China broadcaster transforms under pressure

Mainland China's television industry, one of the ruling Communist party's bastions for information control, is being gradually transformed from within amid growing pressure for commercial success, according to the head of one of the few privately owned broadcasters operating in the market.

"The rise of the Internet and the upcoming convergence between broadcasting and telecom networks in China will turn our industry upside down," said Liu Changle, chairman and chief executive of Hong Kong-listed Phoenix Satellite Television. Liu said he did not believe that the Chinese government would loosen rules banning private and foreign investment in broadcasting and cross-provincial consolidation among domestic state-owned broadcasters in the near term. However, he said Beijing was tolerating deals that went against the spirit of its own restrictions. "There are more and more grey areas [in broadcasting]," he said.