INSTEAD of selling content to China, My China Channel Singapore (MCC) wants to export Chinese content to the world.

With a booming economy and over 1.3 billion people, China is evidently an attractive market to many businesses. But isn’t the world market bigger than China? MCC saw the opportunity and decided to produce content about China – for the rest of the world.

Mr Melvin Ang, executive director for MCC, said: “There is so much exciting content waiting to be discovered by global audiences yearning to understand China in a better way.”

On the other hand, there are already many content providers in China and it is not easy to export content to China with its strict regulations.

At the recent Asia Media Festival last December, the Media Development Authority of Singapore announced the partnership between MCC and WingsMedia, the distribution arm of Shanghai Media Group, one of China’s biggest media companies.

Together, they would co-produce two infotainment programmes titled China Trend and Foreigners Living in China. With a production budget of close to S$1 million for both programmes, MCC and WingsMedia aim to complete production by the end of this year.

China Trend will be a 26-episode programme showcasing the latest news in lifestyle, fashion, entertainment and new trends in China, while Foreigners Living in China will speak of the journey and experiences of expatriates living and working in China.

Production crew from the two companies will be working closely and they are targeting to jointly distribute the programmes in Asia, the United States and Europe.

Mr Ang said: “Unity is strength. By jointly producing and distributing the programmes, we can reach out to a bigger audience. MCC’s production crew will be involved in the conceptualisation of the shows, producing content on what the world wants. These shows will not be limited to Chinese but will be dubbed in English.”

Groundwork for MCC had started in June 2008 before the company went full steam in June 2009. It now has a 15-strong staff and offices in Singapore, Malaysia, Shanghai and Beijing.

Mr Ang revealed that the past one year had been spent on development work for his company, spending time to meet up with TV networks in China to explore collaboration opportunities.

He added: “We need to respect their local culture and mindset and identify a common ground and common objective. WingsMedia is a very competitive and focused network and it appreciates MCC’s strong commercial capabilities.”

While brainstorming on co-production projects that were both uniquely China and commercially viable, the two companies had identified China Trend and Foreigners in China “as a good start”, he said, adding that “a few more co-production plans are in the pipeline”.

Apart from that, WingsMedia and MCC have also penned another Memorandum of Understanding to jointly aggregate and distribute the best of Chinese dramas and movies via the time belt outsourcing business model with established TV networks around Asia.

Mr Ang has some 25 years of experience in the media, IT and telecommunication sectors behind him. Prior to setting up MCC, he was the adviser for Media Prima and chief executive officer for Alt Media Berhad, the new media arm of Media Prima Group.

He also spent close to four years as managing director of MediaCorp and was the chief operating officer of SPH MediaWorks, as part of the pioneering team to launch two free-to-air TV channels in Singapore.

Mr Ang attributes the fast progress of his new company to good talent. “Despite being a small setup, we managed to attract good people who are willing to give up secure corporate jobs to join us.”

Some programmes that have been produced by MCC include Admiring Asia Cities, which was aired on CCTV10, the latest China Money Mind (shown on Channel NewsAsia) and Mercy Relief Documentary with Stephanie Sun (on RazorTV).

MCC also plans to launch a global TV channel carrying compelling content from China to the world, said Mr Ang.

He added: “Despite China’s rapid growth in the past decade, it has not fully exploited its resources to promote the nation to the world. Many recent innovations and developments about China are not communicated to the world and are dependent on the foreign media which might not be familiar with the background in China. Content opportunity from China is endless with its rich culture, history, people and geography.”