This new Access Asia report analyses the new media market in China, its government control, the key players in the market, as well as new investment opportunity. The sectors include cable TV, satellite TV, interactive and Pay-TV and the Internet.
Over the last two decades, China has been moving from an economic system dictated by central planning to one that is increasingly sensitive to market forces. Since the introduction of reforms by Deng Xiaoping in 1979, economic growth has averaged at least 10% - the fastest growth rate of any major economy in history. China is set on an ambitious - and probably unstoppable - plan for national economic development. Yet the economic freedoms that have improved the lives of millions of Chinese have also weakened Beijing’s administrative and economic control over its increasingly autonomous provinces and regions. In the face of such decentralisation, the leadership has sought to find a means of reasserting social, economic and political control without upsetting overall growth. The Internet, telecoms and new media technologies have unprecedented potential to boost the Chinese economy. New media technologies such as broadband, cable and satellite communications offer fresh channels for both government and business to gain access to China’s fast-growing, increasingly consumer-orientated population.