A TV breakthrough
Hong Kong's TVB pacts with China Central
But they have given few details of last week's breakthrough deal, news of which is just emerging.
"It's positive in terms of TVB gaining access to China, but there's much less going on here than you would think," says Andy Collier, a media analyst at Bear Stearns in Hong Kong.
The joint venture gives CCTV's English-language Channel 4 access to TVB's international satellite platforms. CCTV recently announced a similar carriage arrangement with AOL Time Warner, in exchange for AOL Time Warner's Chinese Entertainment Television (CETV) being granted official landing rights in southern China.
TVB, which will pay $3 million for a 60% stake in the joint venture, also made noises about co-production ventures with CCTV, again without offering concrete details.
Lengthy negotiations
It's a frustrating time for TVB, which has long tried to crack the Chinese market. Its Cantonese-language channel is beamed across southern China and is the most popular channel there -- but it occupies a gray area legally, because it has yet to be granted landing rights by Chinese authorities.
That limits the revenue the company can get out of China, and also casts a shadow over its future plans for that market.
Despite years of chatting up Chinese authorities, TVB recently suffered the ignominy of watching AOL Time Warner and Phoenix TV -- part owned by News Corp. -- receive permission to screen programs in southern China.
The announcement of this sketchy joint venture looks like a face-saving attempt to show TVB is still a player. As far as investors were concerned, the ploy worked: TVB's shares climbed 10% the day after the announcement.
