Government Subsidies, Market Socialism, and the “Public” Character of Chinese Television: The Transformation of Chongqing Satellite TV
In March 2011 Chongqing Satellite TV was made a public-interest channel
and discontinued advertising, losing 0.3 billion yuan in revenue. The shortfall
is to be partially made up by annual government subsidies of 0.15 billion
yuan. The transformation of Chongqing Satellite TV is very much related
to the widely debated reform of governance in Chongqing (the so-called
Chongqing model), and thus is inevitably controversial. It has attracted
critical commentary from academia, the advertising industry, and netizens,
while the TV station and the Chongqing municipal government have not
mounted an effective defense. Often, the two sides in the debate have been
at cross-purposes and have spoken past each other. This article attempts to
move beyond rigid binary oppositions, such as official/civilian and academic/
political, and to look at the arguments of both sides in the debate with an
eye toward promoting a clearer understanding of public media in China.
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