Despite being the world's most prolific producer of television dramas, about 40 percent of the 12,000 episodes Chinese firms produce each year never see the light of day.

"Although China is a leading TV drama producer, it broadcasts only 7,000 episodes a year at home and has almost no overseas market share," Zhu Chunyang, a researcher at the Journalism School of the Shanghai-based Fudan University, said.

He was speaking at the launch of the 2007 Blue Book on China's Media published by the Social Sciences Academic Press.

Zhu said an imbalance in the revenue split between production companies, distributors and broadcasters was partly to blame.

In China, the producer of a drama gets only 20 percent of the production's overall income. The lion's share - 60 percent - goes to the broadcaster, Zhu said.

However, according to international practice, it is the other way around. The producer gets 60 percent, the broadcaster 20 percent and the remaining 20 percent goes to the distributor.

"How can you expect to make a good drama without the support of funds," said Zhang Qiang, a doctorate student of media studies at Tsinghua University.

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In 2000, when the production of TV dramas was largely opened to private investors, China began to see a booming market.

Between 7 pm and 9:30 pm only Chinese mainland-made dramas were allowed to be broadcast to protect the industry from those made overseas.

By 1999, Chinese drama audiences made up 44 percent of Asian viewers.

"All the statistics indicated a solid foundation for Chinese TV dramas," Zhu said. "However, reality tells a different story."

Drama viewers outside China find it difficult to get updates on Chinese-made dramas.

"The problem is not lack of distribution channels but the content of the dramas which is not competitive," Zhu said.

Cui Baogui, a professor at Tsinghua University, said the tightening grip of censors had affected the attraction of Chinese dramas.

Few Chinese dramas arouse the interests of viewers outside China. Even Chinese viewers are fed up with the narrow-minded themes of the dramas, Zhu said.