300 MILLION CHINESE WATCHING TV ON LAPTOPS

Internet television has taken off in China, with some 300 million people there watching programs that they regard as an alternative to state-controlled programming, the New York Times reported on Sunday. Some of the Chinese video sites, the newspaper noted, are spending aggressively to license content from the U.S. But users are also uploading hundreds of pirated movies and TV shows, some of them within hours after they are broadcast in the United States. Victor Koo, founder and CEO of Youku.com, told the Times that his website is working with the MPAA to improve monitoring and remove unlicensed copyrighted material. The piracy issue, the newspaper observed, is also acting as a damper on advertising. AdChina chief Alan Yan told the Times that many advertisers want to transfer some of their budgets to online video. “But first, the video sites need to solve some of the copyright issues on the content.”