SHANGHAI: AOL yesterday began broadcasting news programmes supplied by
Shanghai Media Group's broadband unit, the Shanghai company said.
Shanghai Media Group Broadband (SMGBB) will provide Chinese content mainly
news, finance, entertainment and sports via AOL.com to viewers worldwide.
AOL, the Internet unit of Time Warner Inc, provides the online platform, and
MediaZone, a worldwide provider of online television programming and a China
partner of AOL and Shanghai Media Group, will do the daily maintenance.
The programmes are available at http://www.aol.com/chinese, which provides up
to 20 hours of video content including news, movies, and TV dramas.
It is reportedly the first time that a Chinese mainland media group is
offering content to an influential American website.
Zhang Dazhong, Shanghai Media Group's deputy general manager, said: "Through
the partnership, we can provide the latest and accurate news to Chinese-language
users."
It was not disclosed how much AOL will pay the Shanghai firm for the content.
Michelle Wu, MediaZone's chief operating officer, said: "Thanks to SMG, we
are able to expand our service in Chinese via AOL.com with over 200 minutes of
daily video news, especially offered to the Chinese speaking communities in the
United States."
MediaZone's ChinaPortal.com assisted AOL in launching its Chinese-language
website in February.
Norman Koo, AOL web strategy executive, said: "By creating this free,
language-specific portal, we can better serve the millions of people in the
United States who want access to critical features and communications tools,
especially the latest news and entertainment video, in Chinese."
Shanghai Media Group was formed from the merger of the city's radio and
television stations in 2001 and ranks as one of the country's biggest media and
entertainment conglomerates. It has been tying up with major international media
groups such as Viacom, Vivendi Universal and Discovery Channel.
SMGBB is the only company licensed on the Chinese mainland to provide
Internet Protocol Television, or IPTV, services.
(China Daily 04/18/2006 page1)