China: Hunan TV and CCTV to collaborate for the ABU TV Cup Song Contest?

Hunan TV, one of the leading broadcasting companies in Mainland China, which also negotiated with the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union the creation of the ABU Cup Song Contest in 2017, may have an important role in the selection of the Chinese entrant in the future ABU Song Festivals.

Although Hunan TV has been very active in trying to create a Pan Asian competitive song festival, CCTV, the state broadcaster of China, is to date, the only Chinese broadcaster that belongs to the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union. That means that at the moment, CCTV is the only company which is able to select the Chinese performer for the ABU Song Festivals.

However, It could be likely that CCTV and Hunan TV collaborated in order to create a national final in to choose the Chinese entrant for the ABU TV Cup Song Contest 2017. Hunan TV has been very polemical with some of its talent shows, such as Super Girl or Super Boy, which have been criticised for its democratic televoting and for the image of the winning performers. For that reason, in 2011, the Super Girl contest was officially banned by the Chinese Communist Party.

CCTV has many times criticised Hunan TV for its productions, but in the ABU TV Song Festival 2014, the state broadcaster selected Bibi Zhou, who got the second place in the program produced by its rival TV network.

(Super Boy and Super Girl, some of the most popular shows of Hunan TV)

Recently, Hunan TV unvelied its plans to broadcast the Eurovision Song Contest, the festival in which the current ABU Song Festivals, including the upcoming ABU TV Cup Song Contest are based. It has also shown its plan to produce a new edition of the Super Girl Contest.

Taking into consideration the involvement of Hunan TV in the creation of the ABU TV Cup Song Contest, it's very possible that CCTV, and this rival network collaborate with each other in the creation of a national final that could include some of the Super Girl and Super Boy contestants.

However, in general, little is known about the organisation of both the ABU TV Cup Song Contest, and the future Chinese participation in this event in 2017.