Pact Leads Trade Mission to China

LONDON/SICHUAN: Pact, the body representing the U.K.'s independent production sector, has wrapped its first major trade mission to China with a collaboration agreement with state broadcaster CCTV.

The 16 British companies that participated on the trip, which was backed by UK Trade & Investment (UKTI) and coincided with the Sichuan TV Festival, included Argonon, Optomen, Scorpion TV, Zig Zag Productions and Zodiak Rights. The mission wrapped with Pact signing a memorandum of understanding with CCTV. It also included meetings with local companies like Tencent Video, BTV and Shanghai Media Group.

U.K. content exports to China have risen some 90 percent in the past year. “We are working to lay the foundations for a longstanding relationship between U.K. production companies and Chinese buyers and broadcasters," said John McVay, the chief executive of Pact. "International exports of British television have seen extraordinary growth in the past few years—and independent television is now a multibillion-pound sector and among the fastest growing of the U.K.'s creative industries. Annual exports of all U.K. television are now worth over £1.2 billion to the U.K. economy and there can be no doubt about the potential of China to significantly grow that figure."