HONG KONG: Rupert Murdoch's Star Group claims that its Star Mandarin Movies has outperformed all Chinese and Hollywood movie channels in Taiwan in the first half of the year. Quoting Nielsen figures, the group claims that the channel seized 46 out of the top 50 rated Chinese movies. The Eye and Inner Senses were the first and second most watched movies respectively.
It has attributed the success to a strong library of blockbusters as is also the case in India. In addition, the performance over the Chinese New Year holidays helped bolster Star Mandarin Movies’ leading position. Nearly three million Taiwanese viewers watched the thrillers The Eye and Inner Senses.
An official release informs that the Ekin Cheng comedy My Wife Is 18 even beat all the Taiwanese terrestrial channels. In total, the average audience of the channel increased by 16 per cent compared to the same period last year.
Star Taiwan GM Ivan Yuan made the following remarks about the achievements " Beating commercial-free movie channels in ratings is a remarkable achievement for Star Mandarin Movies,It all stems from our perfect mix of programming and promotional strategies and our exclusive control of strong movie content."
Star Mandarin Movies features Chinese blockbusters from leading Hong Kong movie studios including China Star Entertainment, Media Asia, Teamwork Motion Pictures, Universe. The channel has acquired pay television rights to over 80 per cent of the movies to be released from Hong Kong in the coming years.