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China Central Television or Chinese Central Television, or CCTV (Chinese: 中国中央电视台 pinyin: Zhōngguó Zhōngyāng Diànshìtái), is the major broadcast television network in Mainland China. Organizationally it is a subministry of the People's Republic of China's central government within the State Administration of Radio, Television, and Film 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. 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 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 competitions with local television stations (which are also state run) which have been creating increasingly large media groups in order to compete with CCTV.
CCTV first broadcasted on September 2, 1958 under the name Beijing Television, after an experimental broadcast on May 1. The name was changed to CCTV on May 1, 1978.
CCTV has thirteen 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, CCTV channels are listed in sequential order with no discerning descriptions, e.g. CCTV-1, CCTV-2, etc.
Outside China, it is only possible to receive channels CCTV-4 (overseas channel) and CCTV-9 (overseas channel targeted at an English-speaking audience) via a Digital Video Broadcast signal. CCTV has just recently switched from analog to DVB primarily due to better signal quality and the ability to charge for reception (~10 USD per year subscription). The aforementioned overseas channels are relayed off many different satellites around the world.
CCTV now has 16 channels. They are:
- CCTV-NEWS 24-hour news channel
- CCTV-1 Mixture
- CCTV-2 Economy
- CCTV-3 Arts
- CCTV-4 International channel in Chinese
- CCTV-5 Sports
- CCTV-6 Movie
- CCTV-7 Children's/Military/Agriculture
- CCTV-8 TV drama
- CCTV-9 International channel in English
- CCTV-10 Science and Technology
- CCTV-11 Opera
- CCTV-12 Society and Law
- CCTV-Children Children's channel
- CCTV-Music Music
- CCTV-E&F Espanol & Francais
See also
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