1. A Nation of 1.1 Billion TV Watchers
China's first TV station -- Beijing TV Station, the predecessor of China Central Television Station -- was founded in 1958 and aired its first program on September 2 that year.

That TV station was installed in a 60-square-meter room inside the Central People's Broadcasting Station, where all the broadcasting and production was made. Due to equipment and technical deficiencies, the images on the screen were shaky. By 1960, China had a mere 12,000 TV sets, mostly in large cities. For a long time, due to the slow economic growth, TV sets remained out of reach of ordinary families. In 1978, there were 35 TV stations across the country and 80 million viewers, with only 2% of households having a TV set, or every 1,000 people having one TV set. Moreover, most TV viewers were located in large cities such as Beijing, Tianjin and Shanghai and most of them used nine-inch black-and-black TV sets.

The reform and opening-up policy brought a boom to the TV industry. During 1980-1988, the number of TV viewers grew by 61 million annually. As more assembly lines were installed, TV sets became an affordable household necessity. Urban residents have their eyes on color, large-screen TV sets, while rural residents are also not satisfied with black-and-white sets anymore.
In 1982, CCTV for the first time broadcast live the finals of the World Cup soccer games, which became a grand gala festival of Chinese audience. In 1984, on the eve of the Chinese New Year, it launched another ground-breaking program, a Spring Festival Variety Show, to the warm applause of the audience. Those two shows have been kept alive ever since and in fact are the most popular shows of CCTV.

On May 4, 1992, Beijing Cable TV started broadcasting, increasing the channels of viewers to more than a dozen. By the end of 1995, cable TV coverage reached 50-60 km in diameter, boasting more than 1 million subscribers. Shanghai Cable TV, which also went into operation in 1992, used a combination of world-advanced fiber optics and electric wires, with a penetrating capacity of 70 km in diameter. By the end of 1994, it enlisted 1 million subscribers, attracting vendors from the United States, Canada, Japan and Hong Kong to negotiate deals in network equipment and program exchange.

On November 30, 1995, CCTV test-broadcast its coded programs via satellite and officially launched it on January 1, 1996. Using world-advanced digital technology, CCTV airs its programs in connection with a national cable TV satellite network. One general-purpose channel (including programming for children, agriculture, science and technology, and military science) is free of charge, and the other three channels (movie, sports and entertainment) carry a subscription fee.
In fact, CCTV was not the first TV producer who aired its programs via satellites. A number of local stations already did it before CCTV. The rise of cable TV relay stations make it possible for commercial TV to really make it big.

The Chinese government has made great efforts to support radio and TV coverage in underdeveloped areas. Thanks to the installation of microwave lines and ground satellite-reception stations, 24 million people of ethnic origins in the underdeveloped areas are now able to listen to radio and watch TV. China aims to increase TV coverage to 90% by 2000, a goal that has already been achieved in many parts of the country.

No statistics is available as to how many TV towers have been built in China. However, of the 10 TV towers measuring more than 200 meters in height, only one is in Japan (333 meters tall) and the rest all in China. Beijing, Tianjin and Shanghai have each built a super-tall tower. The CCTV Tower in Beijing stands at 405 meters, while the one in Tianjin at 415.2 meters and the Pearl of the Orient in Shanghai is 468 meters tall. Each of the three towers represents the tallest structure in their city. Worldwide, there are only two other taller towers, one in Toronto (553.3 meters) and another in Moscow (533.3 meters). Pearl of the Orient, in particular, has the largest antenna (450 tons in weight and 118.7 meters in length) in the world.

2. CCTV Station
CCTV, the largest TV broadcaster in China, together with 3,125 smaller stations and ground networks, constitutes the largest TV network in the world. China's TV producers deserve much credit for enriching the lives of the world's most populous country.

On May 1, 1993, Yang Weiguang, newly appointed president of CCTV, decided to launch a new show called "Oriental Horizons" at non-prime time morning hours. That show changed many people's habit of not watching TV during daytime, setting a record of daytime viewing (5%). Even replays had the second highest rating, second only to Prime-Time News. In fact, it has been described as a "silent revolution in daytime TV programming".

"Oriental Horizons" was originally made up of four columns: "Celebrity Talks", "MTV", "Life" and "Focus Time". "Celebrity Talks" feature prominent Chinese; "MTV" introduces new pop songs; "Life" tells of stories of common people; "Focus Time" discusses hot topics. Soon, watching "Oriental Horizons" became a fashion and a powerful force shaping social opinions and the resolution of issues.

"Life" documents the daily life of ordinary people, evoking strong resonance from among viewers. Featured characters in this show include a street cleaner, a teahouse attendant, a migrant worker in the city, a self-supported artist, a pupil who takes care of his physically disabled mother, a teacher of folk art, old women who dance on the street, a girl who struggles with death.
"Focus Time" has made a reputatin as a creative TV editorial show reacting promptly to news in the making.

At the end of 1993, CCTV formed a Department of News and Commentaries out of "Oriental Horizons", "Observations and Reflections", and "Today's World". In addition, it launched "Focus" on April 1, 1994, which documents daily major events, at home and abroad, and hot issues facing China. Often, news stories were broadcast the same day they occurred. The host mixes reporting with commentaries, a style that has found a big following.

Local TV stations and print media emulate CCTV by launching similar documentary shows. Beijing TV Station launched on July 1, 1995 "Beijing Express"; in that same year, Henan TV Station launched "Focus '95". These shows have greatly increased the appeal of TV news and sharpened TV's competitiveness in news reporting in relation to other media -- TV appears real-time, fast and touchy. Journalists' sense of social responsibility and conscience has also been heightened.

On April 1, 1996, CCTV leased three satellites from a US company to transmit its programs to audiences the world over. As the national TV carrier, CCTV has established business relations with 250 TV organizations in more than 130 countries and regions.

3. TV Art
To be sure, China's TV art began in 1958, with a televised play called "A Bite of a Vegetable Cake", but prospered only after 1978, when the country adopted the reform and opening-up policy. Technological progress has been striking. In the late 1970s, CCTV could only air two channels of programs, and only CCTV-1 could be transmitted nationwide through microwave stations. In the mid-1980s, CCTV-2 was aired nationally via satellite and a third channel was added. In the 1990s, CCTV-4, aimed at international audiences, was launched. By 1997, seven channels were on the air via satellite. Most other provincial TV stations have also been put on the satellite. The number of TV viewers is estimated at 1.1 billion.

Parallel to technological advances, TV programming has also increased dramatically. Currently, over 6,000 parts of TV plays and over 100,000 hours of entertainment programming are produced annually.

Currently, over 60% of TV programming is TV plays and other forms of entertainment. Popular dramas such as "The Yearning" and "Outlaws of the Marsh" and the "Chinese Spring Festival Variety Show" attract hundreds of millions of viewers, a phenomenon rarely seen in the history of human civilization. Because of its wide coverage and huge impact, TV is fast replacing other forms of entertainment and art as the most permeating form of entertainment.

TV art in contemporary China has gone through three stages: resurrection (1978-1980), booming (1981-1986) and steady growth (1987-1998). During the resurrection period, all the provinces set up their own TV stations and TV play crews. Film studios and art organizations (such as play troupes and orchestras) also got actively involved in the production of TV programming. Annual production of TV plays jumped from less than 100 to 3,000. The most popular and critically acclaimed hits include "News Revelations", "Going Afar", "Basang and Her Siblings", "A Dream of Red Mansion", "Nuerhachi" and "Snow Field". The "Death of Qu Qiubai" (Qu was one of the founders of the Chinese Communist Party), "Besieged City", and "Three Kingdoms" were hailed as milestone hits that marked the sophistication of Chinese TV dramas. A growing number of foreign networks also became interested in Chinese programs such as "Dream of Red Mansion", "A Journey to the West", "Soong Ching-Ling and Her Sisters", "Three Kingdoms" and "Outlaws of the Marsh". Those productions were aired in the United States, Japan, Europe and Southeast Asia. China also participated in international TV competitions, with award-winning shows including "Rainbow Colors", "Little Hut", "A Journey to the South", "Ghetto", "Story of the Clown", and "Little Boat".

A strong pool of talented playwrights, directors, actors/actresses, cinematographers, recording artists, musicians, make-up artists and costume designers makes these achievements possible.
The "Flying Heaven" (Feitian) and "Star Light"(Xingguang) Awards, the highest TV awards in China, have been in practice for over a decade and reflect, to some extent, the progress of the country's young TV industry.