Hong Kong-based TV channel to broadcast to southern China

By The Associated Press

10.22.01

Printer-friendly page

Editor's note: AOL Time Warner announced on Oct. 22 that it had made a two-way deal with China, to provide its programming to serve essentially the same area of southern China as Phoenix, while agreeing to carry China Central Television's English-language Channel 9 on cable systems in New York City, Los Angeles and Houston.

BEIJING — In a small milestone for China's restricted television market, China has granted a Hong Kong-based television channel the right to broadcast to a limited region in the south of the country, a state-run newspaper said.

Phoenix is the first foreign television network to be allowed to broadcast legally in China. The decision formalizes Phoenix's already substantial Chinese presence.

Hotels, some upscale apartments in cities and some government offices already get Phoenix, started in 1996. So do millions of Chinese homes that use satellite dishes in defiance of a government ban. Phoenix and industry analysts says some 42 million Chinese homes already receive the network.

The government's director of radio, film and television, Xu Guangchun, announced Oct. 19 that Phoenix's Chinese channel had been formally permitted to broadcast through cable in the Pearl River Delta, an economically booming area of southern Guangdong province, the "Yangcheng Evening News" reported Oct. 20.

Phoenix's normal schedule is a mass-market mix of talk shows, sports, dramas from Hong Kong and game shows from Taiwan. The station also has attracted an audience for its news programming while taking care not to offend China's communist rulers.

STAR, a News Corp. subsidiary that is a major shareholder in Phoenix, welcomed the formal approval to broadcast as "yet another milestone'' for the network.

Xu also said Phoenix and state-run China Central Television would form a joint venture to promote CCTV overseas, the newspaper said.

The venture "will help Chinese television media move toward the world,'' Xu was quoted as saying.

China's communist leaders view television as a vital propaganda tool and have tightly controlled the country's airwaves. Foreign television channels can be seen in hotels and luxury housing, but government regulations prohibited foreign broadcasters from reaching audiences directly.

Related

China opens access to some foreign news Web sites as summit begins
But reporters covering Shanghai meeting complain some sites blocked one day after government said it had removed restrictions.  10.18.01