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- SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China plans to beam television into every village
by the end of the century, a senior official said on Wednesday. Television
covers 88 percent of China's 1.2 billion people but does not yet reach
many poor and remote rural areas, said Tian Congming, head of the State
Administration of Radio, Film and Television.
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- ``Positive steps are being taken to ensure
that we reach the goal of every village having access to radio and television
broadcasts by the end of the century,'' Tian told a broadcast industry
meeting. China had 923 television stations at the end of last year. It
also had 1,363 radio stations, serving 86 percent of the population, the
official said.
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- China has been rapidly expanding television
broadcasting coverage, though it tightly controls programming and limits
foreign involvement in the sector. Rising living standards have allowed
more people to buy television sets. But many people in the hinterland still
cannot receive broadcasts or are too poor to buy their own television set.
``Because of China's vast territory, complex terrain and huge population,
it is very difficult for radio and television to reach everybody,'' Tian
said. ``But the advances being made in science and technology offer opportunities.''
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- China began using satellite broadcasting
in 1985, helped by government investment in infrastructure which now included
22 up-link stations and 150,000 ground stations, he said. State-controlled
China Central Television as well as 26 provincial-level television stations
use satellites to broadcast some of their programmes, Tian said.
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- The nation also had 756 cable television
stations by the end of 1997, he said, adding the number of subscribers
had reached 70 million and was expected to grow by five million to 10 million
annually. China's financial capital of Shanghai set up a new satellite
television station, Shanghai Broadcasting Network, last month to beam programmes
across China and elsewhere in Asia. In 1992, the eastern city launched
a cable television station which now boasts 18 channels and two million
subscribers in a population of more than 14 million.
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