any cross-media content. Money Journal offers the Affluent Integrated Marketing Solutions, in which the company targets the affluent by partnering with educational institutions and other financial media to carry out events; send sponsored gifts to readers of Money Journal; and organize presentations and product exhibitions.
The company also organizes the Million Dollar Investors’ Club, which is composed of readers of Money Journal. Its marketing services are carried out through a joint venture between one of the company’s subsidiaries in its magazine operations and Economic Observer Advertising.
Advertising
The company creates and places advertising for television, radio, print media and campus billboards. It purchases the rights to be the advertising agent for certain television shows broadcast by Beijing Television Station and other television stations, and in the Beijing, Shanghai and Tianjin real estate pages of the Economic Observer, as well as other newspapers.
The company, on Beijing Television Station, is the advertising agent for Top Music, an entertainment show focusing on music and music news, and Star Press, a show in which a panel of journalists interviews guests in the format of a press conference. The company also acts as advertising agent for programs aired on other television stations.
The company also places advertisements on approximately 200 billboards on university campuses in Shanghai. In addition, it serves as a non-exclusive advertising agent for other newspapers, such as Beijing Evening News and Beijing Youth Daily. The company’s advertising group creates much of the advertising it places, including planning, design and production. Production work for print media includes creating advertising copy, design and layout, and coordination of printing or placement on billboards. Production work for television advertisements includes writing storyboards, set design for the advertisements, filming and post-production editing. Advertising group also engages in events organizing.
Research
The company conducts market research for its own use and for international and Chinese-based customers. It also partners with international research companies to participate in global research projects. The company studies market characteristics, consumer preferences and opinions with respect to advertising and media content, and business and technology issues as needed for each project. It uses various analytical tools to conduct this research, including both quantitative and qualitative tools.
The company’s research services provide the feedback necessary to help advertisers understand their consumers better and assist the company’s production, print and broadcasting groups to produce and select content that would be popular with target demographic. The company has research offices in Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou. It also maintains partnerships with research companies in approximately 200 cities in China in locations outside Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. It also gathers data from across China using its computer assisted telephone interviewing system.
Customers
Media production: As of December 31, 2006, approximately 122 customers had used the company’s television production, animation, and broadcast design, including leading international customers such as Small World Television LLC and Legend Entertainment Inc. and domestic customers such as Che Jia Media, China Central Television, Kuai Le Purchasing Company, Travel Satellite Television and Hunan Television.
Broadcasting and print: As of December 31, 2006, approximately 198 and 250 customers had used the services of broadcasting and print groups, respectively, for advertising and sponsorship, including international advertisers such as Mindshare Media and domestic advertisers such as Shanghai Jin Kong Investment, Beijing Sheng Shi Hui Huang Advertisement and Beijing Hua Shang Media.
Advertising; As of December 31, 2006, approximately 524 customers had used the advertising services of the company’s advertising group, including international customers such as Mindshare Media, Carat Media and City Chain Company Ltd. and domestic customers such as Shanghai Yang Zhi Culture Broadcasting Co., Ltd., Beijing Jin Yue Property and Beijing Gao Xing Yi Lu Culture Development.
Research
As of December 31, 2006, approximately 116 customers had used the company’s research services, including international brand name customers such as Market Insights Group Ltd., Wrigley and Wal-Mart and domestic brand name customers such as Pepsi (China), Baisheng and Inner Mongolia Milk Industry Group.
Competition
Broadcasting: The major competitors of the company’s Fortune China operations are China Central Television Channel 2, a satellite television channel covering cities throughout China, and Fortune One, a financial news program broadcast primarily in Shanghai.
Print: The Economic Observer, a weekly newspaper, faces competition from several financial newspapers in China, including 21st Century, and CBN. Money Journal competes with financial magazines, both international and domestic, such as Caijing Magazine, Harvard Business Review, and the Chinese versions of Business Week, Fortune and Forbes.
Advertising; The company’s primary competition in advertising comes from the American Association of Advertising Agencies, or 4A.
History
Xinhua Finance Media Limited was incorporated in 2005.
