A very heartfelt hat-tip to Shanghaiist for posting that CCTV 9 may be facing some competition in the English-language news arena. This is from Reuters:

Shanghai Media Group, China's second-largest media group by revenue, plans to launch a 24-hour English TV news channel in China this year as it seeks to expand to reach a global audience. Shanghai Media has been in talks with regulators in charge of the media and culture sectors for at least one year and is likely to win approval for launching the new channel by the end of the year, government and industry sources familar with the situation said. Shanghai Media's plan has already won strong support from the Shanghai city government, which owns the firm, and is now subject to approval from top regulators in Beijing, they said.

China Media News remembers working at CCTV 9 in the summer of 2005, and hearing rumors then that SMG was planning to pull together many of its English language programs as a basis for a 24-hour English channel under Dragon TV. We reported earlier that SMG is now hiring many English-language copy editors, and now the Reuters report mentions that the station is hiring reporters and presenters as well. If anybody has any further information, please let us know at tips@chinamedianews.net.

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