State-owned China Central Television is linking up with British public broadcaster the BBC to show off its latest development: high-definition services.
CCTV, which launched the nation's first high-definition television channel last year, is partnering with the BBC to co-produce a series in the run-up to the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games that will make the most of much sharper and enhanced images and richer colour displays that the technology allows compared with traditional formats.
CCTV's high-definition channel 'will join hands with the BBC to produce a new series, Beautiful China, to introduce the natural environment in the mainland', said Tao Li-bao, executive director on programming and scheduling of CCTV HD Channel. The production team will spend two years on production before the series airs in 2008 in China and Britain.
The broadcasters are hoping the series will help boost interest in the format which entails higher production costs and requires expensive upgrades to send out to viewers.
Break-even point for the HD channel, which started in September last year, will be reached when it gains hundreds of thousand users, said Mr Tao.
'The channel at present attracts 20,000 users,' Mr Tao said.
