Who's the Most Influential Channel of All?

Welcome back! China Media Monitor returns from its October national holiday break this week with an issue packed with media-related news, including a wrap-up of two new reports evaluating which channels have the highest ratings and "influence" in China.

Determining which station wields the most "influence" is a tricky proposition anywhere. It's particularly difficult in a developing country as large and diverse as China, where reliable data and media metrics are simply unavailable for large swathes of the population.

These challenges have not stopped the China Radio, Film and Television magazine published under SARFT from compiling an annual list of the most influential terrestrial provincial stations. This year, the team compiling the list used a range of criteria to determine each station's influence, including station revenue as a percentage of regional GDP, audience ratings, online influence and a determination by the panel of expert judges.

After doing the sums, the team at China Radio, Film and Television hailed Shanghai Television-News (STV-News) as the most influential provincial terrestrial station in China in 2007, followed by Zhejiang TV-Education and Science and Hebei TV-Economics and Life (see story under Television for the full report).

Shanghai TV's terrestrial channels fared very well in the rankings overall. STV-TV Drama weighed in as the most influential provincial terrestrial TV drama channel in China in 2007, while its Documentary and Children's channels were ranked in the top five most influential specialist channels in China.

In contrast, the top-rated provincial satellite channels in the first half of 2008 were run by a completely different group of broadcasters. Dragon TV, the satellite channel run by STV parent group Shanghai Media Group (SMG), failed to make it into the top ten provincial satellite channels by ratings. Hunan Satellite TV took that gong, followed by Anhui Satellite TV, Jiangsu Satellite TV and Sichuan Satellite TV.

Channels from the same media group are often run as completely separate entities with different management and different programming, which partly accounts for the discrepancy. Differences in media metrics and evaluation methods are also at work.

While it's clear that China has a long way to go before there are any absolute measures of "influence" or popularity, the two reports paint an interesting picture of the media landscape in China and we hope you enjoy the insight.