Dear Slate, yes there are chocolate bars in China
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Rumour has it that Shanghai Media Group, the city's largest TV conglomerate which operates 20 television and radio channels, has plans to start a new 24-hour English language news channel. Rejoice all ye who don't have (or can't afford) satellite at home (that includes us)! Well apparently this has been in the works for a year now, and while SMG hasn't jumped pass the final regulatory hurdle, it has already started hiring "hiring English-speaking presenters, editors and reporters, including foreigners, for the new service" (now just where does one send in his CV?).
Dutch reporter Fons Tuinstra of China Herald asks a rhetorical question, Can the Shanghai Media Group beat CNN?:
Could the Shanghai Media Group (or any other state-owned broadcasting station in China) compete on a global market. I'm not the most reliable expert in this field, since I have given up watching the boring nonsense on Chinese TV years ago.
To be honest, we're not too sure ourselves but from what we've seen of SMG's English-language lunchtime news segment, they have a jolly good chance of putting CCTV-9 to shame. Go SMG go!
Related links
Reuters: Shanghai Media plans English news channel in China
China Herald: Can the Shanghai Media Group beat CNN?
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SMG's Chinese news channel actually puts together a pretty decent broadcast, which managed to capture my attention back when they were getting away with broadcasting it during the 7pm slot. There must have been a crackdown or something because they've started broadcasting the standard CCTV evening news now.
http://ks.cn.yahoo.com/question/1307030201551.html
I'd expect that their English news would be no Phoenix TV, but still beat out CCTV-9 (not much of a challenge, but still...).