BEIJING (AP) - China's state broadcaster plans to revamp its staid news broadcasts for the first time in a decade to combat a sharp decline in viewership, an official newspaper said Wednesday.
More human-interest stories and critical reporting will be introduced to try to win back viewers who have flocked instead to cable channels and the Internet, the official China Daily said.
Despite wielding a monopoly on national prime time news broadcasts, CCTV's program has seen a decline in viewership from 40 percent in 1998 to only 5.6 percent at present, according to a recent survey, the newspaper said.
Programmers need to address audience demands and changes in the media landscape or face further declines, it quoted Renmin University journalism professor Yu Guoming as saying.
The content of the 7 p.m. nightly half-hour news broadcast - CCTV's main news show - must be approved by top Communist propaganda officials, and focuses heavily on the activities of President Hu Jintao and other top leaders, along with official announcements and economic achievements.
Anchors are devoid of personality and tend toward a ponderous delivery, while production values are basic, and international, sports and entertainment news generally receive only passing attention.
The political straightjacketing has proved a turnoff, especially for young, better-educated urbanites who command a range of options for obtaining information, from cable and satellite channels to Facebook and Web sites that are less susceptible to the tight government controls faced by traditional media.
Media experts offered only slight odds on the chances for significant changes given the news broadcast's overriding political nature and its constant need to portray the government in the most positive light possible.
CCTV issued no official announcement about the changes, reportedly to go into effect June 20, and calls to network spokesmen rang unanswered.
As with most Chinese media, the Communist Party has sought to make CCTV more viewer-friendly in a bid to improve the effectiveness of its propaganda while turning a profit, said David Bandurski, an expert on Chinese media at the University of Hong Kong.
Heightened concern this year about social stability and unrest among Tibetans and Uighur Muslims in western China makes reform even less likely, Bandurski said.
"I don't think, given ongoing and even intensifying press controls in this sensitive year, that we can expect any substantive change in the news and its propaganda function," Bandurski said.
"The idea is to make news products more attractive to the people, but this does not at all imply a loosening of controls," he said.
