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THE CHANNEL
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FEATURE
uangdong has
China's most
liberalised and
internationalised
TV market. The
Southern Media
Group is the
largest media group in the region.
Southern Television Guangdong
(TVS), the youngest provincial TV
station, was launched in 2001, and
has developed fast during the past
seven years. Today over 9m house-
holds can watch the five TVS
channels via the provincial cable
network.
In 2004 TVS Satellite Channel
was launched, reaching audiences
in other provinces, plus Hong
Kong, Macau and Taiwan, and also
the rest of the world through the
Great Wall satellite TV platform.
TVS' rapid growth of market share
is, the company says, mainly due to
the clear segmentation of its five
channels. TVS-1 broadcasting in
Mandarin is targeting the ordinary
man on the street; TVS-4 which ranks
top among the TVS channels in terms
of ad revenue and audience ratings
is a popular choice for movie and
drama; TVS-5 is the first children's
channel in mainland China.
Mr Ou Nianzhong
, President of
TVS Southern Television
since
2004, has close ties to Germany's
international broadcaster Deutsche
Welle. It's a long story, dating back
to 1992 when Ou attended a
training course at DW in Cologne.
He met DW's then Director of
International Relations,
Dr
Burkhard Nowotny
, and a long-
standing professional friendship
began which was reflected in
repeated Chinese-German
cooperation in radio, TV and
training.
When DW's director general Erik
Bettermann visited China in 2004,
the story of the Pied Piper of
Hameln aroused Mr Ou's interest
and the German Fairy Tale project
was born. It was realised with
AFTERTHEFAIRYTALE
G
With
their
comple-
mentary
program-
ming, TVS
and GDTV
have both
become
major
players
“
partners German National Tourist
Board and German airline
Lufthansa, and a year later, the
programmes on the German 'Fairy
Tale Route' were broadcast not only
on TVS-1 and TVS-2 but also to
Asia, Australia and the US via
satellite. Many other projects
followed, with TVS teams visiting
different regions of Germany. In
2008 interest was focused on the
river Rhine: "How did the
Europeans get the river clean
again?" In view of the
environmental situation in China,
this was an interesting case study.
Book and DVD of the programme
are now available nationwide in
China.
Burkhard Nowotny now works
as an independent media
consultant and maintains close ties
with TVS. In his role as Adviser to
the President of TVS, he had the
opportunity to talk to Mr Ou on a
range of issues.
On training at DW
[Ou] The training at DW broadened
my horizons and gave me insight
into the broadcasting landscape,
both PBS and commercial
broadcasters. When I became
Assistant President of Radio
Guangdong in 1996, the knowledge
and skills acquired in the
Broadcasting Management course
were very helpful to me - on team
work, motivating employees,
attracting advertisers and
promoting the station. The course
on Audience Analysis and Research
contained particularly useful
information on operating a media
company in a market economy. The
ongoing training cooperation with
DWAcademy has been very
beneficial for staff from Radio
Guangdong and TVS.
On the media landscape in
Guangdong
[Ou] By 2000, nine channels from
Hong Kong and overseas had been
authorized to enter the Guangdong
market, intensifying the
competition. In 1999, according to
AC Nielsen, the nine TV channels
had 72.5% of the overall market
share in Guangzhou. But since
2004, this market share has been
falling – to around 30% in the
capital Guangzhou in 2008, to
around 10% in the whole of
Guangdong province. China
Central Television (CCTV) and
satellite TV channels from other
provinces are also competing for a
slice of the Guangdong market
share.
”
54
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ISSUE 2 2009
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THE CHANNEL