A conference of television producers convened in Shanghai yesterday. The panelists at the "TV Dramas in 2005: Content and Market" conference were generally pessimistic about the state of Chinese TV serials, which are mired in an oversaturated market with limited returns on investment.

Some of the numbers thrown around:

• Television production in 2004 surpassed 12,000 episodes, but there was only room in prime-time for 5000. 7000, then, were produced for a loss.
• Television series are produced for an average of 400,000 to 600,000 yuan an episode. Korean shows, by comparison, average 1 to 1.2 million yuan per episode.
• Shows are sold to television stations for around 20% of the advertising take. This is lower than the world average of 40%.
• Production companies put 5 to 6 billion yuan into television series per year, but the return is only 2 billion.