Shanghai Cable TV said it was dropping the programme due to the high number of times programmes had to be reshown, the result of the limited supply of shows from the Discovery Channel, the world's largest documentary producer and distributor.

Statistics from the TV station indicate an average of 75 per cent of Discovery programmes were repeats in 2000, some episodes being shown three times during the year.

As a result, despite being initially popular when it was introduced in Shanghai in 1997, viewers' rates for Discovery have since fallen, according to Zeng Yingjie, director of Shanghai Cable TV's editor-in-chief office.

The average viewers' rates for Discovery stayed at around 1 per cent of Shanghai Cable's nearly 3 million viewers in the city last year, compared to the nearly 9 per cent that the hottest programmes shown by Shanghai Cable get.

"Discovery's disappearance is a natural phase-out, though the viewers' rates are by no means the sole criterion upon which we evaluate a TV programme," said Zeng, who insisted it was only a normal programme adjustment "not worth paying much attention to."

"If we allow Discovery to stay, there would continue to be many repeats. This would make people bored and smear our station's image," said Gao Yunfei, vice-director of Shanghai Cable.

However, the Discovery Channel thinks differently.

"Repeats are necessary on cable TV because different audience groups watch at different times," Luo Baihong, vice-president of the Asian branch of the Discovery Channel, reportedly said.

"We can't agree that repeats have no commercial value. There is no point catering to only small numbers of viewers considering the high cost of producing Discovery programmes," Luo said.

The Discovery Channel broadcasts its programmes to more than 150 million families around the world in 145 countries and in 24 languages every day. It co-operates with 23 provincial cable TV stations on the Chinese mainland.

The Discovery Channel is reluctant to lose such an important market as Shanghai, and it still hopes that there will be further chances to co-operate through other business channels, according to Luo.

To achieve this, it is essential that understanding be reached between the Discovery Channel, which is specialized, and the domestic cable TV stations, which are expected to offer comprehensive programming, analysts said.

"Our door is always open for future co-operation," said Gao, who revealed that Discovery will be replaced by two other similar programmes from abroad during the first half of this year.

(China Daily 02/08/2001)