Tv News Competition

News information is what TV viewers need most. Therefore TV news programs are the cornerstones of TV stations while exercising great influence on the society. In the facts-changing Chinese society, the healthy growth of the news programs and its fully playing of the role of broadcasting information and guiding the public opinions are quite important for the development of the social economy and the progress of the socialist democracy and politics. In recent years however, as the competence, rating and market share of TV news programs were constantly sliding down, the pan-entertainment trend in news programs is very obvious in TV markets, and many TV stations are becoming "TV series stations" . The reasons could be found not only in the TV news industry itself, but also in the effect from external world. The research object of this thesis is the major competition relations in the markets of TV news broadcasting. The goal of research is to explore and discuss various ways of promoting market environment, related competitive strategies as well as systematic construction.The major content and points of this thesis are:Chapter 1 described the social, industrial and market environments of TV news competition, and analyzed the social motives of news competition and the negative effects of administrative system of the industry on the market competition. The competition pattern and the market structure of the TV news industry are also discussed in the chapter. The major points are: the driving forces of the news competition esp. the TV news competition are linked with political, economic, cultural and technical aspects, and so on; the unique system of the industry makes the related markets quite special and has created a "one-center-with-mixed-competition" pattern; besides, the growing new media also cast impact on the markets. The research object of Chapter 2 and Chapter 3 is the national market of the TV news programs. Chapter 2 analyzed the competition situation in the national TV news markets from the angle of media economics. In the national market, CCTV monopolizes and the space for the development of provincial satellite TVs is quite limited. The almost fully-monopolized market structure has decided the corresponding market activities and has cast negative influence on the market effectiveness (including productivity and creativity of programs) and damaged the fairness and justice of the markets. Chapter 3 discussed the ways to upgrade the competitive patterns in the national markets by comparing it with the TV news markets in Western developed countries. The thesis concluded that CCTV should only monopolize the political news reports to assure its authority of broadcasting central political policies. Based on that, the provincial satellite TVs should not be excluded from reporting the national news events. They should compete more powerfully with CCTV and to promote China's TV news reform and speed up the development of the industry. Furthermore, the thesis figured out that the competitive strategies for provincial TVs under current systems by applying Michael E. Porter's three Generic Competitive Strategies.The research object of Chapter 4 is local TV news markets especially the city markets. The chapter is also based on the frame of media economics. Based on its analysis, the thesis concluded that the city markets have evolved an oligopoly market structure in which the competition is fiercer than that in the national markets. But the media war on livelihood news between local channels has created some negative external effect. Thus the management by the authoritative departments of the government became a must. The chapter also looked forward the future of the city market competition.The research object of Chapter 5 is the external competition of TV news broadcasting. In the age of globalization, the competition of TV news is also internationalized. The thesis found that a relation of mutual competing and promoting has been developed between foreign mandarin TV news media and domestic TV industries. The best defend of domestic industries is "localization" . With the progress of technology, the impact of western TV news channels on domestic markets become much greater. Therefore, China's own foreign news TVs need to catch up with the pace of commercialization in the international TV industries, to promote its competence by market operation, and to apply a tit-for-tat strategy in market competition.Chapter 6 and Chapter 7 discussed respectively the two replacement threats in TV news broadcasting——new media and entertainment program and their impacts. The basic point of Chapter 6 is that TV news markets are not only extended but also divided in the age of new media, therefore the opportunities are coexisting with the risks. The traditional TV news media should give full play to its comparative advantages, reform the ways of producing and broadcasting information, construct the industrial chain of the new media, and actively cope with the new environment of market competition. This chapter also analyzed the development trend of the TV news market in the age of new media. Chapter 7 analyzed the flagging of the concept of "news based TV station" , and the market difficulties faced by TV news programs in the age of entertaining media. The thesis pointed out that entertainment trend of news programs is the wrong direction of development. And, the reform direction of TV news programs is also discussed in the thesis.As the conclusion of the thesis, Chapter 8 summarized the content and points of the thesis. Furthermore, the shortcomings of the research are also mentioned in this chapter.The major theoretical creativities of the thesis are:Firstly, the thesis analyzed the TV news program market from the angle of media economics (mainly in Chapter 2, Chaper 3 and Chapter 4). There are quite a few articles discussing the TV industries and markets from an economic perspective, but few of them have made economic analysis on TV news markets. Why? It is mainly because of the strong ideological character of TV news and the administrative nature of the relevant markets. Even though, TV news programs and their huge commercial income are actually becoming a crucial part of the TV industry. For example, the major commercial income CCTV is from its news programs, and many local TVs are supported by their news programs reporting people's livelihood. So, it is a nice try for the thesis to analyze the TV news program markets from the angle of media economics. Although there are some improper applications, the theoretical creativity of the thesis is still meaningful. Besides, when discussing the related competitive strategies, the thesis tried to make its analysis more theoretical and standard by bringing the practical content into the frame of strategic management theories.Secondly, core points: The thesis figured out that to strengthen the competitive system is the only way to enhance the market environment of TV news broadcasting. To do that, the hierarchy of the allocation system of news resource should be changed and a three-level competition structure of the TV markets should be established with clear developing patterns respectively. Since the high threshold of the industry is the root of monopoly, the thesis suggested that under the current systematic environment, to diminish the obstacles for provincial satellite TVs to report national news events and operate across regions is the only way to change the situation of monopoly and promote the reform of TV news and the development of the industry as a whole. By applying the competitive strategy theory and the core competence theory, the thesis summarized systematically the three basic strategies of news competition between provincial satellite TVs: crudely-made and low cost strategy, characteristic and stylish strategy, as well as the professional and regional strategy.Thirdly, extension points: The effective discipline and self-reform of propaganda management departments are crucial to the establishment of a favorable market environment. While the national markets are lacking in competition, we should loosen the controls on local TVs to build a fairer competitive circumstances. While there are certain over-competitive situations in some local markets, we should discipline the markets by administrative, economic, or other type of means to eliminate the negative affection of the news war on people's livelihood. As to the competition from the cross-border TVs, the concept of discipline should be developed from complete closing down to appropriate opening up. In the new media age, government discipline has to become more socialized, legalized and centralized. To coping with the pan-entertainment trends in news programs, the government should strengthen the support to news programs at systematic and policy levels to efficiently adjust the ecological balance of TV programs. We should give full play to the effectiveness of discipline and adjustment to promote the healthy development of TV news program markets. The propaganda management departments itself should speed up the separation of administration from operation, and deepen the reform of cutting off the interest links between itself and the regulated.