Star bucks compromise quality?

The Legend of Chu and Han, a historical serial, is the most-invested Chinese TV drama. Photo provided to China Daily

While it seems a completely legal market game, says consultancy Ze Media's CEO and TV critic Du Zezhuang, the problem is that what Chinese actors are paid is unreasonably high, compared to their Western and South Korean counterparts, as a percentage of the total investment in a play.

"In recent years, usually 50 percent of the total investment of a TV play has gone to actor payments. Some even reach 60 percent and higher," he says.

In 2012, veteran director Gao Xixi told local media that star payment levels are "too scary". His historical drama The Legend of Chu and Han had to boost its budget from 170 million yuan to 240 million, which made it the most-invested Chinese TV drama by far, because the seven A-list stars he used had taken away over half of the costs.

"When you decide to spend too much on the stars out of a given budget, you can expect to get, for example, poorer quality of script, shorter shooting time and less attention to production details," Du says.

However, there is still a strong market pull for producers, no matter how reluctant they are, to use expensive stars.

First of all, a growing number of investors and hot money are eyeing the TV industry, and these amateur TV drama investors demand star appearances.

Meanwhile, Chinese TV stations, who often license a play ahead of its production, still find productions with the most familiar and credible faces are the safest choices to guarantee future audience ratings.

But there is only a small number of good and famous actors, while there are many more production companies. When popular actors are wanted by all those companies, says Du, they are motivated to raise their prices.

In this situation, the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television is likely to officially cap actor payments starting in December, according to entertainment portal "Entertainment on call". Similar methods have been adopted in South Korea. In 2007, an association consisting of South Korea's largest production companies reportedly set a ceiling for actor salaries.