Last week, an entertainment channel of Rupert Murdoch's STAR TV, Bloomberg Television's financial news, and Hong Kong-based Phoenix TV's InfoNews channel received approval to distribute their programmes in selected locations - mainly at luxury hotels and residential compounds occupied by overseas Chinese and foreigners.

STAR, a wholly owned subsidiary of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, made a formal announcement yesterday that its Chinese-language entertainment channel, Xingkong Weishi, has been approved to broadcast in hotels rated higher than three-stars and in luxury residential compounds.

The approval follows a similar deal for the InfoNews channel operated by Phoenix Television Holdings. STAR owns a 37.6 per cent stake in Phoenix Television.

Also, Bill McHugh, distribution manager for Bloomberg Television Asia-Pacific, said last Thursday that Bloomberg would join other international broadcasters, CNN and BBC, in airing English-language programming in luxury hotels, government offices and expatriate residential compounds on the Chinese mainland.

Sharon You, public relations manager of News Corp's Beijing office, confirmed that so far her company is broadcasting on eight TV channels on the mainland. Two Chinese-language channels - Xingkong Weishi and Phoenix TV's Chinese channel - have been allowed to enter the local cable network of the southern province of Guangdong.

"The fact that more and more foreign TV stations are being allowed to enter the mainland market shows that the door of the Chinese media market is opening wider," said Zhao Xiaobing, president of Beijing Oriental Media Consulting Co Ltd of the Global China Group.

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.

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

Many people watch television from abroad with unauthorized satellite dishes, and Chinese-language Xingkong Weishi and InfoNews are likely to become their targets, Zhao, from Beijing Oriental Media, told Business Weekly.

He said that News Corp or Phoenix Television must have done a lot to lobby the Chinese Government for their mainland broadcasting rights.

You from News Corp confirmed that while Xingkong Weishi was allowed to broadcast on the mainland, News Corp began to distribute CCTV-9, the English-language channel of China's Central Television (CCTV), throughout the United Kingdom through its cable network.

An analyst in Beijing who refused to be identified said that the approvals for Xingkong Weishi or InfoNews to broadcast on the mainland shows that the green light can be highly selective.

"The green light is a result of Murdoch and Liu Changle's great efforts to improve China's image among overseas viewers," he told Business Weekly.

Early last year, STAR received the green light to begin broadcasting a 24-hour Mandarin-language general entertainment programming in Guangdong Province. As a reciprocal condition, News Corp's US-based Fox Network agreed to air several CCTV-9 English-language programmes in the United States.

Xingkong Weishi offered more than 700 hours of original TV programming during its first year of broadcasting in Guangdong Province, winning warm responses from local TV viewers.

Zhao said that the expanded mainland broadcasting rights will enable STAR TV or Phoenix TV better position themselves in their advertising markets.

Advertisers on the two Chinese-language TV channels are mainly mainland enterprises or Hong Kong firms with a big mainland presence.

"Their being authorized to broadcast on the mainland should make these advertisers more confident in their advertising investments on these channels," Zhao said.

(Business Weekly January 21, 2003)