China launches ambitious Chinese Internet TV service

On December 28, 2009, China Central Television launched its international webcast television service with the domain name of CNTV.cn. (China Network Television). It will become the most elaborate webcast video service in the world with its ambitious plan. It shows that Chinese government realizes the immense international potential of webcasting.

CNTV offers five major types of programs. They are news, sports, entertainment, and two online video products named "bugu" and "xiyou". "Xiyou" serves as a community where users share their uploaded videos. "Bugu" provides video services including live online broadcasts, video on demand, and 24-7 replays.

The goal of the Internet TV service is to offer live web casting of all programs from CCTV's 20 channels. It will work to collect 400 thousand hours of programs created by CCTV in previous years. Meanwhile, it offers services such as program request, search, download and comment.

Tentatively, its business model will follow the CCTV model with state funding and advertising support. The question is the adoption. The webcast is only in Chinese with no English subtitles or English version or other languages.