China continues to be an amazing audiovisual market despite some of the attention more recently directed to immediately lucrative Latin American developments.

Canada has now become China’s 10th largest trading partner and China remains our 5th largest. More interestingly, China has turned some of the investment tide with equity positions in some 111 Canadian businesses for a total of over us$720 million.

In total, Sino-Canadian trade probably averages about $3.5 billion a year now, with a growing portion of that being in media, telecom and cultural products. In fact, China’s cable and satellite business is being fast-tracked by the media demands of that 40% of its population which one might now call urban consumers. The World Bank estimates that by 2010 more than 50% of China’s people will have large-city addresses.

With all this in mind, three major tv festivals and markets punctuate the autumn season in China this year.

The first is the biennial Shanghai TV Festival from Nov. 9-14. This is the only Beijing-sanctioned event and alternates with the Sichuan TV Festival, which has equal government support. The contact at Shanghai is director Chen Xiaomeng at fax 86-21-6255-2000.

The second gathering is the Cable and Satellite Asia 96 Exhibition and Conference in Hong Kong, running Nov. 20-22, followed by the highly profiled MIP- Asia, Dec. 5-7, also in Hong Kong.

It may be premature to reference the latter two as ‘China’ events per se, but it is no exaggeration to suggest that it is the six-day Shanghai market which truly sets the sales and acquisitions tone for the mainland. In fact, it may even evolve into an annual event with possible 1997 dates being Nov. 7-17.

In Shanghai, Canada is well-positioned to support film and broadcasting efforts. The Canadian Consulate is at the nearby Shanghai American International Centre, West Tower, Suite 604, 1376 Nanjing Xi Lu. The fax number is 86-21-279-8401; the telephone number is 86-21-279-8400. And Ted Lipman, our consul-general there, is of genuine assistance.

Lipman has often floated the idea of organizing a full ‘Canada Week’ of Canadian fare on the local cable service; and it would be of great assistance if our producers/distributors wanted to organize a bulk buy of contiguous floor space. Should he be out of town or unavailable, George Jung, our consul and trade commissioner, is an equally dedicated individual.

At this market look for the booth or representatives of China Television United. This is a three-year-old venture between cctv, the national state broadcaster, and 41 other provincial, regional and municipal television stations.

The major players in this consortium, in addition to cctv, are Beijing tv, Shanghai tv, Guangdong tv and the Sichuan broadcaster.

It is a terrific one-stop shop given that director Xu Xiongxiong is firmly focused on facilitating business not propaganda. Advance meetings can be set up by contacting their media center in Beijing at fax 86-1-851-5264. If you want to deal directly with cctv and have a little fun on the Internet, contact their wholly owned China TV Program Agency at e-mail: ctvprog@public.bta.net.cn.

In Shanghai there are several established business opportunities such as Shanghai tv and its upstart rival of four years, Oriental tv (otv). The former is closer to ‘the Party’ but has cash to acquire product. Contact Liu Jing-qi, director of the international department, at fax 86-21-256-1193.

otv has demonstrated a soft spot for Canadians and has already done deals with tvontario. The president of otv is Mu Duanzceng (his sister lives in Toronto).

otv has hosted a number of music, ballet and other South Asian festivals which are quickly putting it on both the cultural and commercial map. In addition, it has agreements with Taiwanese, South Korean, Japanese and u.s. commercial broadcasters. otv’s telephone number is 86-21-322-3007; fax 86-21-322-9094.

You may also want to check out Shanghai Cable tv. Ask for either Chen Wen, head of the chief editor’s office, or Xu Hua, the actual fellow in charge.

Shanghai Cable only programs four channels to date ­ music, sports, news and general entertainment ­ but it has solid plans for new information services dedicated to documentary, educational, medical, science and environmental niches. With a current reach of two million households, it warrants a coffee and booth visit.

But a newer Shanghai service to keep your eye on is the International Broadcasting Service. ibs has been established with English as the major language and broadcasts four to six hours per day on channel 14. It hopes to do 16 hours a day in three years.

Programming consists of news, current affairs, arts, sports, education, films and conventional series. The target audience is both the considerable resident non-Chinese folk and the swelling Chinese middle class. The potential viewership exceeds 100 million and the station itself has become a hotbed of new ideas and approaches to Chinese television, this perhaps facilitated by the fact that ambitious college interns compose a significant part of the 35-person staff.

The key contact at ibs is Dai Hua, a producer and graduate of City University in the u.k. who has already negotiated a promising deal with pbs. Reach him via the parent station, Shanghai tv, at fax 86-21-256-1193.

Two final tips. First, Shanghai’s expatriate community produces an excellent monthly newspaper titled Shanghai Talk. It appears to have a keen feel for the politics and rumor mill surrounding Shanghai’s night life, theater, film and television business. Available at most hotels, it’s a lot better than reading the standard tourist bumf. You might even want to give them a call in Shanghai at 86-21-280-8888, ext. 405.

Second, through this year, Shanghai will be moving to an eight-digit telephone numbering system to cope with the voice traffic volume. If any of the above numbers fail you, simply employ the prefix ‘6’ after the 86-21 country and city code. And don’t forget that jazz band at the Peace Hotel!

Bill Roberts is secretary general of the North American National Broadcasters Association (nanba).