The 5th Casbaa China Roundtable in Beijing and Shanghai, held
between 11 and 13 September, attracted significant support from
government officials, mainland operating companies and Casbaa
members over two days of briefings and information exchanges.
The central thread running through the discussions was how to
facilitate dealings with the regulatory authorities in China.
The Casbaa China Roundtable 2001 was organised in association
with Casbaa members Claydon Gescher Associates (CGA) and MediaView.
The event was sponsored by Casbaa member PricewaterhouseCoopers
and endorsed and supported by pay-TV regulator the State Administration
for Radio, Film and Television (SARFT).
Some 50 Casbaa member delegates attended each of the two days.
One hundred delegates from mainland China-based companies also
participated.
The presentations featured a dozen overviews of the China and
regional markets both in terms of regulation and commercial
conditions, with contributions made by, among others, SARFT,
CGA, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Zenith Media, Bank of China International,
CITV Progamme Agency, OpenTV, BDA, Paul, Weiss Rifkind, Wharton
& Garrison, Discovery Communications (China), the Shanghai Media
& Entertainment Group and Tom.com
Marcel Fenez, Asia Pacific Leader of Pricewaterhousecoopers'
Media and Entertainment practice and a Casbaa board member gave
the opening address. Four 90-minute panel discussions, led by
CGA, expanded on the presentations with a sometimes forthright
exchanges of views.
"These two days of conferencing reinforced the strides which
Casbaa has been making," said Frank Brown, the president of
Casbaa. "This information exchange reflected the excitement
that our industry is experiencing in China and the huge opportunities
that are gradually opening up. Casbaa was delighted to meet
with the officials from SARFT and to hear their concise summary
of the regulatory environment." Simon Twiston Davies, the executive
director of Casbaa, added: "We are so pleased with the progress
made with this roundtable that we have already started the process
of planning next year's China event with CGA and MediaView."
"We were particularly encouraged by the attendance of related
Casbaa member companies such as News Corporation (China) and
AOL-Time Warner, as well as by outside groups such as ABN Amro,
DVN Holdings, Lehman Brothers and SUNeVision, said Twiston Davies,
who pointed out that Casbaa member companies such as Scientific-Atlanta,
The History Channel, OpenTV, New Skies Satellites, Walt Disney
Television and MTV Asia also contributed hugely to the dialogue.
"Despite a sometimes difficult operating environment for our
industries we continue to reach out to regulators and the market
as a whole. We see Casbaa playing an ever more active role as
a bridge between those who set the regulations and those who
must work within the framework." said Twiston Davies.
The China market will be given a central position during the
upcoming Casbaa 2001 Convention, 28-30 November 2001 in Hong
Kong.
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