The stodgy government broadcaster launched China's first 24-hour news channel Thursday, imitating Western models and promising faster, more thorough coverage.
Of course, CCTV News Channel didn't get to China's deadly SARS outbreak -- possibly the biggest story in the world -- until four hours into its inaugural broadcast. Instead, it led its first newscast with a live telephone report on a more patriotically heartwarming topic -- a flag-raising ceremony at Peking University.
Still, experts say the livelier format could revolutionize China's entirely state-run broadcasting, whose turgid newscasts frequently feature long reports on grain harvests and factory visits by Communist Party bosses.
CCTV News Channel's emphasis on live reports will challenge the willingness of Chinese authorities to relax censorship and propaganda controls, said Li Xiguang, a journalism professor at Tsinghua University in Beijing.
"Live coverage is unpredictable," Li said. "Not even journalists will be able to predict what will happen, let alone propaganda officials."
China has been loosening its rules as it tries to make its media both more financially self-supporting and relevant to a nation that is opening up to the world.
China Central Television, which runs the CCTV News Channel and 12 other channels, was widely criticized in China for its slowness in covering the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Viewers in households that receive foreign television with illegal satellite dishes were watching continuous reports from abroad just minutes after the attacks occurred, while state TV took several hours to switch to extensive coverage.
Apparently chastened by that experience, state media in March showed extensive and unprecedented live coverage of the U.S. and British attack on Iraq. Television stations in Beijing have been showing daily live coverage of government news conferences about the SARS outbreak.
Some foreign broadcasters such as CNN and the BBC World television service of the British Broadcasting Corp. are licensed to air in China in luxury hotels and apartment buildings for foreigners. But censors often black out broadcasts that touch on Chinese politics or other sensitive topics.
Besides live reports and hourly newscasts, the CCTV News Channel program lineup includes current affairs, finance, business, arts and sports.
"CCTV has opened a new window today," said one stylishly groomed anchor shortly after the channel went on the air. "Through this window, you can see the world and what goes on at home and abroad. The window will never close, whether it is night or day."
Another promised "faster, more and more comprehensive" news, a slogan that sounds snappier in Chinese -- "geng kuai, geng duo, geng quanmian."
Viewer reaction after the first few hours was unenthusiastic.
"The format isn't so dead; it's not so rule-bound," said Wang Wei, a Beijing restaurant owner. "But that's the only difference. The content is about the same."
In the longer term, following a Western news model will mean very different standards for reporting, said Li, the journalism professor.
The new channel will have to "go out in the field to interview people of their own choice, set topics of their own choice, find their own sources," he said. But whether this will happen, Li said, "we have to wait and see."
It wasn't immediately clear whether CCTV planned to transmit its service abroad, joining an international satellite news industry that already includes CNN, the BBC and the Arabic-language Al-Jazeera, based in Qatar.
Station officials refused a request to visit the studios to see the new channel debut.
CCTV estimates its combined broadcasts reach 300 million homes -- most of the mainland's 1.3 billion people. It wasn't immediately clear, however, how many homes would be able to see the new channel.
And there were plenty of signs that despite the new style, news in China is still delivered by the communist government.
Anchors invoked party slogans such as the "Three Represents," a pet theory of recently retired President Jiang Zemin that calls on the party to modernize and make room in its ranks for entrepreneurs.
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