2020 might have been a bad year for filmmakers, but for TV and video platform producers in China, it's another story.

The 26th Shanghai TV Festival opened on Monday, a day after the Shanghai International Film Festival (SIFF) concluded. Representatives from top industry players in China such as China Media Group (CMG), Shanghai Media Group (SMG), Hunan Broadcasting System, and Tencent attended the opening session, titled "Chinese Television Industry Summit."

Panelists discussed how television stations and video platforms can turn the ongoing crisis into a growth opportunity and the many ways of integrating television content and new media to explore the future direction of China's television industry.

China's television and video platform performed well in the first half of 2020. Peng Jianming, deputy editor-in-chief of CMG, said in the multimedia era, content is king but technology is also very important.

CMG has launched the country's first national-level 5G new media platform called "Yangshipin" in November 2019. The platform provides quality content in the areas of culture, sports and news while integrating multiple emerging technologies and resources–5G, 4K and 8K resolution and artificial intelligence. Peng also said that revenue gained from copyright and advertisement for CMG has been decent.

SMG has seen a rapid growth in its audience rating and online engagement because of its fast and accurate reporting on COVID-19. When people were stuck at home during the pandemic, TV executives adapted their programming, broadcasting online concerts and cooking shows that were well-received by viewers.

As for Hunan Broadcasting System, known among Chinese people as Mango TV, advertising revenue in the 2nd quarter of 2020 increased compared with the same period last year. Their multimedia platform Mango Excellent Media Co., Ltd. is expecting net profit for Q2 of this year to be up between 29 percent and 41 percent, or somewhere between 1.04 billion and 1.14 billion yuan.

Huace Group, one of the most successful production companies for TV series in the country, said that in the era of big data, drama producers already know what the audience wants to watch even before filming begins, and can customize content accordingly.

Vice president of Tencent and CEO of Shanghai Tencent Penguin Film Culture Communication Co., Ltd Sun Zhonghuai said that Tencent has seen an increase not only in engagement and exposure, but also in content quality. Among the 10 TV series nominated for this year's Magnolia Award, seven were produced by Tencent.

Here is the list of nominations for the 26th Shanghai TV Festival, including Chinese TV drama, foreign TV drama, animation, documentary and variety shows:

Reporter: Zhang Xiaohe

Photographer: Zhang Wanbao

Videographer: Zhang Wanbao

Cover image designer: Pan Yufei

Project manager: Zhang Xiaohe

Superviser: Zhang Shilei