Chinese Television

Television Reform

As the country's most rapidly growing and advanced medium, television has witnessed the drastic sociopolitical changes that underlay the overall development of Chinese media. Television was first introduced into China in the late 1950s. The first television station, Beijing Television Station (BTS), went on the air experimentally on May 1, 1958. Although the disastrous Cultural [Page 293]Revolution (1966–76) hindered its development, Chinese television broadcasting made great strides after the implementation of the reform policy. On May 1, 1978, Beijing Television Station was renamed China Central Television (CCTV) and began to provide a national service. The number of television stations rapidly increased from 32 in 1975 to 509 in 1990, and nearly 1,000 by 2000. As for relay stations, there were only about 400 in the early 1980s, 22,000 by the end of that decade, and more than 40,000 nationwide in the mid-1990s.

Before the reforms in the late 1970s, the infrastructure of Chinese television broadcasting was highly centralized, with CCTV in the center and all other TV stations at the periphery. With the continuous increase of regional and local television stations, a centralized mechanism was replaced by a four-level television broadcasting system: CCTV plays the leading role at the top, followed by provincial stations, city stations, and county stations. Within this decentralized model, control over television is exercised on two levels: central state supervision of CCTV, and regional and local management at the grass-roots level.

Before 1978, all TV stations were heavily subsidized by the state. After the economic reforms, the state gradually cut subsidies, and advertising became the major revenue source. Once condemned as a corrupt capitalist practice, advertising reappeared in early 1979, and was promoted by the party and government as a potential tool for economic reform and social change. Advertising revenues for the television industry exploded from 3.25 million yuan in 1979 to 2.05 billion yuan in 1992. By 2007, Chinese television advertising revenues reached 4.5 billion yuan, nearly one fourth of which went to CCTV.

Increased dependence on advertising is the major factor contributing to the transformation of television. No longer mere propaganda tools, TV stations began to be managed as business enterprises. The amount of political coverage in television news has decreased, while more news of business and entertainment is offered. Due to changing professional imperatives, the watchdog role of television has been employed to expose social problems such as corruption scandals of government officials, coal mine accidents, environmental pollution, and food safety.

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