BBC World News

Is the use of satellite television in China illegal? That would be the way you could see the government dealing with that issue.

It looks a bit too neat to be satellite jamming. Firstly it's a tidy cut to black rather with no picture disturbance. Secondly it cuts away before the story even starts, so unless they have access the running order they wouldn't know the story was coming up. So they're obviously watching it on a delay so they can block it before anything appears at all

So they're censoring it after it comes off the satellite but before it's sent out to the public on cable or other distribution system.


And of course you can't just jam one service, it's the whole transponder or nothing.


I don't know what satellite they use for World News in China but if they were jamming the satellite the other broadcasters on their transponder wouldn't be very keen


World News Asia Pacific is on these satellites:
https://www.lyngsat.com/tvchannels/uk/BBC-World-News-Asia-Pacific.html
Notice that on Intelsat 19 it appears 3 times, albeit all encrypted

Yes - I doubt it's jamming. It's far more likely to be a rebroadcast that has been interrupted in the video domain

Look to me like they receive BBC World News, decode it, delay it a little bit to give them warning of something they need to blank, they then cut to black when that happens, and then cut back when the report they want to censor is over. The resulting censored feed is then rebroadcast to Chinese viewers?

Satellite is probably used by the state run CCTV etc to reach rural areas, so such a rule might be difficult to enforce there. Urban areas, probably easier to enforce.

In China you have to have permission to install a satellite dish, presumably it has to point to Chinese satellites.
Urban areas have very high cable penetration. Foreign channels such as CNN and those from Hong Kong and Macau are generally only available in hotels, not to residential subscribers.

I think today demonstrated why the BBC needs to have separate channels for the UK and elsewhere. The amount of time spent on the UK PM's adviser compared to Hong Kong (and no time on the India-China military tensions) was appalling for international viewers. Maybe not for UK viewers, but it is for us outside the UK.

The headline sequence is usually a good clue to the programme's running order
(But yes, a delay seems likely if they're going to all that effort)

Has Studio B in operation since the lockdown or has the lights been switched off and locked away?

It’s not locked, it’s just not being used at the moment. Everything is still in situ.

Talking Business Weekly seems to be the name of the new show:

🏨🛏️ "There is light at the end of the tunnel"

In the first episode of @bbcaaron's new weekly show @HiltonHotels' Simon Vincent says #hotel occupancy in #China has gone from 9% to 50% as #coronavirus is overcome, bringing hope for other countries.https://t.co/YuDUVVel7S pic.twitter.com/2fgE4r4j2l

— Jonathan Josephs (@jonathanjosephs) May 31, 2020

Will he still have the weekday show?

I guess so, Ryan. Once normal programming resumes. It was a popular show.