American TV enters China's mainstream

A scene from the CBS sitcom 2 Broke Girls. Sonja Flemming / CBS / Getty Images

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The sixth season of the US sitcom about four Californian scientists has been played 755 million times on the site.

"I think we can call the audience of US TV series the mainstream now," he adds.

The website failed to detail the ages, education background or gender of the audience of the US TV series in China but describes them as "generally well-educated, well-paid and well-employed". Advertisers seem to think highly of these viewers.

According to Lu Naning, sales director of Sohu video, viewers of US TV series are the most popular among high-end clients-like luxury brands, cars and high-tech gadgets.

But Adam Roseman, the founder and CEO of FansTang, a marketing firm that brings Hollywood celebrities to China, says the shows attract a certain kind of viewer.

"Most American TV shows have viewer bases that are heavily female, with the exception of a few that track heavily male," says the 35-year-old American entrepreneur.

The former investment banker founded the company in early 2012 with a mission to "provide Chinese fans Hollywood at their doorsteps". The Shanghai-based company has held more than 50 events featuring more than 20 celebrities over the past two years, and half of them are actors or actresses from US TV series.

With more Chinese online video portals bidding for the legal license for US TV shows, Roseman has seen a considerable rise in consumption of Hollywood-generated content.

"People are going to watch US TV at this point whether or not they are legally licensed. However, this creates a desire among the licensees in China to promote and further enhance the viewership of this content," he says.

Why is that so?

A netizen nicknamed Amos on Zhihu.com, answers the question simply and bluntly. "We are no fools and can tell what's good," he writes, listing learning English, broadening views and exciting plots as among the reasons the shows are popular.

Charles Zhang from Sohu Inc, provides a more clear-cut definition of "good".

"The US TV series enlighten Chinese young people, just as Western literary works did in the 1980s to me and people of my age with works like Jane Eyre or A Tale of Two Cities," he says. "It inspires one to reflect and perhaps reshape one's values."