Introduction
In 1996 Phoenix Television started as a medium broadcast channel. Born in Hong Kong, where entertainment is the main focus, the network found it difficult to compete with local media conglomerates such as TVB and PEAR; these channels had already gained the most of the market share in Hong Kong. Thus, Phoenix switched their focus and redirected the target audience to Mainland China.
While Phoenix corporate owner’s Murdoch centers their broadcast focus on entertainment, Liu ChangLe centered its broadcast focus on the broadcast news, which can be seen as a high risk. A survey conducted by the television station, Liu, surprisingly found that a plethora of the population including students, scholars, businessmen and politicians were actually very hungry for international news including news from Hong Kong and Taiwan. Relatively few broadcast networks cover news by the Chinese medium. Thus, Phoenix started to target the audience with “three high characteristics” high education, high income and high official rank, according to Elite Orientation; these groups of people are affluent and urban citizens with power and strong buyer craft.
In 1997 “Fenghuang Zao Ban Che” started to air on Phoenix. Airing this program was a milestone for the network, and helped the network to gain a large number of viewers in its audience because of its fresh perspective and voice on news. Subsequently, the launching of this program can be seen as an overthrow by the way news was delivered in the traditional Chinese news broadcasting format with a strong “news accent”. Phoenix’s news program delivered news to the audience using a “storytelling” manner; this new way of news broadcasting aroused its audience’s interest to watch and experienced a new television experience.
Consequently, this programing strategy was soon imitated by a range of other television stations in China. “xiaoli kanshijie”, “luyu xin guan cha”, which was later produced, have also received multiple compliments by way of their unique angle and live broadcast of news events. During the late 90s, Chinese media was still in its infancy compared with the Western media conglomerates, both regarding its software and hardware. A timing of live broadcasting of global event seemed almost impossible at that time for many of the media in China. Yet, Phoenix’s professional and financial affiliation to the Murdoch News Corporation has provided it with huge advantages in terms of its capital, techniques, and access to content at that time. Phoenix Satellite TV has access to, for example, live footage from Fox News when reporting events from the U.S. or other countries. For instance, while reporting the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, China Central Television (the state TV network ), only offered a three hour recorded footage; whereas, Phoenix cut off its regular programming to provide round-the-clock live coverage. Thus, Phoenix TV had a large influence among the entire Chinese society during one night; this style of global reporting can be seen as another important milestone the network has achieved, and prompted the launch of CCTV News Channel.
During the late 90s to early 2000s, Phoenix TV gained an obvious competitive advantage over its competitor on the Chinese market. Fortunately, with its overseas media identity, direct censorship from the Communist Party does not apply to Phoenix. Case in point, Phoenix does not have to carry the CCTV’s Network News at 7:00 p.m. like all other Chinese media. Thus, the broadcasting producers of Phoenix have more freedom over what they can cover and can cover the news relatively more objectively; using a variety of angels and more in depth reporting than its competitors, is how news is covered by Phoenix verses any other Chinese medium. CCTV, seen as its biggest competitor, however, needed to follow the government regulated broadcasting content. Thus, Phoenix enjoyed this advantage under the conservative political situation in China in a time where many Chinese people lost their confidence in China’s media state.
“Overseas” media are considered by many of the Chinese citizens to be more credible. Hence, Pheonix TV, with its international background, is already perceived by many as a creditable source of information. With the return of Hong Kong to China, Phoenix should not really be considered as a pure “overseas” medium. Wisely, the network has actively emphasised its identity as a Hong Kong TV station by broadcasting a plethora of international news coverage, while airing programs specifically targeting Hong Kong viewers, such as the Cantonese language news program “Talk about Hong Kong”.
CCTV, with a role as the state owned television, can enjoy many of the privileges that come with government funding where Phoenix TV is not privy. CCTV can, for example, get enormous funding for its operation from the state. Thus, approximately 90 percent of Phoenix TV’s revenue comes from advertisement. Also, contrary to Phoenix’s marginalized status, CCTV enjoys a dominant status as the national network in China. While Phoenix Info News Channel waited for two years to gain a market share in China, and was only granted limited access to the Guangdong Province, when CCTV had broadcast rights to high-income neighborhoods and hotels of three stars or above in other provinces. CCTV News Channel achieved a hundred percent landing in Mainland China in just one month; that is, residents in every corner of China can receive it, unlike Phoenix TV.
Another privilege for CCTV is access it has to certain content in terms of its journalists. For example, national news such as foreign national leaders’ visitations to China,CCTV News Channel and Xinhua News Agency are the only two Chinese media institutions that can go on-site to record, interview, and report on foreign national leaders’ visits. Therefore, Phoenix is not CCTV’s news equal. Case in point, when it comes covering the big breaking news, such as Invasion in Iraq, CCTV used its privileged status as a national network to monopolize the most prestigious experts in fields of military, international affairs and so on, to comment or arrange live news correspondence; thus making it impossible for those guests to provide commentary for Phoenix. To deal with the monopoly of CCTV, Phoenix used Phoenix anchors as commentators. Consequently, Phoenix used the star system which they are highly experienced in to create these anchors credible and knowledgeable commentators, anchors like Karen Lee.
How successful Phoenix is in its business is not difficult to measure; simply looking at its advertisement revenue can give one an idea of its success. In 1996, the year Phoenix began operation, the advertisement already reached to 63 million. In 2000, just after four years, the income had increased to 6 hundred million, which is double of what it gained in the first year, increasing rate was up to 81.15% . By December 2008, the ad revenue of 10 hundred million (4million HKD), made the network the fourth largest Mandarin television network, just behind CCTV, Beijing TV, and Shanghai TV. Is it worth noting that CCTV, Beijing TV, and Shanghai TV can reach 90 percent of the population while Phoenix’s penetration is only 18 percent? Phoenix’s increasing rate is rare, even in the global TV media history.
In brief, it is not doubtful that Phoenix has boosted the development of TV news in China, where the network has brought the West-inspired news value, journalism and television program to Chinese television. Phoenix has also become a standard against which professional and nonprofessional journalism in China is compared during the early days.
Global coverage
As a Mandarin service network, Phoenix tends to excel at covering world events, and reports relatively lesser domestic news compared to other networks in China like CCTV. This is not only reflected by its news topic selections, but also its depth of news coverage and the fact that it airs live, in an environment where the national news is monopolized by CCTV, when provincial TV networks can rely on news in their own areas, and this advantage does not apply to Phoenix as a pan-China TV network. Focusing relatively on more international news is both a safe way to keep a good relationship with the government while meet the demand for its target audience.
Infotainment
Another strategy is to utilize infotainment, meaning news programs are also meant to entertain. The network didn’t only act as the first medium in China to deliver the news, yet is was the first to broadcast news in a more interesting manner as mentioned above. Seeing this being imitated by other media, the network also continuous to innovate and add other new programs, or alter its old programs in order to keep its leading position. From its first operation, the channel has launched over 100 different programs. From the earliest “zaoban che” to “jiang qiang sanren xing”, “you bao tiantian du” and now “tian xia bei wang luo”, Phoenix has covered and discussed hard news, soft news and funny news.
Other evidence for the profound use of infotainment making Phoenix so successful is from the primary news programs such as Good Morning China and The Asia Journal, as well as other break-in brief news programs. Phoenix reported continuously on the investigation and court trial of Sakai Noriko in 2009, a Japanese female star who was charged with possessing illegal drugs; continuous coverage, like this, is evidence illustrating Phoenix’s commitment to the global coverage they promise to their audience. More specifically, this demonstrates their commitment to infotainment and meets the instant satisfaction of the mass media consumer.
Another example, when covering the East Asian Game event the same year, Phoenix dedicated a lot of time to star athletes like Liu Xiang and Guo Jingjing. Both Liu and Guo hold a much higher profile in the media than most Olympic Gold Medal winners. This is especially true for Guo, who to some extent could be considered as an entertainment star. For these two star athletes, Phoenix described their activities during the time of the East Asian Game in Hong Kong with specific details, including their arrivals at Hong Kong airport, their entourages, and even their outfits, providing the public with soft, yet entertaining news. In addition to broadcasting soft news, Phoenix is also excellent at broadcasting “hard news” in a soft manner. Xie Zhenhua, the Environment Minister of China and the head of Chinese delegation to Global Climate Change Conference, was forbidden to enter the conference site due to technical problems. Both The Asia Journal and China News Live gave priority to this dramatic news story over the process of the actual conference, indicating a preference by Phoenix for covering specific people rather than governmental proceedings.
Phoenix, with its international background, program models from both the West and Hong Kong broadcast model are often source of inspiration when programs such as Talk Shows were still an unknown area in China. Phoenix TV already launched the popular Lu Yu Talk Show, which was inspired by the American broadcast model of the talk show, Oprah. Therefore, Phoenix doesn’t simply copy from Western culture but is, at the same time, creating a hybrid culture in the process. In other words, Phoenix westernizes or modernizes its programs, but does so in a Chinese way. Thus, these program can be easily liked by the local Asian audience.
Another contributing factor leading to its success, Phoenix TV provides an emphasis on reporting based on “the perspective of Chinese”. In 2008 the violence that took place in Xin Jiang, was distorted by CNN news by only showing half of the picture and using the western perspective to report the news. However, Phoenix criticized CNN for it broadcast the whole picture as evidence. If Phoenix TV did not do this, the Chinese people would have been more likely to trust CNN. This is also a great example of Phoenix TV’s mission of “the perspective of Chinese”, and by this strategy, the network will not only gain more audience, but also a closer bond to the officials.
Hybridity, arguably, is also one of Phoenix’s tactics to distinguish it from its competitors. Phoenix Satellite TV positions itself within a dominant framework of Chinese-ness and, at the same time, tries to invoke a cosmopolitan gloss. Thus, the Chinese elements are visible in many of its programming content or even formats of Phoenix Satellite TV. For example, Wentao Pai’an, a program of social affair critique, adopts the form of Pingshu: a traditional Chinese Story-telling form. Plenty of programs in the category of History and Culture are named after China, like Flying China (Tengfei Zhongguo)and China Memory (Zhongguo Jiyi) etc.; the hybridity, which arguably make the programs very attractive for all Chinese ethnicity, has brought them a sense of belonging and pride within its national identity.
Media control
Phoenix network has hard-hitting news; however, it also takes care not to step beyond the communist party’s ideological boundaries. Most of Phoenix’s top managers originate from China and have extensive connections with Beijing authorities. Additionally, many of Phoenix’s top staff members participated in the development of broadcasting institutions in China. For illustration, Liu Changle CEO of Phoenix, worked at the China Central People’s Radio Station for over ten years before joining Phoenix; these managers and staff members are familiar with what is acceptable on TV. Despite this, direct censorship from the communist party does not apply to Phoenix. Nevertheless, Phoenix does a self-censorship for the sake of maintaining a presence in the Chinese media market under control of the political party. Phoenix openly admits, in 2009, that it brought on a self-censorship team in both Hong Kong and Shen Zhen to review its programing to make sure that they meet the party’s general censorship standards.
As a profit driven TV network, Phoenix is aware that coverage of controversial issues attracts attention from audiences, so it has programs focusing on the wrongdoings of the lower-level of local governments – stories on which local TV stations would normally never dare to report. However, Phoenix never challenges high level administrative institutions such as provincial governments or central government; it also avoids national issues that may offend the authority of the Communist Party, such as anti-government policies, Falungong, human right issues, or the problems of high unemployment, and so on. The network does not broadcast very sensitive news either; even if there are a few, they have been edited to be conducive to the regime’s official point of view and perspectives of the government. A typical example, includes reports on Falun Gong and the case of Zhang Ziqiang. On July 1, 2004, 500,000 people took part in the pro-democracy demonstration in Hong Kong. On the same day, about 60,000 people took part in the pro-CCP “celebrating Hong Kong’s return” event. Phoenix TV, like all mainland media, only reported the pro-CCP event and not the pro-democracy demonstration. The viewpoint of Phoenix TV’s current affairs program is consistent with Xinhua. Occasionally, the network may say something not to CCP’s liking, but they still adhere to the range of “advices and suggestions” that CCP allows.
On the choices of news topics, the Phoenix TV never reports sensitive news that the central media such as CCTV or Xinhua did not report, but if CCP’s central media reported on something, Phoenix TV will follow, with deeper reports, more background and analysis; the report will be richer and more attractive than that from the mainland media. For some programing, their mission of the program is to cover the latest events in Greater China Area, such as China News Live (Huawen Dazhibo). However, this kind of program tends to feature news events that, while relevant to Chinese interest, occur beyond Chinese borders, for example most of them take place in Taiwan or Hong Kong. Phoenix often offers this as a friendly gesture to the party. Phoenix’s “friendly gestures” toward the party have paid off, as evidence--the former Chinese President Hu jin bao gave comment in an interview and said Phoenix Tv is a good and credible television medium.
At the start of its operation, Murdock held 38 percent of the share with constituted for the largest shareholder in the company. However, selling 20 percent of its shares in 2006 to China mobile (second largest shareholder after Liu) can be seen as a sign of over handle within the network, from a totally independent commercial company to a mixed state owned company. This handover also indicates Phoenix’s closer relationship with the Chinese government.
Relying on Advertisement Revenue
When we look at the revenue resources of Phoenix TV in the 21st century, up to 90 percent of the revenue comes from advertisement compared to 75 to 80 percent in the past. A big percentage of the advertisement revenue comes from titled sponsorship, which is one of most the successful advertisement strategies the network took in use. In this way, Phoenix can only add the company’s name before the program name such as “bai sha fenghuang zao banche” instead of “feng huang zao banche” in order to get the larger amount of money; this kind of sponsor are very important for Phoenix, as it doesn’t occupy its airtime, moreover the sponsor gave a much higher price than other advertisers. However, if we search this company name online, it is not difficult to find that a lot of the feature title sponsors are those powerful state owned companies. As Phoenix requires triple as much advertisement fee than other mainland medium which already has reached ten million HKD, it is hard for private funded companies to afford advertising with Phoenix. Thus, Phoenix needs to keep a good relation with the government in order to continuously get sponsored by these powerful state owned companies.
Conclusion
Despite Phoenix TV’s leading and innovative position during the early stages, the other Chinese mediums have also improved a lot, and as consequence improved followed by the massive globalization and a looser government regulation. CCTV’s successful covering of Iraq invasion, received massive compliments which generated Phoenix TV to lose many of its audience in one night. The advantage the network had during 911 didn’t exist longer. When it comes to its non-news programs, a lot of medium in china have gained success by imitating Phoenix TV. While a range of programs produced outside Phoenix were also innovative in its content and gained many audience such as “voice of China”, Phoenix TV now needs to innovate even more. They must add new and innovative programs before all the other mediums do in order to keep the leading position they held before. Seeing as 90 percent of its money is generated from its ad revenue, the Chinese government has given 5 billion to CCTV and Xinhua to enlarge its global influence. Therefore how will Phoenix enlarge their influence? CCTV with enormous funding from the government, have for example established huge live studios all around the world; also as result of looser of the Chinese regulation, CCTV started to produce in depth, timing international news. While Phoenix TV gradually have a stronger bond with CCP, the broadcasting content narrows and is on a way getting closer of that CCTV can broadcast. Thus in terms of the content, the difference gap is decreasing; and in term of capital and hardware, Phoenix cannot compete with CCTV.
A another crucial damaging effect for Phoenix is the “landing limitation” regulation, that while despite the watching rate is still high among Phoenix’s target audience, it can still reach to much fewer audience in comparison with, for example, CCTV. In addition to the increasing number of citizens in China, the total number of people watching TV have begun to decrease in number. Thus the network will meet difficulties like decreasing audience in the future, which also means decreasing in its advertisement revenue.
At last, but not the least, Phoenix TV’s success is largely based on the conservative regulation of Chinese media policies. The restriction the government has put toward overseas media has actually protected Phoenix from Western media’s invasion to China. However, with China’s gradually opening doors in these policies, this will generate media industrialization and market revolution, and add more room for broadcasting content. When this time comes, Phoenix will meet a powerful competitor such as CNN and BBC in the future, while facing the threats of the domestic CCTV.
