China Central Television plans to launch at least four channels targeting overseas viewers, paving the way for it to become a worldwide media group. A spokeswoman for the government broadcaster said it would introduce two new channels for overseas Chinese viewers by the end of the year - one featuring news and the other focusing on culture and entertainment.
It planned to launch French and
Spanish-language channels in October. CCTV did not expect high returns from the channels but viewed them as a brand-building exercise. The firm is estimated to have brought in revenue of more than 80 billion yuan last year, up from 70 billion yuan in 2002. CCTV has 12 free-to-air channels, including Chinese-language
CCTV-4 for overseas audiences and English-language
CCTV-9.