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SCMP Reporter

ABC Australia Television has signed a breakthrough deal with the Ministry of Radio, Film and Television in Beijing that will allow the transmission of ABC's international programmes on Chinese domestic television.

  It marked the first major international agreement following last September's tightening of regulations controlling satellite services beamed into China.

  Under the deal, signed by ABC's managing director David Hill and government minister Ai Zhisheng, Chinese stations will be permitted to downlink ABC satellite transmissions for re-broadcast.

  A separate agreement was also signed between the ABC and China's major national television organisation, Central China TV (CCTV).

  Mr Hill said the second deal would give Australians access to a wide range of Chinese-made programming for inclusion on national ABC television.

  The moves also opened the way for further direct negotiations with provincial broadcasters throughout China, he said.

  ABC, launched in 1983, is beamed by satellite to 15 countries in Southeast Asia, including much of southern China. The area covers a population in excess of one billion people.

  ABC now has in place re-transmission deals with Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore, Laos, the Philippines and China.

  The signal to the Philippines is immediately re-broadcast via local cable operations, while that sent to the other countries is recorded (and in some cases re-dubbed) prior to re-transmission on local terrestrial stations.

   Meanwhile, Television New Zealand (TVNZ) has struck a five-year deal with Hongkong Telecom for a full-time, digitally-compressed, uplink service to the Pacific satellite transponder, to help the station complete its worldwide network.

  TVNZ will now be able to access a footprint that stretches from Thailand to the West Coast of the United States, and from New Zealand to Alaska.

  Jon Blomfield, general manager of international for TVNZ, said: ''The key thing is that the uplink gives us a gateway into Asia where there is a high growth rate, and where we already have a great deal of commercial interest.''   TVNZ is a major partner in the recently launched Asian Business News, an 18-hour per day business channel covering Hong Kong, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Taiwan and the Philippines.



China tunes to land of Oz