Merger Planners Get Sharp Reality Check

BEIJING --- As warned in CMM passim, the planners responsible for the super-fast merger of terrestrial and cable channels throughout China are now realising that the theory is far from the practice. Even as merged operations struggle to find practical solutions to the dual workforces and schedules they now control, widespread personnel shifts continue to shake up existing systems, leaving day to day control to
officials with little experience.

The problems of appointing new Directors to all levels of the TV system at the same time is not only causing management breakdowns, but also providing opportunities for ambitious guanxi rich individuals to leapfrog over their colleagues into new positions. The result in many places has been arguments that, in at least two cases, have resulted in physical violence and disruption to services.

According to one station official who declined to be named, the situation in many places has become untenable with cable officials and terrestrial officials both claiming to be the superior force in merged channel operations and both demanding the key positions. This is affecting all levels of operations as new leadership attempts to placate both parties.

The problems are not only at the management level. The same rivalries are breaking out on-screen as presenters vie for the prime anchor positions to bolster their public image ahead of likely changes in rules that forbid hosts from accepting commercial commissions. In the production and edit rooms too, producers, directors and camera operators are all fighting to retain their positions within independent units that control their own budget.

These issues are extremely difficult for department managers who have never been exposed to the type of internal personnel fights now occurring and who are finding that no permanent solutions exist at their level. Also, with new personnel joining existing departments, the managers must be very careful to avoid upsetting the wrong people.

On top of this, many places are swapping TV station and radio station leaders seemingly at will a process that has been in place for many years as a way of limiting the power bases of certain individuals, but that is wholly unsatisfactory during a period of radical changes. CMM has no hesitation in suggesting that the personnel issues will contribute to the failure of most newly merged operations to react to their new found consolidated power by creating the strong media groups that the mergers were designed to establish ahead of WTO entry.