ABSTRACT
China’s television by 1996: a four-tier interlocking structure Ever since its birth, China’s television industry has been structured as an integrated part of the State’s political system. All television stations are owned by the State and controlled by the Party. Their regulatory system mirrors the State’s political structure (Pan and Chan, 2000; Wei, 2000). In 1983, the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) divided the country’s TV network into four tiers: national; provincial, municipal or autonomous region; city and county. Each has its own TV station to serve audiences within its administrative boundary. At the center is the national broadcaster, the Central Government’s China Central Television (CCTV) (Guo, 2003; Pan and Chan, 2000). Two interlocking systems: the ideological system of the Party’s propaganda department and the administrative system of the government bureau of Radio, Film and Television constitute the regulatory structure. The Party’s propaganda department at each level exercises ideological control over the corresponding TV station, while the broadcasting bureau controls the station’s personal, finance, acquisition and technological expansion. Both systems work from the top down to the bottom. At the top are the central authorities – the State Council’s State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) and the CCP’s Ministry of Central Propaganda. They are the sources of all power and make all of the important decisions and policies. All of the province, municipality and autonomous regions’ broadcasting bureau are subjected to SARFT’s control while they also have power over their lower level bureaus (Ai and Liu in Qian, 2002; Pan and Chan, 2000). This centralized topdown TV system empowers the center’s conspicuous control over the local while the local has little influence on the center (Hong in Yan, 2000).
