Shanghai Media Group

Shanghai Media Group
上海文广新闻传媒集团
Type Broadcast
Country People's Republic of China
Availability in Shanghai, other parts in China
Official website SMG Online

Shanghai Media Group (SMG), (Chinese: 上海文广新闻传媒集团, Pinyin: Shànghǎi Wénguǎng Xīnwén Chuánméi Jítuán) under the Shanghai Media & Entertainment Group (SMEG), is a multimedia television and radio broadcasting, news and Internet company. The company employs around 5,200 people, with capital assets totalling RMB 11.7 billion.

Formed in 2001, SMG is the result of a merger between the People’s Radio Station of Shanghai, East Radio Shanghai, Shanghai Television Station, and Oriental Television Station.

SMG’s core business is television broadcasting and related media entertainment services including sports, showbiz, performance arts, science and technology, and finance. The television broadcasting media consist of 11 analogue TV channels, 90 digital paid cable TV channels, a full broadcasting Internet TV service, along with 10 analogue and 19 digital radio services. The group also operates and owns 5 sports centres and 14 cultural art centres. Other areas of operation include newspapers, magazines, news websites, and audio-visual publishing.

According to a survey of AC Nielsen, eleven of the group’s TV channels have achieved a market share of 76% during prime time in 2003. Revenue from advertising accounts for 10% of the commercial sales turnover in the local market. Being a producer and a publisher in the various fields of news, film, TV series, music, sports, finance, entertainment, and documentary, SMG is pushing itself towards the domestic and international Chinese-speaking market.

Through reinforcing financial initiatives, SMG is currently undergoing aggressive expansion into new areas such as pay cable TV services, programme patent sales, brand-related business, and programme innovation.

Contents

Recent developments

In 2007, the Shanghai Media Group planned to launch a new all-English channel [1] but as early as 2003 they were conducting a feasibility study before setting up a new channel[2] [3]. Launched in January 2008, the new channel (ICS - International Channel Shanghai) will be China's second 24-hour foreign-language TV channel to broadcast nationwide after CCTV-9.

China Central Television, Shanghai Media's biggest rival and controlled by the central government, now operates an English channel (CCTV-9) which targets a foreign audience, but of which the main audience is English-speaking local people.

Shanghai Media also aims to broadcast the planned English news channel to countries in Asia, Europe, and North America through satellite or cooperation with local broadcasters. As a step in this direction, Shanghai Media through its distribution company Wings/Media has forged a relationship with a US Company China Animation Partners, LLC to distribute ICS News over New Media platforms including mobile and Internet [1]. CNEWSCO, LLC, an affiliate of China Animation Partners, starting in 2009 has established a growing presence for ICS as well as other English language news shows produced by Shanghai Media including BizTime and Spotlight [2].

As for English programming on the radio in Shanghai, the city's only English-language radio talkshow "Live It Up, Shanghai" broadcasts on the East Radio channel (792am and 89.9fm). The programme was increased from its 2008 length of half an hour per day, to its current length in 2009 of 1 hour per day. It is broadcast between 11pm to midnight, seven days a week. Ticket giveaways and interviews with guests from all walks of life are a feature of the show. The programme was formally incorporated into SMG's programming schedule in January 2003, and has been hosted ever since by local radio host Kevin Wu (吴思源 Wu SiYuan) and Englishman Edward Morton Jack (who had previously been a producer, presenter and newsreader for Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK) in Hong Kong). The two have made a successful partnership, and the show has more than 3 times the number of listeners of the next nearest competitor in its timeslot.

List of Shanghai Media Group Stations

Shanghai Media Group Radio Stations
Frequency Description
990 AM / FM 93.4 News
648 AM / FM 105.7 Traffic
1296 AM Eastern China Regional News
792 AM / 89.9 FM Shanghai Local News
101.7 FM Popular Music (POP 101) (Mandopop)
103.7 FM Love Music
94.7 FM Classical Music
97.7 FM Economic/Business News
107.2 FM Story Channel
1197 AM / FM 97.2 Marine Channel
94.0 FM Sports News

List of Shanghai Media Group TV Channels

See also

References

External links