MURDOCH SET FOR CHINA TV CLEARANCE; MUST ENSURE COMMUNIST CHANNEL WIDELY AVAILABLE IN USA

FT.Com/Via DRUDGE ^ | September 4 2001 23:29GM | James Kynge and Robert Thomson in Beijing

[TaRaRaBoomDeAyGoreLostToday!]

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China offers access deal to News Corp and AOL

By James Kynge and Robert Thomson in Beijing

Published: September 4 2001 18:42GMT

China is set to allow News Corporation and AOL Time Warner access to its domestic television audiences in return for their agreeing to distribute a Chinese government-sponsored channel in the US.

International broadcasters have fought for more than two decades to gain access to the Chinese market. Approval would be a particular triumph for Rupert Murdoch, chief executive of News Corp.

Xu Guangchun, the Chinese minister responsible for radio, film and television, said that it was his intention to allow both companies access to cable viewers in southern China. "We should say that [broadcasting by News Corp and AOL Time Warner] in a restricted area in Guangdong province would be fine," Mr Xu said.

He said the only outstanding issue was whether News Corp and AOL Time Warner would ensure that a China Central Television channel would be widely available in the US.

It is understood negotiations are far advanced for a general entertainment channel from News Corp's Star TV network to be carried in Guangdong, China's most prosperous province, which neighbours Hong Kong. Permission to broadcast in China will be particularly sweet for Mr Murdoch, who has spent the past eight years repairing a reputation damaged by his 1993 statement that satellite TV represents "an unambiguous threat to totalitarian regimes".

He dropped the BBC from the Star network in 1994 after a series of unflattering documentaries on China's politics and social problems invoked the government's wrath. Earlier this year, James Murdoch, his younger son and head of operations for News Corp in Asia, pleased the Chinese authorities with strong criticism of the outlawed mystic movement, Falun Gong.

Foreign companies have been banned from directly broadcasting into China, apart from in some tourist hotels and foreign residential compounds.

China's intention to allow News Corp and AOL Time Warner access to the domestic television market represents an unprecedented liberalisation in one of its most closed industries.

AOL Time Warner said: "We've been in positive and constructive discussions with the Chinese government to get increased access for China Entertainment Television in China."

[68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub]

I can just see Fox News new motto
Fair and balanced food news
Sweet AND sour chicken.

[Brian Allen]

Sweet AND sour chicken

Didn't he just marry her?

[waxhaw]

Murdoch is many things but a salesman above all. If he thinks acting conservative will bring him a sale, he's conservative... and if he thinks acting liberal will bring him a sale he's then a liberal. Murdoch worships money and lately he has started to worship power, above all the power that media grants him. I personally don't trust Murdoch; Fox news is slightly better than CNN but most of what is on Fox television is sewage.

[gulfcoast6]

I think it will be fun to watch, I do on the direct TV (just a short segment) and it is a laugh and 1/2. Course, some of our congressmen will finally get their true colors out with it.

[68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub]

ping

[68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub]

ping

[TaRaRaBoomDeAyGoreLostToday!]

New screen name for GeronL,I have updated UN_List.

[COB1]

We have to face the fact that we have no unbiased, conservative news organization.
FOX is the best we have, but that's like saying being pink is better than being red.

[dixiechick2000]

Thanks for the heads up on this asinine development.

The emphasis in this article is all wrong. It should be on the fact that the ChiComs will be broadcasting here. Oh, nevermind...their minions already are! Since ABCNBCCBSCNNMSNBC aren't doing very well, I'm just curious as to how they will fare in the ratings. Any bets?

[1rudeboy]

Gosh, I wonder if the agreement also specifies that he can censor theirs if they censor ours.

[F.J. Mitchell]

And how about a Commercial for Milk of Magnesia, similar to the one done by the outspoken Black lady who is for ever embarrassing her husband. A chinese lady will be pushing it as a cure for hung chow and embarrasing her ruptured husband Won Hunglo.

[G-Rated]

"OK, so FreeRepublic is gonna have to start their own network."

Sounds like a great idea to me.

[Enough is ENOUGH]

I'm too angry to comment about this absurdity.

[68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub]

"I'm too angry to comment about this absurdity."

I think your "screen name" really sums it up.

[FReethesheeples]

bump

[Anonymous2]

murdoch's son is a flaming socialist whose name is synonymous with gun control activism and gay pride events in australia. how far could the apple have fallen from the tree? i mean, the chinese central committee needs to be able to make the reds in america fell more at home, right? these people have sold their souls for a buck. "for what does it gain a man to acquire the whole world and lose his very soul?"

[68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub]

bump

[hedgetrimmer]

To me, AOL would be committing an act of sedition by broadcasting the chinese communist propoganda. I can't imagine that the broadcasts would be pro-American, and everyone knows the ultimate goal of the communist Chinese government is hegemon in Asia, to run the US out of their part of the globe completely.

[Enough is ENOUGH]

Enough is enough, help!

[Archie Bunker on steroids]

Irony is that the Klamath Patriots occupying what was formerly known as "no-man's land" between the head gate and the fence are watching Fox News on a big screen TV there.