Research On Business Strategy Of Documentary Channels In China

As "separation of program production from broadcasting" was actually implemented just since 2009 although China's cultural industry reform set off since 2003 and, there is few researches on operational strategy of TV stations so far. Given difference of documentary channel's growth strategy from comprehensive channels due to its unique features, the relevant study is more insufficient.Compared with the early stage of documentary channel's market-oriented reform, the market system and mechanism of documentaries in industrialized nations is quite mature. This paper is trying to explore viable business strategy of documentary channel in China, by digging into the competitive model of American's DCI and NGC, and doing empirical research on updated data sample.Under the backdrop of China's entry of WTO, documentary channels in China are transforming from making programs to fill in the broadcasting schedule of TV stations to making programs for market. They are exploring path to turn themselves from a local broadcasting organization to a content provider and distributor targeting global Chinese market. Discussing business strategy of China's documentary channel is meaningful and constructive for building up China's own brand media with real market influence.This paper is consisted of four chapters. The first chapter is "Introduction" which illustrates the background and methodology of the research, as well as the structure of the paper. The second chapter summarizes development history of China's documentary channels by breaking down it into incubation stage, infant stage, growth stage and transformation stage. It also compares the major documentary channels in China by applying SWOT tools. Following chapter 2, the third chapter studies current status and industrial environment of China's documentary channel through PEST method, and then points out existing problems in value chain of their operation. Chapter 4 puts up business strategy of documentary channels recommended by the author, aiming to resolving problems raised in the previous chapter from different perspectives including resources integration, brand marketing, broadening fund raising channel.In terms of methodology, the author combines normative and positive research in this paper. And quantitative study based on sufficient data and qualitative methods are both applied. Meanwhile, charts and tables are widely used for a better illustration.