A state media group was launched Thursday, bringing together the
country's top broadcasting, film and TV enterprises in a bid to
meet the greater competition that will come with the country's
entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO).
The new media giant, named the China Radio, Film and Television
Group (CRFTG), puts together the country's flagship TV channel --
China Central
Television (CCTV), two state radio stations -- China National
Radio (CNR) and China Radio
International (CRI) and some state film and network organs,
with its fixed assets totalling 21.4 billion yuan (US$2.6 billion),
expects annual revenues to exceed 11 billion yuan (US$1.3 billion),
and to have more than 20,000 employees.
Xu
Guangchun, Director General of the
State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) --
one of the country's top media authorities -- noted at the
launching ceremony that the merger, ratified by the central
government, is a key step forward for the country's state media to
survive international competition.
"We want to establish our media 'aircraft' or 'combined fleet' to
cope with foreign media giants," said Xu, an indication of the
pressure the central media feel, as well as their ambition, as the
country joins the WTO.
According to Xu, China's television and film companies are "too
scattered and weak" and therefore "need to join forces to become
more competitive."
Zhang Haitao, one of the top leaders of CRFTG, revealed that the
new group plans to spend three years to further reform the original
mechanism including a two-year assets reshuffle.
According to Zhang, the new group will further strengthen its
co-operation with some other domestic and foreign media over the
following years to provide better service to its "billions of
audience" and to let "the voice of China" be more widely heard
throughout the world.
China's broadcasting service covers 92 percent of the county's
territory and TV programmes' coverage reaches 93 percent, and has
over 90 million of cable television users, according to last year's
official statistics.
The annual revenue of the country's broadcasting, television and
film industry amounted to some 43 billion yuan (US$5.2 billion)
last year.
Meanwhile, hundreds of regional cable TV networks and even numerous
local radio stations exist throughout the country.
(China
Daily December 7, 2001)