Maybe its just my simple brain, but I have never understood how a market economy and authoritarian governance can co-exist. But that is what we are told is happening in China. Nevertheless, the inherent conflict between those two macro forces is very evident in the television and radio industries.

China on Wednesday tightened controls on its television and radio stations, announcing a ban on forming partnerships with foreign broadcasters to operate channels. The rule supposedly took effect on July 7th.

From the WSJ:

"Some foreign companies such as Viacom Inc.s Nickelodeon have formed joint ventures with Chinese partners. Others sell blocks of programming, while a small group including a Chinese-language channel owned by News Corp.'s Hong Kong-based Star Group have been granted rights to broadcast to small areas of the mainland. It wasn't clear how those arrangements might be affected."

Om Malik has pointed out that China is #2 in Broadband penetration at over 28 Million. Many postings on this site have highlighted the fact that television shows and news are increasingly available as web channels. I suppose that Chinese authorities have a lot of regulatory work ahead of them.

An interesting coincidence: USA Today ran an article on the same day called "Can the future of TV be seen on the Web?"