China boosts global TV ties at Riviera show

FRANCE: China's mighty television industry came out in force at this week's MIPTV entertainment trade show on the French Riviera as the country boosts its links with Western broadcasters.

Sending its largest ever delegation to the show, which ran Sunday to Wednesday, China indicated its willingness to increase television tie-ups around the world by inking co-production deals with big-hitting broadcasters. The 200-strong delegation lent a distinct Asian flavour to the event in Cannes, with the martial arts school of Henan Province staging a display of high kicks and moves at the weekend. BBC Worldwide announced at the show that it had signed its first co-production deals with CCTV-9, the documentary arm of China's state broadcaster CCTV, for two new science series from the British broadcaster.

The channel will air the series "Wonders of Life", which examines the story of life through physics, at the end of this year, and "Generation Earth," a study of the most ambitious engineering projects in history, in Spring 2013. AFP