AOL Time Warner Inc. announced in Hong Kong Monday it had signed a
historic agreement with the Chinese side under which its CETV
channel will be distributed to cable television subscribers in the
Southern region of the People' s Republic of China.
This is the first time for a foreign TV institution to be granted
cable TV carriage rights in the Chinese mainland, according to Xu
Guangchun, director of China's State Administration of Radio, Film
and Television (SARFT).
The carriage agreement was signed Monday at SARFT headquarters in
Beijing among AOL Timer Warner's Turner Broadcasting System Asia
Pacific unit; China Central Television (CCTV); China International
Television Corporation (CITVC) , and Gungdong Cable TV Networks
Co., Ltd.(GCTV), the AOL Time Warner Inc. said at a press
release.
Under the agreement, CETV, a 24-hour Mandarin-language information
and entertainment channel, will be carried beginning in January
2002 on GCTV cable systems in Southern China.
As
part of the agreement, CCTV-9, CCTV's English language news and
information channel, will be carried on select Time Warner Cable
systems, the first time a CCTV network will be carried on a 24-hour
basis on any U.S. cable system.
( October 23, 2001)