By Ian Jessel, President, Legend3D

China’s media and entertainment industry is predicted to grow at a 17% annual rate until 2015, significantly faster than the country’s economy overall. Part of that surge is driven by box-office revenues. China recently surpassed Japan as the world’s second movie market and it will move past the U.S. to claim the number one spot by 2020.

China is also predicted to become the second biggest advertising market next year. This is driven by an increase in disposable income combined with the surge of digital consumption. In 2010, Chinese spending on entertainment and recreation was $350 billion. This jumped the following year to $547 billion.

Two major reasons for this:

• Economic: where the growth of the middle class corresponds to the growth of disposable income, which means that all leisure activities, such as cinema, TV and the Internet are booming.

• Cultural: where the Chinese government has put emphasis not only on economic development of the domestic market in general but also on the development of Culture as a business in particular. One by-product of this emphasis is China’s determination to become the world’s leader supplier in 3D and smart TVs.

Which is The Biggest Opportunity for 3D in China, Film or Television?

The answer is definitely films in the coming years. 3D in cinemas is booming in China but 3D in TV is at a very early stage. There is only one dedicated TV channel in China, although the government has plans to launch another 10 3D channels in the next four years.

As 3D films are extremely popular, we expect to see 3D content to appear on television and especially on tablets and online VOD platforms very soon. But currently, there is a marked lack of content for all those ancillary distribution channels. [more…]

Source: Legend3D