Ni hao!Today´s blog is about the TV and radio in Beijing 北京. China Central Television or Chinese Central Television, commonly abbreviated as CCTV 中国中央电视台 is the major television broadcaster in Mainland China. Organizationally, it
is a sub-ministry of People´s Republic of China's central government within the State Administration f Radio, Film and Television and as such it does not have any editorial independence from the PRC government. Its news reporting follows parameters directed by the Propaganda Department of the Communist Party of China. No negative meaning of this, but it is a fact to remember when watching TV. Most of its programming, however, is a mix of comedy and dramatic programming, the majority of which consists of Chinese soap operas. Like many media outlets in China, CCTV has had its state subsidy reduced dramatically in the 1990s, and hence finds it necessary to 
balance its role as a government agency with the practical fact that it must attract viewers so that it can sell commercial advertising. In searching for viewers, CCTV has found itself in competition with local television stations (which are also state run) which have been creating increasingly large media groups in order to compete with CCTV. History: CCTV first broadcast on September 2, 1958, under the name Beijing Television, after an experimental broadcast on May 1, 1958. The name was changed to CCTV on May 1, 1978. In 2008, the new CCTV Headquarters will open. At the end of 1980s, like many other Chinese TV stations, CCTV only had one channel. At that time, it only had evening programs, with the broadcast usually ending at midnight. During 
the summer and winter time, it occasionally broadcast during daytime for the students who were on their breaks. Today, CCTV has 16 national channels, most with 24-hour broadcasting, and a High Definition channel at times airing certain American programs such as CSI: New York, CSI: Miami and Lost, Documentaries, Movies, and new Chinese television series shot in HD. Programs: Its thirty-minute evening news, xinwen lianbo ("network news", "news relay"), which is broadcast at 7:00 PM Beijing Time, is the most important news program in China which mainland Chinese watch to keep up with the government's politics. Although news reform has been a prominent feature of CCTV networks, the Evening News has remained relatively the same 
since its first appearance in the early 1980s, having mainly focused on leaders receiving foreign guests and going on visits to foreign countries, the CPC's leaders having top meetings or conferences, and stories of courage that are supposed to exemplify one form or another of communism. Many important political news stories are broadcast through that program. This program is uploaded onto YouTube daily by Duowei, a Chinese news network. Its yearly special program of celebrating the Chinese New Year, the CCTV New Year´s Gala, is undoubtedly the most watched program. In 2007 research data shows that the Gala was watched by over 800 million people all over the world. It started in the early 1980s. Each year, some singers and comedians become famous
because of their single performance on that night. Channels: CCTV has sixteen different channels of programming content and competes with television stations run by local governments (such as BTV and several regional channels) and foreign programming which can be readily received via satellite television. Unlike US channel naming conventions, but similar to the situation in many countries in Europe, most CCTV channels are listed in sequential order with no discerning descriptions, e.g. CCTV-1, CCTV-2, etc. The sixteen channels are: CCTV-1 - Mixture, CCTV-2 - Economy, CCTV-3 - Arts, CCTV-4 - International, in Chinese, CCTV-5 - Sports, CCV-6 - Movies and series, CCTV-7 - Military/Agriculture, CCTV-8 - TV drama, CCTV-9 - International, in English, CCTV-10 - 
Science and Education, CCTV-11 - Opera, CCTV-12 - Society and Law, CCTV-News - 24-hour News, CCTV-Children - Children's channel, CCTV-Music - Music, CCsV-E&F - International, in Spanish and French, CCTV-HD - High-definition programming. All over China there is a lot of local TV stations. At home we have some 62 channels in our TV. Beijing has a local TV station, BTV, Beijing TV Station 北京电视台 is a government-owned television network in the People´s Republic of China and is chiefly broadcast in the Chinese language. It broadcasts from Beijing. The group has ten primary channels: BTV-1 (also known as BTV Satellite Channel; 北京卫视 - Mixture, BTV-2 - Arts Channel, BTV-3 - Education Channel, BTV-4 - Drama Series Channel, BTV-5 - Finance Channel, BTV-6 - 
Sports Channel, BTV-7 - Lifestyle Channel, BTV-8 - Youth Channel, BTV-9 - Beijing City Channel, BTV-10 - Cartoon Channel, BTV Theater Channel(京视剧场频道) TV Drama Channel (digital broadcasting), Loving Home Shopping Channel (爱家购物频道) TV Shopping Channel (digital broadcasting). Every day I listened to The Beijing Music Radio on my mobile phone. Beijing Yinyue Tai, but commonly called "Beijing Yinyue Guangbo" by the radio announcer with Chinese "北京音乐广播", is also known in English as "Beijing Music Radio" at 97.4 FM in Beijing, China. Since the broadcast is done in Mandarin Chinese, the English moniker "Beijing Music Radio" is only referred to on the hour for station identification. The radio station is one of the radio 
stations under the Beijing Ren Min Guangbo Dian Tai group. Beijing Yinyue Guangbo plays various types of music including: Classical Music, Mandopop and Cantopop. English various formats including English Top 40, Hot AC, and country music. They also have news on every hour that is from Beijing Xinwen Guangbo radio station. During my stay in Beijing I listened every day on Beijing Music Radio Yinyue Edition. I can listen to it here in Stockholm too! That is streaming online on the internet! Zai jian!
Peter
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