Super Voice Girls 超级女声(2)

The fans:

   “Fans” is sometimes rendered in Chinese as fen si (粉丝 — Chinese vermicelli). The fan group of each semi-finalist Super Voice Girl compe- titor were given their own names, with each name related to the word fen si:
Yu Mi ( corn): Li Yuchuns fans
Fen Bi (粉笔 — chalk): Zhou Bichangs fans
Liang Fen (凉粉 — bean jelly): Zhang Liangying fans
He Fan (盒饭 — take-out food): He Jies fans
Jia Mi: (佳迷 — Ji Minjia addiction) : Ji Minjias fans

    The fans have been crazily supporting their idols, arguing with each other and slandering their competitors. There have been scan- dalous stories about the competitions judges, allegations that Li Yuchun is a lesbian, and enough gossip online to keep Super Voice Girls at the top of Baidus most popular search terms for weeks on end.

Words made popular by Super Voice Girls:

    In order to understand the program better, there are another two terms you need to know:

Hai Xuan: The primary election, i.e. the initial competition involving 10,000 girls.

PK: Player kill, the term used by Chinas online game players to mean games where you kill the other players. PK has been used on Super Voice Girls to refer to the knockout part of the show: after a round of singing, the competitor who gets the fewest SMS votes and another one who judges decide has made too many mistakes are sent to the PK Stage (PK台); one is eliminated in a one-to-one competition.

The money makers:

    According to ～ advertising rates for Hunan Satellite TV, TV commercials during the Super Voice Girl program typically cost 75,000 yuan for 15 seconds of airtime, while the same airtime during the final hit a record high of 112,500 yuan .

    According to Sun Xianhong, vice president of Mengniu Milk Group, the sponsor of Super Voice Girls of this year, Mengniu spent 14 million yuan to get Super Girls exclusive naming sponsorship rights, 15 seconds of advertising per program and other promotional opportunities. They think this investment is excellent value for money. Apparently, it increase Mengnius brand awareness and raised sales of Mengniu yoghurt by 270 percent.

    Another source of revenue for Hunan Satellite TV has been SMS charges. In the Chengdu competition alone, the best three singers received a total of 307,071 message votes, each message costing fans from 0.5 yuan to 3 yuan. According to the 21st Business Herald, income from message charges may account for 30 to 50 percent of the total profits of the TV programme, even after a 15 per cent cut for the telecom suppliers is removed.