MIPTV 2012- CANNES. China’s CCTV9 Documentary channel started broadcasting over a year ago and now reaches over 25 million homes in 60 countries.
The channel is available in both English and Chinese and has two versions, one for the domestic market and one for international distribution.
CCTV9 Documentary showed a high profile at this year’s MIPTV. One of the aims is to expand its worldwide reach, another to foster more coproduction deals.
The Chinese broadcaster, which boasts a daily peak audience of 94 million in China alone, already has many coproduction deals in place with the BBC Worldwide, NHK, ITV, France Televisions, National Geographic, KBS and many others including series such as Generation Earth, China’s Hidden Landscapes: Sinkholes and Chinese Mega Projects.
CCTV9 Documentary Channel was launched on January 1, 2011 by China Central Television. In China, it attracts mainly an upmarket audience that is curious to learn about China itself as well about other countries around the world. The broadcaster has acquired over 1,000 hours of imported programming during the past year.
The international version, also available in both Chinese and English, aims to offer a window on China to the world. The name CCTV9 was formerly used for the Chinese broadcaster’s English language news channel, that was since renamed CCTV News.
The new channel’s mandate is to bring China’s culture to the world. The channel broadcasts 2,500 hours of Chinese programming annually, relying on the resources of over 100 TV stations and 1,000 companies around the country. The channel that is broadcast domestically, acquires over 1,000 hours a year from foreign broadcasters.
