The interest in China-UK television co-productions is growing as British TV professionals gather at the annual Edinburgh Television Festival, one of the most prestigious media events in the UK.

The special China session at the Festival attracted many TV producers who want to tap into the massive Chinese market and look for opportunities to co-produce content with Chinese partners.

"Today we talked about what is the landscape of China. It is really good to give them some fundamental information about China in the media world and then tell them the opportunities out there," said Jean Dong, Chairman of Zespa Media.

China has overtaken the UK to become the world’s second-biggest TV programming market after the United States, according to research and analytics company IHS Markit. It said the spending growth is largely driven by online platforms such as Baidu, Alibaba, and Tencent.

"The UK production sector are altogether very much interested in working with China but a lot of them felt they don't understand China enough as a country, especially the media industry." said Jean.

British companies have made great inroads into China after the signing of China-UK TV Co-Production Treaty in 2016. British dramas such as “Sherlock” and “Downton Abbey” were introduced to China and UK's popular TV shows like “Dancing on Ice” also has a Chinese version.

"The Chinese market is very important for ITV. We worked on numerous non-scripted and scripted projects in China," said Pascal Dalton, vice president of Global Format Sales at ITV Studios Global Entertainment. "We worked on Dating in China for Dragon TV and Jiangsu TV. It is a very interesting dating format, which involves single Chinese people with the blessing of their parents choosing a partner in the studio." 

However, China is no longer seen as only a key buyer and a massive market to tap into. Instead, Chinese TV channels have shifted their focus to develop original formats and content for global distribution. Many have started to collaborate with UK partners on programs about China, specially intended for the international market.

In 2016, the British production company Lion TV collaborated with Chinese partners on a three-episode documentary "Chinese New Year: The Biggest Celebration on Earth". It was broadcast on BBC, CCTV 9, and Chinese video-streaming sites.

"We did a fantastic series called Chinese New Year live for the BBC. When we filmed different places during Chinese New Year and showed that actually the next day. It was really live on the BBC. So there is a huge amount of interest in contemporary China as well," said Nick Catliff, co-founder of Lion Television.

After the success, the company seeks to work with more Chinese partners to co-produce content for the global market. "We worked a lot with Chinese partners. We worked with Phoenix Television. We worked with JSBC (Jiangsu Broadcasting Corporation). We worked with CCTV and so on," said Nick.

As TV co-production with China grow, some really interesting stories about China could soon be heading to international audiences.