To say China is a desirable market for foreign television shows, like The Big Bang Theory, is an understatement of grand proportions.
Subtitled episodes of Downton Abbey are watched by 160 million viewers.
China’s Got Talent, has seen as many as 400 million viewers an episode.
In a 2014 article in The Guardian, Pierre Cheung, BBC Worldwide’s vice-president of greater China, said, “In the UK a top-rated TV show may just get into double-digit millions [in audience size], but China has 1.4 billion people and gets easily double, triple or quadruple that.
The market is a massive opportunity.” Access to the Chinese market, though, comes with a price, as only content that has been deemed acceptable for the Chinese public is allowed to be broadcast in the country.
In other words, anything that suggests China is anything less than positive, and/or negatively impacts Chinese society, runs the risk of being altered or banned outright.
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