Overseas television broadcasters have been working for a long time, largely behind the scenes, to obtain a foothold on the mainland market - the promised land of 1.3 billion potential viewers and immense advertising income.

As the race to gain entry to the mainland heats up, a US company says that it has achieved a breakthrough which will enable it to significantly enhance its presence, at least in Shanghai, the mainland's most cosmopolitan city. The company, CNBC, a joint venture between NBC, a major television network in the US, and Dow Jones, publisher of, among other things, the Wall Street Journal, operates a predominantly business news channel with a global reach.

CNBC, like many other foreign broadcasters, has the right to pipe its business-news channel to major hotels and foreigners' residential compounds. Earlier this year, it reached a co-production agreement with Shanghai Media Group to supply business-related programmes to be broadcast through Shanghai Media's cable-television network that reaches more than three million potential viewers in the Shanghai area.

Separately, CNBC has formed a strategic alliance with MGM Networks to provide an all-movie television channel to subscribers across key Asian markets. The contents of the channel will be drawn from MGM's vast library of films.

In an interview with China Daily, Alexander Brown, president and chief executive officer of CNBC Asia Pacific, says that the co-production agreement with Shanghai Media allows the company to achieve a number of objectives. "We are working on several projects in co-operation with our Shanghai partner," Brown says.

A product born out of the co-production agreement with Shanghai Media is the adaptation of a CNBC regional programme "Managing Asia" for a mainland audience, Brown says. The Chinese-language business programme is carried on Shanghai Media's cable-television network. Brown says the programme is a commercial success judged by its advertising revenue.

Thus encouraged, CNBC is co-operating with Harvard Business School to produce a new programme for Shanghai viewers. Brown says that it will be based mainly on case studies for which the business school is famous. A pilot episode of the programme is ready for release soon, Brown says. "We try our best to make this programme relevant to our target viewers on the mainland," he says.

Meanwhile, CNBC co-produces with Shanghai Media a daily business bulletin anchored by Shanghai Media staff. The news bulletin covers the Shanghai stock market and other mainland business news. It is broadcast through CNBC's worldwide network, he says.

CNBC's latest efforts to enter the mainland market come at a time when mainland audiences, especially those in the major cities, have developed a strong appetite for news programmes. Although network ratings are not available on the mainland, the high frequency of advertising in news programmes serves as a clear indication of their popularity. For instance, news programmes generate about 50 per cent of China Central Television's total advertising income, which amounted to 700 million yuan (US$84.54 million) in 2002.

Advertising revenue for news programmes at CCTV exceeded 330 million yuan so far in 2003 and advertising bookings for the 90-minute daily-news bulletin at Jiangsu Satellite Television had been filled up.

Unsurprisingly, mainland television broadcasters are churning new and longer news programmes. Earlier this year, CCTV launched a 24-hour news channel and Jiangsu Broadcast said it would produce a new news programme in addition to its existing news channel.

In January, Phoenix Satellite Television became the first broadcaster outside the mainland to obtain rights to pipe the Chinese-language news channel to all major hotels on the mainland.

Meanwhile, in Hong Kong, Television Broadcast (TVB), the territory's leading broadcaster, has plans to produce a 24-hour news service. It will likely be facing very stiff competition from international news broadcasters, including CNN and BBC, which are keen on winning mainland landing rights.

CNBC, meanwhile, has a plan to produce more business news programmes specifically for the mainland market, Brown says. The company believes that the demand by mainland audiences for international business news and the latest information on technology and management techniques will grow rapidly as the mainland economy becomes increasingly global.

The partnership with MGM is an indication of the company's strong Asian presence as well as a logical extension of the existing corporate relationships between NBC and MGM. These relationships include an international distribution alliance and a domestic US advertising sales joint venture.

The MGM channel is made available to potential Hong Kong audiences though PCCW's broadband television network. It has also made the necessary arrangement for launching the service in Indonesia.

Bruce Tuchman, MGM Networks' executive vice president, says that his company is working closely with CNBC Asia Pacific, which is "deeply entrenched and widely dispersed in Asia" to expand into other Asian markets, including the mainland.

(HK Edition 10/31/2003 page7)