Simon Cowell’s Syco Entertainment and Star China’s Canxing Production have entered a three-year development deal aimed at large-scale global entertainment formats. The programs will be designed to appeal to Greater China with the potential for international distribution.
Canxing has produced such series in the Middle Kingdom as Sing! China, The Voice Of China, and So You Think You Can Dance. The partnership with Syco was formalized in London after a week-long creative session between the parties. This is the first time Canxing/Star China has entered into such a major collaboration outside the PROC.
Sing! China aired on Zhejiang Satellite TV, earning the No. 1 position throughout its 13-week run. Demonstrating the reach of such series in the market, the show received more than 500M total views on Tencent and Youku video sites within the first two days of the initial airing and broke online records with over 37B views for the entire first season. Season 2 has been ordered for spring 2017.
Star China, formerly part-owned by News Corp, has businesses ranging from TV production, broadcasting, filmmaking, artist management, music and concert production.
Syco, Cowell’s joint venture with Sony Music, is behind the Got Talent and X Factor formats which air in 186 countries and 168 countries, respectively, worldwide.
