China Approves News Corp. TV Programming
Wed Jan 8, 9:55 AM ET Add Entertainment - AP to My Yahoo!
By ELAINE KURTENBACH, AP Business Writer
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?
tmpl=story&ncid=529&e=9&cid=529&u=/ap/20030108/ap_en_tv/china_televis
ion

HONG KONG - China has approved dissemination of News Corp.'s STAR TV
Chinese-language entertainment channel to limited locations across
the mainland, a Chinese television industry executive said
Wednesday.

The approval follows a similar deal for the InfoNews channel
operated by Phoenix Television Holdings — a move industry watchers
called a more significant step toward easing restrictions on the
country's broadcasting industry. STAR owns a 37.6 percent stake in
Phoenix Television.

Authorities will allow reception of satellite broadcasts of STAR's
Xingkong Weishi, a Mandarin-dialect entertainment channel, at luxury
hotels and residential compounds occupied by overseas Chinese and
foreigners, according to the industry executive, who spoke to The
Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

STAR, a wholly owned subsidiary of News Corp., was expected to make
a formal announcement within days.

China announces new rights for foreign television broadcasters each
year, but the decision to allow InfoNews to broadcast Chinese-
language news programming round the clock was viewed as a major step
by some media analysts. InfoNews announced that development Tuesday.

"Allowing chat programs and game shows over the border is one thing,
permitting a 24-hour news and information channel like InfoNews is
quite another," said a report by analyst Norman Waite at investment
bank Salomon Smith Barney in Hong Kong.

"History might very well cite this event as a turning point for
China's media industry," he said.

The Communist authorities regard television as a key propaganda tool
and carefully control it. Though access to foreign television
programming is expanding, government approvals have tended to favor
politically neutral mass-market fare, such as game and talk shows,
sports and drama.

STAR's entertainment channel already is available to ordinary
Chinese households in southern Guangdong province, along with
Phoenix's mass market television channel and its subscription movie
channel, and CETV, AOL Time Warner's Chinese-language channel.

Other foreign programmers, such as CNN, BBC and Japan's NHK, also
are available at top hotels and foreign compounds, but not in most
homes. None broadcast in Chinese.

Still, millions of Chinese watch television from abroad with illegal
satellite dishes.

And while reception of STAR and Phoenix's InfoNews will be
restricted to the designated locations, many ordinary Chinese stay
in hotels with such satellite services. Some live in the compounds
where the programming can be seen.

Rupert Murdoch and other media giants are keen to reach China's huge
audience and potential advertising market. Loss-making Phoenix
Satellite Television lobbied hard for broadcast approval so it could
tap advertising revenues and boost its bottom line.

Despite the potentially huge size of the Chinese market, analysts
said STAR's expanded business there will have a limited impact on
News Corp.
___

On the Net:

STAR: http://www.startv.com/eng/index.cfm

Phoenix Television: http://phoenixtv.startv.com/mainpage.htm