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Phoenix Satellite Television Holdings Ltd or Phoenix Television (Simplified Chinese: 凤凰卫星电视 Traditional Chinese:鳳凰衛星電視 Hanyu Pinyin:Fènghuáng Wèixīng Diànshì) (SEHK: 2008) is a Hong Kong-based Mandarin Chinese television broadcaster that serves the Chinese mainland and other markets with substantial Chinese viewers. It has 5 different television channels including Phoenix Comprehensive Channel, Phoenix Chinese Channel, Phoenix Movie Channel, etc. Phoenix Television provides news, information, entertainment programmes. It has a good relationship with the People's Republic of China government. It is one of the few privately owned broadcasting companies in mainland China able to broadcast information about events not covered by the government media, such as the coverage on the Rally Against Basic Law Article 23 on 1 July 2003.

The company intends to move its corporate head office to the Chaoyang District in Beijing.^[1]

Channels

Phoenix TV operates the following channels:

1. Phoenix Chinese Channel, launched on 31 March 1996, one of the long-term foreign broadcasters in China
2. Phoenix Movies Channel, launched on 28 August 1998. It is now in its fifth year of operation as an encrypted pay-television service in China and worldwide.
3. Phoenix InfoNews Channel, launched on 1 January 2001, a 24-hour news channel.
4. Phoenix North America Chinese Channel, launched on 1 January 2001, which now broadcasts on both EchoStar and DirectTV satellite systems and shares the same programming with Phoenix Chinese News and Entertainment Channel.
5. Phoenix Chinese News and Entertainment Channel (also known as Phoenix CNE Channel), launched in August 1999, which is now a 24-hour channel based in London and broadcasting via satellite Eurobird 1 across Europe.

History

The China Phoenix Building is the Shenzhen headquarters of Phoenix Television

Phoenix started Phoenix Chinese Channel on 31 March 1996. During these years, the development of satellite allowed them to expand their broadcast to 53 countries and regions with more than 20 million viewers worldwide, of which more than 62% are Chinese-speaking people. It covers over 42 million households with more than 150 million viewers from the Mainland China.

Phoenix Chinese Channel, Phoenix Movie Channel and Phoenix InfoNews Channel are broadcasting via cable in Hong Kong and via satellite to Taiwan, mainland China and other regions globally.

The Phoenix InfoNews Channel was established on 1 January 2001. It was the first Chinese-language channel that covered news from the regions of Greater China, including mainland China, Taiwan and Hong Kong. There is 24-hour broadcasting on financial news, stock market information as well as news headlines worldwide. In addition, it provides comments and analysis prepared by analysts on current issues and topics.

The Phoenix CNE channel is broadcast in Europe, and the Phoenix North America Channel is broadcast in the Americas.

Programmes

Phoenix features a mix of programmes, ranging from political and economic news and current affairs through talk shows, film and music reviews to movies, and mini series in both Chinese and foreign origins.

Since 1 September 2001, Phoenix Television has been broadcasting a range of United Nations television programme including 57 episodes of "UN in Action", 39 episodes of "World Chronicle", and also some awarded-winning documentaries. Phoenix is cooperating with the United Nations to produce more programmes.

The service of Phoenix is extended to WAP, which facilitates news messages transferred through the mobile technology (SMS and MMS). The service is charged.

Corporation

Ownership

Phoenix Satellite Television holdings Ltd is a public limited company. Shareholders include Today's Asia Ltd. with 37.5% of the company, China Mobile Hong Kong Company Limited with 19.9%, Xin Kong Chuan Mei Group Co., Ltd. (wholly-owned by News Corporation) with 17.6%, China Wise International Ltd. with 8.3% and the public with 16.7%. [1]

Management

Liu Changle (劉長樂), the CEO and founder of Phoenix TV, said Phoenix TV "is developing a global outlook and independent of local political attachment." He is a former colonel of the People's Liberation Army and is known to have produced government propaganda during the Cultural Revolution.

Personalities of Phoenix Television

News Anchor Stars

Phoenix Chinese Television features many well-known news anchors, talk show hosts as their 'STAR PRESENTERS'. Most of them are degree holders in communications or language studies. Some of the top 'star presenters' are

• Wu Hsiao-Li (Sally Wu) (吳小莉)
  • Wu was mentioned by former prime minister Zhu Rongji in a press conference, in which he said that he watched her broadcast news everyday.
• Hu I-Hu (Tiger Hu)(胡一虎)
  • Hu is a reporter who has interviewed the South African ex-President Nelson Mandela. He is also the reporter who has been "the most popular reporter in Taiwan" for 5 years.
• Chen Luyu (陈鲁豫)
  • Luyu hosts a popular talk show A Date With Luyu and is likened as an "Oriental Oprah".
• Zeng Zimo (曾子墨)
• Yang Shu (Susie Yang)(杨舒), an anchor in Phoenix TV.
• Dou Wentao (竇文濤), born August 21, 1967, in Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province, is famous for his weekday talk show Behind the Headlines with Wentao（锵锵三人行） with two guests which he manages.
• Xu Gehui (許戈輝)
• Angela Chow (周英琦)
• Chen Xiaonan (陳曉楠)
• Shen Xing (沈星)
• Luqiu Luwei (閭丘露薇)
  • Luqiu is the first Chinese female reporter who went to Iraq during the Iraq war.
  • Luqiu's contributions on reporting Iraq wars and SARS have been praised by PRC Chairman Hu Jin Tao.
• Liu Hai-Jo (劉海若)
  • Liu was traumatically injured in a railway accident in the United Kingdom in 2002 and surprisingly survived after having been transferred to Beijing People's Hospital.
  • The channel has broadcast updates of her recovering progress.

Close relationship with the mainland

Phoenix has good relationships with the PRC government. In January 2003, the Chinese State Administration of Radio, Films and Television (SARFT) (中國國家廣播電影電視總局) granted landing rights (落地權) to Phoenix InfoNews Channel, making it one of the few non-government related television broadcasters in mainland China able to broadcast information about events not covered by the government media, such as the coverage on the Against Basic Law Article 23 Rally on 1 July 2003.

Hong Kong Television?

Most mainland and Taiwan audiences view Phoenix Television as their only source of information related to Hong Kong, though not many Hong Kong residents watch Phoenix Television for a few reasons:

• Phoenix channels are only available for Hong Kong audiences who have installed satellite or paid for Cable TV (around 600,000 out of 7 million Hong Kong population, according to ACNielsen), therefore it is far behind popular free channels like TVB and ATV. Additionally, Today's Asia Limited, one of two major shareholders of Phoenix, which is owned by Liu Chang-le and Chan Wing-kei, also owns ATV. Both Liu Chang-le and Chan Wing-kei are ATV's directors.
• Many Phoenix programmes are designed for the interest of mainland and Taiwan audiences, Hong Kong people are generally less interested in political news.
• Phoenix broadcasts in Mandarin Chinese, which is less common in Hong Kong than Cantonese, the major spoken variant of Chinese used in Hong Kong.

Prospects of Phoenix Television

• Xinhuanet describes both the pros and cons of Phoenix Television:
  • Phoenix Television is good at creating mood in the scenes to touch their audiences, especially when it airs a live programme.
  • It is a little bit difficult for Phoenix Television to create perfect production in its programmes due to a lack of capital.

• According to the China Economic Review 2003, Phoenix TV has set up a joint venture with Guangdong Television Broadcasting Development Centre to sell advertising and programming to Chinese broadcasters. This could help in generating more income from advertisements and ease their capital needs.

• As stated in its 2003 annual report, Phoenix planned to:
  • Further expand its market share in mainland China.
  • Continue to focus on educated young executives in the mainland, aged below 40, with high income levels, as its target audiences.
  • Start up a production center in Shenzhen to facilitate their operations in mainland China at lower costs.
  • Develop its services through other mediums such as the internet, its weekly magazine (the Phoenix), and bookstores.

See also

• Anthony Yuen

References

External links

• Official Site
• Official Site in English
• Asiaweek's article on Phoenix Television : "Rising Phoenix"
• China Economic Review - Article in March 2003 : "Phoenix sets up venture in Guangdong"
• Hong Kong Phoenix TV Station Initiates IT, American Channel
• Phoenix InfoNews Channel to Land in Guangdong
• Phoenix is a member of the United Nations media partnership

Chinese language television in North America The following channels offer at least some programming in Chinese  Canada Fairchild TV • Talentvision • Omni BC (Vancouver) • Omni Edmonton (Edmonton) • Omni Calgary (Calgary) • Omni.2 (Toronto) • CJNT (Montreal) • Shaw Multicultural Channel (Vancouver)  United States NTDTV (New York / Los Angeles) • SinoVision (New York) • KBTV-CA (Sacramento) • KCNS (San Francisco) • KMTP (San Francisco) • KRCA (Los Angeles) • KSCI / KUAN (Los Angeles / San Diego) • KTSF (San Francisco) • KVMD (Los Angeles) • KXLA (Los Angeles) • TVB Jadeworld (USA) • Phoenix North America Chinese Channel • STAR Chinese Channel • STAR Chinese Movies 2 • Channel V Taiwan

Television in the People's Republic of China China National China Central Television (CCTV) • China Education Television (CETV) Provincial Chongqing Television (CQTV) • Fujian Television (FJTV) • Guangdong TV (GDTV) • Southern Television Guangdong (TVS) • Hebei Television (HEBTV) • Hunan Satellite Television (HTV) • Xinjiang Television Station (XJTV) Cities Beijing Television (BTV) • Guangzhou Television (GZTV) • Shenzhen Media Group (SZMG) • Heilongjiang Television Station (HLJTV) • Nanjing Broadcasting Network (NBN) • Shanghai Media Group (SMG) • Tianjin Television (TJTV) • Xiamen Media Group (XMG) Hong Kong Asia Television Limited (ATV) (ATV Home, ATV World) • Television Broadcasts Limited (TVB) (TVB Jade, TVB Pearl) • Cable TV Hong Kong • Channel V • Hong Kong Broadband Network (HKBN) • Now tv • now Business News Channel • Phoenix Television • Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK) • Xing Kong Macau Teledifusão de Macau (TDM): Canal Macau • Macau TV • TDM HD • TDM-Macau Satellite Greater China MTV Mandarin • Phoenix Television • STAR TV • China Entertainment Television

Chinese language television in Southeast Asia The following channels offer at least some programming in Chinese  Indonesia Metro TV · Da Ai TV Indonesia  Malaysia Free-to-air (All national) TV2 · TV3 · ntv7 · 8TV Subscription television Astro AEC · Hua Hee Dai · Shuang Xing · Wah Lai Toi · Xiao Tai Yang · Astro On Demand · Jia Yu Channel  Singapore Channel 8 · Channel U · Channel NewsAsia

Television in the Republic of China (Taiwan) Taiwan Television TTV • TTV Family • TTV Finance China Television CTV • CTV News Channel • CTV MyLife Chinese Television System CTS • CTS Education and Culture • CTS Recreation • CTS News Channel Formosa TV FTV • FTV News • Follow Me TV Public Television Service PTS • Dimo TV • HiHD Cable Networks Sanlih E-Television • Gala Television • Era Television • TVBS • Chung T'ien Television • Eastern Television • Videoland Television Network • STAR TV • Taiwan Broadcasting System