Text of report in English by official Chinese news agency Xinhua (New China News Agency)
[Xinhua: "CCTV 9 Switches To Become English-Language News Channel"]
BEIJING, April 26 (Xinhua) - CCTV 9, China Central Television’s (CCTV) English-language channel, switched Monday to become an English-language news channel with 19 hours of news broadcasts every day.
The new CCTV 9 will broadcast in-depth reports, commentaries and documentaries, as well as news reports, producer Zhang Shilei said. It will increase coverage of international events with a particular emphasis on Asia, Zhang said. In terms of reporting style and programme format, the change is in line with the needs of overseas audiences, Zhang added.
Launched on September 25, 2000, CCTV 9 has an audience of more than 100 million in 110 countries and regions.
The switch took place at 7:00 p.m. Monday.
(Source: Xinhua news agency, Beijing, in English 1125 gmt 26 Apr 10 via BBC Monitoring)
on Apr 27th, 2010 at 04:48
The audience figures reported on are a far cry yo the numbers floating with in CCTV itself. I talked to one of the managers at CCTV 9 said Xinhua left out the fact that it’s vast viewer base is in China. Mostly made up up students who are studying English. Something else left out is less than 8% of the expat community in China watch CCTV.
There is no doubt they have an audience of 100 Million, but more than 90% of that is from within China. In 2008 Nielson Beijing carried out a ratings chart for all CCTV channels. CCTV was at the bottom of the barrel.
Nielson put CCTV international figures at less than a million a month. Originally when CCTV did the survey they were going to make it public, which at the end of the day they didn’t. I only know this because someone within CCTV copied it for me.
on Apr 27th, 2010 at 05:21
I confess I always assumed CCTV-9 was news station. I suppose this change means that entertainment and Chinese language learning lessons have been dropped.
on Apr 27th, 2010 at 10:28
The format of CCTV-9 was half an hour of news followed by half an hour of features, or sometimes five minutes of news followed by 55 minutes of features. I guess you’re right - the non-news features (or at least most of them) have been dropped. But I would expect this to reduce the overseas audience, as there are lots of news channels already covering international events. I would be interested to see comparative figures for RT and Iran’s Press News.
on Apr 27th, 2010 at 11:24
Interesting because that was the format for DW TV when it started and some of the documentaries thay ran from ARD, reversioned in English, were superb. Apparently though, they cost DW a fortune (something like 500 Euro a minute) so they dropped them. I don’t believe the CCTV audience figures for one second. In recent travels, I think Russia Today is doing much better, basically because they are far more aggressive and creative with their publicity. As for Press TV, there must be more people in the studio than in the audience.
on Apr 27th, 2010 at 12:42
Jonathan you hit the nail on the head about figures. In Beijing Radio 774 (operated by the Beijing Radio Corp.) said last year they were in the top five of the most listened to radio stations in the capitol. But there are a few problems with that statement. First they are in English, second you can’t even pick them up in the English areas of the city like Chaoyang. But yet they station boasts they are in the top five of the most listened. Hummmm! In all my years in Beijing and even when I went back a few weeks ago you still can’t pick them up except for maybe Western Beijing in the country side where there is certainly no English speakers.
Having worked in the Chinese media machine for many year I can tell you money is no problem. Budgets? What’s that. Mind you staff at CCTV paid around 3000RMB a month, and the vast majority of the staff just like with CRI live in dorm rooms, sharing each room with 3 people. Married couples get a small apartment, but if they leave CCTV they need to move. It may also interest you to know that staff at CCTV, CRI and Xinhua must hand over there passport. If they wish to travel overseas they need to leave a deposit of 20,000RMB, which is returned when they come back to China. Staff at these orgs who get posted overseas are also never single people. Only married people get these postings. And their wives and children are not allowed to travel or visit them while they are outside China.