Country China | Language Chinese Founded 2 September 1958 | |
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Launched 2 September 1958; 58 years ago (1958-09-02) Owned by China Central Television Broadcast area ChinaHong KongMacauTaiwan TV shows CCTV New Year's Gala, Infinite Challenge, A Bite of China, Chinese Characters Dictation, Yuanfang De Jia | ||
CCTV-1 (China Central Television) is the flagship terrestrial television channel of CCTV in the People's Republic of China. It broadcasts a range of programs and is available to both cable and terrestrial television viewers from China Central Television Headquarters at East 3rd Ring Road in Beijing. The terrestrial signal of CCTV-1 is free-to-air across China. However, due to copyright restrictions, the satellite signal of CCTV-1 is encrypted, and smartcards are needed for decryption.
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Peking Television (1958-1978)
CCTV-1 (formerly known as "Peking Television") was launched as China's first television station on 2 April 1958 and officially began broadcasting for 6 hours a day starting on 2 September 1958. Peking Television was granted a free-to-air terrestrial television broadcasting license in the 1960s. It began broadcasting experimentally in colour in 1971, and later launched via satellite transmissions in 1972 for major events. The first colour programmes were PAL-D. Full-time colour broadcasting began in 1977.
China Central Television (1978–present)
On 1 May 1978, Peking Television was renamed China Central Television (CCTV). In 1988, it began stereo broadcasting on all television channels. In 1994, it moved satellite broadcasting from Chinasat-3 to Chinasat-4, a quality-level broadcaster. It turned on its digital signal in 2002. CCTV-1 began broadcasting 24 hours a day on 1 October 2004 and began high-definition broadcasting on 28 September 2009. On 1 March 2011, Hong Kong's Asia Television (ATV) started relaying CCTV-1 instead of CCTV-4 which is a free-to-air digital terrestrial television station in Hong Kong on UHF normally tuned to 15.
Transmission hours
All times shown below are China Standard Time.
Broadcasting length
Live programming is used on special occasions such as the Chinese National Day, Handover of Hong Kong, Hong Kong International Airport, Taiwanese earthquake, 11 September 2001, Sichuan earthquake, Asian Games and Summer Olympic Games.
Special
High-definition
CCTV-1 HD is a simulcast network version of CCTV-1 in high-definition (HD). All programmes still made in standard-definition are upscaled to high-definition output. The rest of the programming hours consist of mainly upscaled resolution CCTV-1 simulcast. The horizontal resolution was increased to 1920 pixels. For the duration of the 2012 Summer Olympics broadcasting was increased to 24 hours a day to provide extra coverage of the Summer Olympic Games events. CCTV-1 HD was created specifically for the 2008 Summer Olympics and the 2008 Summer Paralympics at the Beijing National Stadium.