China Central Television plans to launch at least four channels targeting overseas viewers, paving the way for it to become a worldwide media group. A spokeswoman for the government broadcaster yesterday said it would introduce two new channels for overseas Chinese viewers by the end of the year - one featuring news and the other focusing on culture and entertainment. It planned to launch French and Spanish-language channels in October. CCTV did not expect high returns from the channels but viewed them as a brand-building exercise. The firm is estimated to have brought in revenue of more than 80 billion yuan last year, up from 70 billion yuan in 2002, thanks to growing advertising spending by mobile-phone operators and food manufacturers. CCTV has 12 free-to-air channels, including Chinese-language CCTV-4 for overseas audiences and English-language CCTV-9.
