China Central Television's announcement that it is to launch a 24-hour news channel is the latest move in a plan to gradually reform the state-owned station.
Due to be launched on May 1, the new channel - dubbed 'the 13th' fits into a long-term plan to make CCTV more relevant in the highly competitive information age.
While the news channel will be government-funded and its content tightly controlled, CCTV's other ten channels and two run by the Motion Picture Bureau will gradually become subject to market forces.
Yu Guoming, Professor of Journalism at the People's University, said CCTV's flaws had been exposed by its coverage of the September 11 attacks in the US. The rigid news format proved totally unable to meet public demand for information.
'CCTV basically abdicated its role as a source of information during the time of crisis,' he said, adding that there was a consensus in government circles that the information void had to be filled.
Some industry observers contended that the major driving force for reform came from freeing the existing channels to make money.