LEADER: A little too early to celebrate success

<p>If News Corporation and AOL Time Warner succeed in landing in </p><p>China, they are likely to change Asia's television landscape quite </p><p>dramatically. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Both have been tenacious in their efforts to break into the world's most </p><p>populous market; News Corp more than its rival. The Murdoch-owned media </p><p>giant even dropped BBC from its line-up of Star programmes when the </p><p>British broadcaster aired a series of critical documentaries about </p><p>China's political and social woes. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Despite the recent announcement, it seems somewhat premature to crow </p><p>about the deal - the prize for now is broadcast rights for southern, not </p><p>the whole of China, and that is still under negotiation. The worry is </p><p>that it could take just as long - Star spent the better part of the last </p><p>decade wooing China - to scoop up broadcast rights for the rest of the </p><p>mainland. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>When that happens, the two global media giants will naturally claim </p><p>first mover advantage. Although in the mainland , the first one in </p><p>doesn't neccessarily have an advantage - later entrants at least have </p><p>the benefit of picking up valuable lessons from the early birds for </p><p>traversing the many minefields that make up China's business scene. </p><p>Certainly in TV, the jig-saw is far from complete with China only in the </p><p>early stages of overhauling its TV industry. But the two deals should </p><p>excite rivals like Viacom, Discovery and Hallmark, and spark a scramble </p><p>for an audience with China's broadcast authorities. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>But there is an obstacle to mining China's pot of gold. In return for </p><p>opening the door to Guangdong, China has insisted that the pair carry </p><p>its national broadcaster CCTV in the US. But CCTV is largely seen as the </p><p>Chinese Government's propaganda arm and this demand has the makings of a </p><p>political hot potato. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Which may explain why details of the negotiations were announced before </p><p>the deals were completed. In all probability, China was testing the </p><p>waters to gauge US public reaction before moving on. The deal is far </p><p>from done. </p><p><BR><BR> </p>