Catshanghai

Here are some choices for English language short form television in China:

1. Terrestrial TV Channels

CCTV 9 is China’s state sponsored English language news and cultural programmes. Nothing here will rock the boat with Beijing and it has the distinction of hosting the most tedious TV show to have ever graced the airwaves - ‘Dialogue’

ICS is a new English and Japanese station that has some English language films such as old Sinbad films.

2. Satellite TV

Many of my colleagues pay 2000 RMB to get a dish fitted so they can watch Star Sports, BBC World and HBO Asia. We bought a second hand dish from a colleague a year ago that we have never fitted. I have no feeling for televised sport and I get all the content I need from other sources.

3. Streaming Internet Video

Youtube is the famous site for streaming video, but it can be slow as all international web traffic goes through Beijing. Hulu has great content, but you need an American VPN such as Witopia.net or Hotspot Shield to make the site think you are surfing from a US IP address, which can be slow. I would like to be able to use the BBC’s Iplayer to view UK tv shows, but you need a UK IP address for this service to work. It is only available to people in the UK. I have been having fun watching some old episodes of ‘Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares’ on Tudou, which is China’s answer to Youtube. Joost works in China, but it has a poor selection of content.

4. Livestation

Livestation is a piece of software that uses the Internet to stream live television from around the globe. Stations include BBC World and Al Jazeera. Sometimes the picture is jerky and buffers, but CNN works really well.

5. Torrents

Some people use torrent sites such as Pirate Bay, UK Nova or BT Junkie to download international tv shows that are otherwise unavailable in China.

6. DVDs

DVDs exist for many television shows from The Apprentice to Desperate Housewives and Battlestar Galactica. Buying a few of these will mean you have your own personal tv station. A word of warning is that many DVDs in China are pirated.

7. Video Podcasts

Go to Itunes and search for short form video. Content includes news, technology, music and comedy.

8. Itunes TV shows

People can buy and downoad TV shows if they have credit or debit cards registered in a country that has an Itunes store.