Next year, Chinese state broadcaster CCTV swaps its aging Fuxing Lu compound for a Rem Koolhaas-designed building on the other side of the city. This switch from the Government to the business end of Beijing’s centuries-old central axis is widely seen as a fitting trade for the broadcaster that is trying to shed its image as a mouthpiece and trying to reinvent itself as a digital multi-channel broadcaster, who just happens to be state-owned.
Following in the footsteps of broadcasters the world over, the Chinese TV giant is using sports to cement its dominance of an industry that is slowly starting to open up. In the red corner is Jiang Heping, the boss of sports channel CCTV5 and the man charged with fighting off competition from growing domestic powers such as Shanghai Media Group and Hunan TV, while keeping young upstarts like beleaguered pay TV sports channel WinTV, firmly in their place.
This task comes with the added pressure of ensuring coverage of the Olympic Games goes smoothly and lives up to the Chinese Government’s zealous billing: “Since I took over this position in 2005, I have focused on preparations for our Olympic coverage. We’ve finished the plans for everything during the Olympic period and we will have seven channels showing live sports. But we are not only broadcasting live sports, but also providing unilateral coverage from a TV compound, a first for us,” says Jiang, referring to the fact that it is not just China, but also the world which will be watching CCTV’s pictures.
But the fact that the planet will be tuned into his channel isn’t something he feels smug about. “I feel proud China is hosting this very important sporting event. Everyone will play their role, but my role is not very important, I am simply an organiser of the sports coverage,” says Jiang, brimming with textbook Confucian modesty.
“I’m an ordinary man, we simply do our bit to be responsible for the Olympic coverage; it is CCTV that plays the role of promoting the Olympic sports in China,” adds the man known as ‘Peace’ to his colleagues in a play on his Chinese name. “Only my old friends call me that to my face - the younger generation dare not,” he laughs.
All of China’s state-run media are very well-versed in their roles as national mouthpieces, but as a sporting cheerleader, CCTV5 is considerably less Orwellian than other Government organs, a role Jiang clearly revels in.
“We have special programmes to warm up the Olympic atmosphere, last year we launched a brand new show called ‘My Olympics’ on CCTV1 and 5 that tells the stories of Olympic athletes, past, present and future and we also air a lot of programmes about the background of Olympic sports such as ‘Olympic ABC’. We have 50 minutes of Olympic programming every weekday at primetime, which has been very well received, and, we will have extensive coverage of the torch relay - from its lighting on 24 March right through to the opening day.”
With the torch’s lighting ceremony in Athens already disrupted by protests, Jiang won’t be drawn on political issues, “I’m a professional broadcaster,” he says.
Instead, he plays up the technical achievements of the torch’s controversial trip across Tibet on its way to the top of the world’s highest peak, Mount Everest, though he does concede that there will be a timelag on the relay’s coverage, something he describes as “a common practice in live television”. Which might explain why the channel cut away during the torch lighting ceremony protests.
And it’s not just Tibetans and free speech advocates who pose a threat - this year started with a farcical reminder of the dangers of live television when a press conference to celebrate CCTV5’s rebranding as the Olympic Channel was disrupted by Hu Ziwei - a chatshow hostess on a rival network - who hijacked proceedings to denounce her husband, Zhang Bin - one of CCTV’s main sports presenters - for alleged infidelities.
“This was simply an individual issue and has nothing to do with CCTV - it is a family matter,” says Jiang, who may be have been placated by the fact Hu ended her rant with a personal apology to the CCTV5 controller.
CCTV5 is an ideological Frankenstein, mixing Communist thought with open market economics, attracting revenue through advertising while fulfilling a remit as a national broadcaster and supporting distinctly Chinese sports such as weiqi and Chinese chess, lest they start to disappear. But what will Jiang himself be watching in the unlikely event of him getting a day off during the Games?
“I’m a patriot - if Liu Xiang can retain his gold medal I will feel very proud… he has broken the taboo that Chinese can’t achieve track and field gold medals.”
Jiang Heping's CV
2005 Director, CCTV sports programming centre
2003 Deputy director, CCTV overseas service and controller, CCTV 9
2000 Deputy director, English Service Channel, CCTV
1996 Deputy director, CCTV news editorial department
1987 News editor, CCTV1 World News
