Set to create an operation to rival state broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV), the consolidation of radio and TV networks under a single national cable television network company by China’s State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) marks a mjor change in the country’s broadcast infrastructure. It also opens the door to adding mobile TV and on-line video services to the remit.
Together, the 1,000 radio and television networks presently operating in China will provide a nationwide and unified network in-line with SARFT’s intention to capitalise on the convergence of technologies. ‘The nation's radio and television networks need to be consolidated under one roof, as currently they are individually run and have not developed into large-scale entities,’ says SARFT Society Administration Bureau Director, Tao Shiming.
‘All networks in the nation are likely to be integrated in three years,’ adds Zeng HuiMing, Deputy Secretary-General of the cable TV committee of the China Radio and Television Association.
A pilot project was conducted in 12 cities in the later months of 2010 to test the convergence of the networks. The trials are expected to last until 2012 and will focus on connecting the broadcasting and telecom networks.
Accoring to a report in the China Daily newspaper, the venture will require start-up investment of around CNY80bn (US$11.8bn), with contributions from the government and broadcasters. The consolidation starts at a provincial level before moving on to the national level, Tao Shiming says. The report made no mention of China Central Television, however, or whether it would be part of the plan.
Changes abroad
Aimed at ‘accelerating political, economic, cultural and media communications between China and the Middle-East region’, China Central Television istelf has launched its Middle East Regional Centre in the United Arab Emirates with the opening of its offices in Dubai.
The new centre will oversee correspondents stationed in Iran, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon, and serve as a news-gathering centre for regional stations, as well as handling the assignment of breaking news.
CCTV has also opened a base in Sao Paolo to manage its operation in Latin America. The inauguration of CCTV Latin America accompanies the announcement of a partnership between the Chinese state TV company and TV Bandeirantes, the only TV station in Brazil with a correspondent in China.
The complex is able to broadcast live in high-definition, and according to Ye Lu Lu, the Director of CCTV's Latin American newsroom, there are plans to launch Portuguese-language programming,
New channels
For both its international and domestic audiences, CCTV is also launching CCTV-9 – a documentary channel that will showcase Chinese history, culture and society through 24 broadcasts in English and Chinese. The channel is China's first documentary channel to reach a global audience, Liu Wen, CCTV-9 director Liu Wen said. A nature documentary on China's natural history co-produced by the BBC and CCTV will the first programme shown on the new channel.
Overheads
Further news of China’s broadcast intiatives involves a new satellite – SinoSat-6 – which was launched from the Xichang Satellite Launch Centre in Sichuan province in September in for radio and television live broadcast,
Carried on a Long March 3B rocket, SinoSat-6 has a designed lifespan of 15 years and will eventually work at longitude 126.4° East, about 35,700km kilometres above the equator, to relay TV and radio live broadcast signals that ‘will improve cultural life for people living in remote and mountainous regions’, according to the China Satellite Communications Corporation, which will operate the satellite.SinoSat-6 will replace SinoSat-3, which was launched in 2007.
China's media is tightly controlled by the state, and news channels in particularly are censored. Internet content is censored by a system of controls known as The Great Firewall of China, while the Government is also censoring mobile content as online business using cellphones expands.
