LA ROCHELLE, France -- Chinese distrib Rare Media unveiled plans to co-produce and acquire foreign docs at Sunny Side of the Doc, which bowed on Tuesday in La Rochelle.
Rare Media's CEO Hai Tian, speaking on a panel titled "China's Doc Revolution," said the company aims to invest €1.5 million ($1.87 million) into about 400 hours of third-party pickups plus $1.2 million in international co-production.
Hai told Variety that his outfit is interested in doc series, feature-length and one-hour docs dealing with a wide variety of topics, including science, history, the arts, wild life and biopics. And it isn't looking exclusively at China- and Asia-related themes.
A booming doc market, China has 2,300 channels, including 350 local TV nets, 200 of which have a pressing need for docs, Hai said. China also has eight channels dedicated to docs.
"Our primary targets are the local channels," Hai said. "The ideal distribution model for us is to package documentaries and sell them first to a large combination of local TV stations and then license them to a major broadcaster."
The doc series "History," for instance, sold to nearly 100 local nets, said Hai.
Although acquisition budgets appear modest by international standards, Yves Jeanneau, Sunny Side of the Doc topper, pointed out that Chinese shingles have the financial resources to invest more significantly in select projects. According to Jeanneau, the China Intercontinental Communication Center, for instance, invested approximately $162,142 to co-produce "Pandas in the Mist," a natural history doc produced by ITV Studios France, and commissioned by pubcaster France Televisions.
Sunny Side of the Doc ends on Friday.