Analysis of the concept of public channels, the emergence and popularization of public channels

In 1996, the Fujian Provincial Department of Radio and Television set up a television program exchange center, whose function is to implement a unified supply of films for county-level cable television stations. However, the managers soon discovered that the system of unified film supply had insurmountable drawbacks. For example, it is difficult to unify the standards for collecting program fees; The quality of program purchases is not high; The cost of ripping technology is high and the quality is unreliable; Running back and forth in various places, it is inconvenient to work, etc.

Therefore, the Fujian Radio and Television Department at that time put forward the idea of running a public channel. Using a channel in the province's cable TV microwave network, with an investment of 5 million yuan, the use of compression technology, the public channel program is completely transmitted to the city and county stations, and the counties are allowed to superimpose the local station standards after the complete broadcast, and in the specially designated time period, insert local news special programs. In their view, the proposal of the concept of TV public channel not only freed the TV program exchange center from its predicament, but also responded to the requirements of the first time to control abuse and dispersion, and explored new ideas for the management of county-level TV stations.

After the approval of the Ministry of Radio, Film and Television, the public television channel directly managed by the Fujian Radio and Television Department was officially launched on New Year's Day in 1998.

It is not difficult to imagine that the Ministry of Radio, Film and Television at that time was very appreciative of Fujian's attempt. In the following two years, the Ministry of Radio, Film and Television successively approved Jiangxi, Henan, Ningxia, and Gansu to open public channels, and issued the "Implementation Rules on the Transformation of the Functions of Municipal (Prefecture) County (City) Radio and Television Broadcasting Institutions", which clearly stipulates that provincial-level television stations shall set up public channels, and some municipal (local) television stations may also set up one public channel upon approval, and county (city) radio and television stations will no longer retain their own television program channels, and may broadcast their own programs in public channels. Document No. 82 of the State Council in 1999 put forward a more specific plan for the construction of public channels, emphasizing the need to "vigorously promote public channels."

On the basis of the implementation of the integration of three radio and television stations at the county level, the provincial-level television stations shall produce a set of public programs for the television stations of the counties under their jurisdiction to broadcast, and a certain period of time will be vacated for the county-level television stations to produce news and special programs themselves. "In addition to promoting the concept of public channels in a high-profile manner, the national radio and television administrative organs have also given policy preferences to the smooth development of public channels. It is clearly stipulated that radio and television transmission coverage network operators at all levels must use standard channels in cable radio and television networks to rebroadcast public channels free of charge, and counties (cities) that were originally approved to have wireless television transmission methods may continue to use wireless means to relay public channels.

This means that the quality and scope of the transmission coverage of the public channel is not only guaranteed, but also the cost burden is reduced by the fact that there is no transmission fee. Therefore, under the premise of both administrative directives and policy support, public television channels soon blossomed all over the country. At least in terms of numbers, they have become a huge presence in the TV landscape.

The public channel of domestic television is a very interesting concept, which is only used in the context of the reform of the domestic television management system and the setting of channels, and has its specific significance, so it is different from foreign television with a public nature. At the same time, the meaning of this concept with specific connotations has shifted in the process of implementation, and it is moving closer to its universal meaning. In addition, the public channels that have blossomed everywhere in China are not the same in terms of presentation form, and Sun Mo's important thing is that this is not completely different in terms of style diversification, but in the basic structure and core elements.

All of these things have actually made the concept of public channels lose their identity and identification function. Obviously, this confusion in the concept of public channels in China is not a question of whether the rhetoric in the linguistic sense is satisfactory, but reflects the complexity and arduousness of the transformation of the television management system.

Radio and television organizations around the world can be roughly divided into three modes in terms of management system: state-run stations, public stations, and private stations. Nowadays, domestic TV stations have transformed from a single display or platform in the past into a multi-channel coexistence.

The creation of these channels is inspired by the market segmentation theory of marketing, and the fields and spaces they touch and the differences between them are obvious. In the field of media communication, the above narratives or judgments should be said to have become common knowledge, and the overlap of their meanings seems to have semantically covered the scope conveyed by the "public television channel". However, if we only have such inherent common sense, and lack detailed and real research and observation of the origin and operation of public channels of domestic television stations, then our interpretation of the concept of "public channels" will definitely be unclear.

This is obviously not an accidental phenomenon, and it is of profound significance, and some essential symptoms of the reform of the television management system carried out in China against the background of the social transition period can be seen here.

Since its inception, public television channels have been opened up in time for a sufficient distance, and it is time to understand it theoretically. This article is the first step in an in-depth analysis of this rich phenomenon, with a focus on the dissection of the ambiguity of the concept.