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The agreement, to be signed on Thursday during a visit by
Chinese President Xi Jinping to Wellington, is expected to
promote joint television projects in the two countries, while
offering government incentives and easier access for production
crews.
It comes as China's film and television industry faces stiff
competition from internet-TV companies, which are spending
hundreds of millions of dollars on foreign programming to
attract users and advertisers.
Industry experts expect increased exposure of New Zealand's
rolling pastures and craggy ranges featured in the hugely
successful Lord of the Rings and Hobbit films will boost the
country's Chinese tourism industry, which totaled $683 million
in the year ended in May.
"New Zealand's landscape and scenery are a big draw for Chinese.
People living in polluted cities want to see clean environments,
it's comforting," said Henry Chung, associate professor of
marketing at Massey University who specializes in China-related
issues.
"Even just one shot of the New Zealand landscape on television,
that's worth a lot."
In the past year, it was worth around 250,000 Chinese visitors
to New Zealand, a tiny country with a population of 4.5 million
which is recognized for its natural environment and dairy
products, a far cry from China's growing urban sprawl.
The number of visitors has tripled since 2002, the year that the
first of the Lord of the Rings films was released in China, and
continues to grow at a rate of more than 15 percent a year.
(Additional reporting by Sue-Lin Wong in Sydney; Editing by Nick
Macfie)
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Middle-earth
meets Middle Kingdom in NZ: China TV deal
