Huanxi Media Now Has 2 Million Paying Subscribers Thanks to ‘Lost in Russia’
Chinese entertainment group Huanxi Media released a statement on March 5, saying that the company’s streaming platform Huanxi Premium had a total of over 13 million active users between January and February this year. The streaming service now also has over 2 million paying subscribers, and its app has been downloaded more than 11 million times. Huanxi Media also addressed in the statement that the result of its partnership with ByteDance “significantly exceeded expectations.” The partnership – established on Jan. 23, two days before the 2020 Chinese New Year – allowed ByteDance to stream Huanxi’s content through multiple streaming services owned by both companies. The slate includes several theatrical movies such as the Chinese New Year film Lost in Russia. Moving forward, Huanxi will launch more theatrical films and web series through Huanxi Premium. The lineup includes box office hit Sheep Without a Shepherd, Peter Chan’s Leap (available after theatrical release), Zhang Yimou’s One Second (available after theatrical release), and foreign drama series Snowpiercer and World on Fire. Read more on TechWeb
Beijing International Film Festival Postponed Due to COVID-19 Epidemic
On March 5, a notice from the organizing committee of the Beijing International Film Festival was sent to many film and TV companies, saying that the 10th edition of the Festival, which was originally scheduled for this year’s April, will be postponed due to the COVID-19 outbreak. As of press time, the BJIFF committee has not yet publicly announced the postponement. The new dates of the festival also remain undecided. But the committee said in the statement that they would pay close attention to the epidemic control and set the new date on the premise of ensuring safety. The news was not unexpected for many industry insiders as movie theaters would not open anytime soon in the face of looming uncertainty, even though less and less new cases are reported within China lately. Read more on dianyingqingbaochu
