AOL Time Warner Inc. announced in Hong Kong Monday it had signed a historic agreement with the Chinese side under which its CETV channel will be distributed to cable television subscribers in the Southern region of the People' s Republic of China.

This is the first time for a foreign TV institution to be granted cable TV carriage rights in the Chinese mainland, according to Xu Guangchun, director of China's State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT).

The carriage agreement was signed Monday at SARFT headquarters in Beijing among AOL Timer Warner's Turner Broadcasting System Asia Pacific unit; China Central Television (CCTV); China International Television Corporation (CITVC) , and Gungdong Cable TV Networks Co., Ltd.(GCTV), the AOL Time Warner Inc. said at a press release.

Under the agreement, CETV, a 24-hour Mandarin-language information and entertainment channel, will be carried beginning in January 2002 on GCTV cable systems in Southern China.

As part of the agreement, CCTV-9, CCTV's English language news and information channel, will be carried on select Time Warner Cable systems, the first time a CCTV network will be carried on a 24-hour basis on any U.S. cable system.

( October 23, 2001)