Competition good for programs

Zheng Xiaolong, art director of Beijing Television Art Center, recently said: "There is overproduction of TV programs in China, and since many of them cannot be telecast it is a huge waste of resources." Though he suggested reducing haphazard investments, the increase in the number of TV productions may be good for competition, says an article in China Youth Daily. Excerpts:

Zheng said 7,000 TV episodes were enough to meet the demand of viewers in the country but more than 17,000 were produced in 2012. He talked about the need for TV only, but with the Internet becoming an important channel for broadcasting, there is plenty of room for such productions.

That not all TV programs can be telecast is also the obvious result of competition. In fact, such competition is fiercer in Hollywood. Although it produces 600 films every year, only one-third of them are screened in cinemas. The rest either have to be shown on TV or sold through DVDs to earn their money. But still Hollywood rules the global film industry.

Since China's culture industry is still in a fledging state, producers should be encouraged to make more TV programs and films. The fear of competition comes from monopoly and privilege.

A low budget film, Lost in Thailand, has created a new box office record in China by collecting 1.2 billion yuan ($192.84 million), which has surprised the film industry. If we avoid competition, we will not see such dark horses again. In a creative industry, not all big-budget productions succeed.

To build a really free market, we should improve the system, and prevent illegal competition and mismatch of government investment.