CGTN Reinvents China’s National TV Broadcaster, but Not Its Owner

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By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Published
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CGTN Reinvents China’s National TV Broadcaster, but Not Its Owner

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[cnxvideo id=”655420″ placement=”ros”]China Central Television (CCTV), the TV mouthpiece of the People’s Republic of China, has reinvented itself starting with the New Year as China Global Television Network (CGTN), an attempt to make itself a legitimate global broadcaster. Since its relationship with the central government does not appear to have changed, it is a metamorphosis in name only.

The press release for the transformation, which concentrates on the world’s English-speaking population, CGTN English as it is called, is meant to encourage the impression that the television operation is new, improved and independent.

The new business has all the trappings of a 21st century media company:

CGTN English is the flagship channel. The strategy, “Mobile first”, aims to fulfill the demands of global viewers and users for easier access to content on different platforms.

With an international team of professionals from more than 70 countries and regions, CGTN is an investment in the future of news media.

CGTN is a multi-language, multi-platform media grouping. It consists of six TV channels – including a 24-hour English-language news channel – a video content provider and a digital media division. Our brand new official website is CGTN.com.

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“Mobile first” is among the media’s most popular buzzwords to describe transformation. It is built on the fact that around the world there are hundreds of millions of smartphones that can access CGTN from anywhere there is a wireless broadband signal.

The new company’s manifesto:

We believe the world is changing and that we live in a multipolar world, but many people still get their news from the same sources.

At CGTN, we cover the whole globe, reporting news from a Chinese perspective. Our mission is to create a better understanding of international events across the world, bridging continents and bringing a more balanced view to global news reporting.

Ultimately, we believe facts should speak for themselves and are committed to neutral, objective reporting.

Neutral and objective may not be an accurate depiction if the central government is the owner.
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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.

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