Eutelsat and TV Station Renew Pact for Broadcasts Into China
By ANDY PASZTOR and MURRAY HIEBERT
Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
September 6, 2005
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB112596467874932221,00.html?mod=technology%5Fmain%5Fwhats%5Fnews
French satellite operator Eutelsat SA and a New York television station
owned by a group of Chinese-Americans renewed a satellite-leasing agreement
that will allow the channel to continue beaming politically controversial
programs into parts of China.
The pact caps months of negotiations between the companies amid public
pressure by European and U.S. politicians to finalize an agreement. The
companies' previous one-year agreement expired in April, raising the
specter that independent programming by the fledgling station, New Tang
Dynasty Television, might be silenced.
The new six-year leasing contract was signed on Sept. 1 by NTDTV and an
intermediary acting for Eutelsat, Europe's second-largest
satellite-services provider, but hasn't been announced. The companies
confirmed the pact but declined to discuss details.
The deal ends more than a year of high-stakes moves by Eutelsat, which had
hoped to dump NTDTV as part of a strategic effort to ingratiate itself with
Chinese authorities and thereby win access to an even larger share of the
Chinese broadcast market, according to former company officials
knowledgeable about the situation. They say the strategy backfired when the
commercial issues escalated into an international dispute over freedom of
the press.
NTDTV, a closely held New York station started four years ago mainly by
Chinese-Americans, claims to offer Western-style news and information
throughout many areas of Asia, including parts of China. But Chinese
authorities say the station is a front for the banned Falun Gong spiritual
movement, which the government considers a threat to its authority.
In the new pact, Eutelsat agreed to follow internationally accepted content
standards that preclude censorship of the channel by Beijing. Analysts say
the agreement potentially breaches the Chinese Communist Party's near total
control over foreign companies' efforts to broadcast sensitive
Chinese-language programs into China.
Beijing has long sought to bar foreign media companies from broadcasting
directly into China. Last month, an effort by News Corp., owner of the Fox
television network, to operate a prime-time television channel in China
derailed when the Chinese joint-venture partner backed out.
But amid broader U.S. concerns over China's human-rights policies, the
protracted Eutelsat-NTDTV dispute expanded from a commercial disagreement.
It helped spark an international dispute over freedom of the press and
Beijing's desire to control the airwaves. The arguments eventually
embroiled not only leaders of the European Union and members of the U.S.
Congress, but some of the private-equity firms that control Eutelsat.
================================
George Antunes, Political Science Dept
University of Houston; Houston, TX 77204
Voice: 713-743-3923 Fax: 713-743-3927
antunes at uh dot edu
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