Beijing TV Reforms Demand Immediate Separation

BEIJING --- CMM-I sources in the capital have revealed that leaders at Beijing TV have decided how the country's second largest broadcaster is going to deal with the State Administration of Radio, Film and TV (SARFT) policy of separating production from broadcast. (see 'SARFT Resurrects Production Separation Policy')

At a meeting held in early March, senior BTV personnel were told that they are to embark on the comprehensive separation of production and broadcasting functions in a spin-off of the station's production assets into private companies. Departments reaching the necessary conditions can start dividing now, but the whole station must reform within one year.

Following the implementation of the separation policy, BTV will be left with responsibility for broadcasting only. Former production departments will be established as special production companies which will be operated independently and which will produce for BTV and distribute to other TV stations.

The operational blueprint follows the trial projects operated by BTV in recent years including "Chinese Entertainment Report" and "Chinese Sports Report". The latter is co-produced for BTV, OTV and GDTV by a dedicated production unit with representation in all three cities. (see CMM passim). More recently, BTV's third terrestrial channel (BTV-3) was re-launched as BTV Science & Education Channel (see CMM passim).

According to CMM-I sources, these internal BTV reforms are likely to be completed before BTV and Beijing Cable TV start to deal with the merger between terrestrial and cable broadcasters that is also a central part of the SARFT's plans for the future structure of the TV industry. However, the sources say that individual joint projects are expected in the short term in association with third parties.

Meanwhile, BTV production staff have told CMM-I that while the news has not come as a shock, the directive to complete the division within one year places great pressure on senior management to create viable business plans and secure staff, facilities and funding for new ventures.

Following the separation, the slots controlled by the new broadcast departments will be allocated according to ratings analysis with regular targets being set for BTV's three channels across the broadcast day.

Although details are being finalized, CMM-I has learned that the BTV International and Overseas Service Departments are to be merged into an Overseas Center which will commission programming from independent companies created from the resources in those existing departments. BTV's program sales and acquistions arm has already been re-launched as the quasi-independent Yingshida Company.

While the separation should result in more efficient production of profitable programming in many entertainment genres, the situation is less clear for program makers in the fields of education and government propaganda. These slots have traditionally failed to achieve high ratings, but represent an important function of TV stations' public service remit and a symbol of the TV industry's core position as the mouthpiece of the Party.

According to CMM-I analysts, a significant percentage of the production resources released into the market through the separation policy will quickly move away from a reliance on their original broadcast windows to expand into the syndication business, mainly in entertainment genres. In turn, this will require state backing to maintain core public programming that, they say, will likely come in the form of station subsidies.

In the longer term, the increase in independent production companies active in the capital will allow other broadcasters to start producing in Beijing, eroding BTV's virtual monopoly over "official" access to the municipality's various government departments and bringing BTV into competition with other broadcasters in its home market.

Meanwhile, sources in Beijing have told CMM-I that Beijing TV is one of nine media units at the Beijing municipal level that will be involved in a major new media venture which involves external investors, including parties registered outside China.

Although further details were not available at press time, CMM-I understands that the project involves cross-sector co-operation similar to the consensus forced through in Shanghai (see CMM passim) with foreign investment providing the crucial missing component.

In Shanghai, the creation of a cross-sector body to co-ordinate communications policy and management has given Shanghai a huge advantage over Beijing by bringing telecoms, broadcasting, transport, propaganda and cultural departments together at the planning stage.

Although the scale of foreign investment/involvement may not represent a breakthrough in terms of ownership policy, the existing patchwork of direct and indirect media investment routes already available to foreign parties could easily amount to a major concern if combined under central authority. The time is certainly right!