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Global Brief
The latest news from the international broadcasting industry
TV opens up in China?
China wants to have it both ways – to be a modern commercial state, and to preserve its unique
Communist-based identity, which is a difficult balance to strike. Looking outwards, China’s CCTV
English-language channel is now available on Britain’s BSkyB and France’s TPS. This is a big
step forward for China’s drive to gain understanding, as BSkyB is the largest and only service
provider for direct broadcasting satellite television, with more than 200 channels and programmes
for over 6 million subscribers in Britain, while TPS is one of the two largest service providers for
direct broadcasting satellite television in France, with 1.2 million subscribers.
But at the same time, China does not want too much foreign influence in its colossal broadcasting
market (population over 1 billion). The Chinese have very recently made it clear that there will
not, as many in the global industry had believed, be a great deal of opening up of the market.
CCTVVice-President Zhang Changming said the key issues with regards to China’s TV industry
were how to improve cooperation with foreign broadcasters and allow Westerners to
“understand” China’s situation and views. “Overseas channels rarely carry programmes from
China. It’s very rare that you see content on overseas TV channels that is true or fair,” he
complained. “What we want to see is other networks carrying our content. The key is to have
overseas television stations carry the true picture about China.”
The Chinese authorities issued a complete list of approved foreign broadcasting organisations:
News
BBC World; Bloomberg; CNBC; CNN; Phoenix Infonews
Movie, music & sport
Cinemax HBO; Phoenix Movie; Star Movie; Channel V; MTV; ESPN;
Star Sports
General entertainment
AXN; Discovery; Hallmark; JETV; Macau Asia; Macau Five Star; Macau
Travel; National Geographic Channel-Asia; NOW; NHK; Phoenix Chinese; TVB8; TVBGalaxy;
Yangguang Weishi; TV5
In spite of a declaration that the list for foreign broadcasters was closed, Rupert Murdoch’s
ambition to conquer the mainland’s television market moved a step further with permission to
beam its Chinese-language channel [Xingkong Weishi] to select areas nationwide.
CETV wins China rights
And in another post-cut off move, United States media giant AOL Time Warner said yesterday
its Mandarin-language China Entertainment Television Broadcast (CETV) channel had won a
limited nationwide broadcast licence.
CETV is joining 30 other foreign channels that have won approval to broadcast to three-star or
higher-rated hotels, foreign compounds and other select areas in the mainland. It is one of the
four channels that have both landing rights in southern China and hotels and other specified
venues. The others are XingkongWeishi, Phoenix Chinese and the Movie channels, all directly
or indirectly controlled by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp.
CETV, limited to about one million households in southern China, will now also be available
on additional cable TV systems in Shenzhen and Guangzhou, doubling its penetration in those
two cities to more than two million homes.
MTV first global brand to launch 24/7 in China
In addition, Viacom Inc’s. MTV Networks has achieved
breakthrough distribution agreements for MTV and
Nickelodeon in China. The only global brand to launch a 24-
hour service in China, MTV will broadcast in the Guangdong
Province of Southern China. In a separate agreement,
Nickelodeon will co-produce and distribute Chinese language
Nickelodeon television series on DVD/VCD with Shanghai
Audio & Video Press.
MTV China has been available as a 24-hour channel in hotels and foreign compounds since
1995, while MTV branded programming airs on terrestrial and cable channels across China,
reaching 70 million TV households. Nickelodeon branded programming is currently seen via
terrestrial and cable channels reaching 50 million TV households in China.
CNBC Asia Pacific partnership
CNBC Asia Pacific is entering into a strategic partnership with Shanghai Media Group, in a
deal intended to give the US-owned business news broadcaster “a potentially important
foothold” in the tightly controlled Chinese TV market.
BT’s Sat Net snares AIB Member
Two AIB members come together in a new
deal.
BT Broadcast Services
has announced
the launch of its first European network hub
for BT SatNet, the state-of-the-art compact
mobile transmission system, and its first
customer,
CNBC Europe
.
BT SatNet provides a fully automated and
complete end-to-end transmission process so
broadcasters can receive more coverage for
lower costs. Having reached this stage of
maturity, BT SatNet has secured CNBC Europe,
the pan-European business and financial TV
channel, as its first customer for the fully
developed service.
Based at BT’s Madley earth station in England,
the European hub has the ability to
automatically book and schedule ad-hoc,
high-powered pan-European satellite capacity
provided by Eutelsat on Atlantic Bird 2. This
delivers an on demand scheduling of resource
to broadcasters.
GlobeCast platform adds more channels
America’s third largest direct-to-home
television provider GlobeCast has announced
that Romanian broadcaster PRO TV
International, Croatian radio channel HR
International and Hungarian radio channel
Kossuth Rádió have chosen the GlobeCast
WorldTV Direct-to-Home platform on Telstar
5 for satellite distribution in America.
The GlobeCast WorldTV platform now broadcasts
a total of 66 television and radio channels from
Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia.
AsiaSat 4 successful lift off
AsiaSat 4, the new pan-Asian satellite of Asia
Satellite Telecommunications Company
Limited (AsiaSat), was launched on 11th April
from Cape Canaveral, Florida, U.S.A. aboard
an Atlas IIIB launch vehicle.
AsiaSat 4, a Boeing 601HP satellite, will be
the most powerful member of AsiaSat’s
satellite fleet carrying 28 C-band and 20 Ku-
band transponders with a 15-year design life.
AsiaSat 4’s pan-Asian C-band footprint will
cover more than 40 countries and regions
spanning from New Zealand to the Middle
East. Its Ku-band coverage will consist of
two high-power focused beams for East Asia
and Australasia, as well as a new BSS
(Broadcast Satellite Service) beam for Direct-
to-Home (DTH) services in Hong Kong and
the adjacent South China region.
SABC drops CNN
The South African Broadcasting Corporation will
not be renewing its international news service
contract with 24-hour news channel CNN. SABC,
one of Africa’s biggest broadcasters, said it
wanted to vary its late-night schedule to meet
viewers’ changing tastes. CNN said its service
would still be distributed in South Africa on
the Multichoice DSTV satellite broadcaster. “CNN
regrets the SABC’s decision to end its
longstanding broadcasting relationship with
CNN especially during a world crisis,” the news
broadcaster said.
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