Foreign TV shows make big impact on small screen

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As TV imports gain popularity among young people, the way of viewing them has evolved from traditional TV networks to the desktop PC to mobile devices. The arrival of 4G mobile should mean even more foreign videos on even more mobile devices.

"I used to buy pirated DVDs but now I'm excited to watch House of Cards at the same time as it is broadcast in the United States," says Beijinger Zhang Xinqing.

"The Internet has dramatically changed the transmission mode of television programs," says Kuang Wenbo, a journalism professor at Renmin University of China. "More and more people use online video sites because they can watch a host of TV shows whenever they want."

In recent years, online video has grown bigger and more competitive in China. There were around 428 million people watching videos online by the end of 2013, up 15.2 percent, according to the China Internet Network Information Center.

Despite the size of the Chinese online video industry, domestic firms find it hard to make much money due to the high costs of broadcast rights and of delivering the content.

Chinese viewers can devour the video without charge, as long as they are prepared to sit through the advertisements that pop up before each episode begins.

Paying for premium content is a habit Chinese viewers don't have yet, says Ma Ke, executive director of copyright purchasing at Sohu. "Both Sohu and our domestic competitors try to recover our costs by putting ads in the content," says Ma, adding that only a small portion of their output is pay-to-view.