Do you really have to pay to watch tv in china

[PollyWaffle]

please forgive my ignorance but i can only receive 3 channels from my regular antenna... my satellite receiver appears to be getting a signal but i can't seem to tune it in to the tv... my landlord sez i hafta pay 90kuai to get reception... is this true?

[roddy]

Don't know about satellite - didn't think that satellite TV was that easily available in China.

Here in Beijing you get 有线电视 which is Cable TV, but it's just the Chinese channels - costs 18Y a month (used to be 12Y). I don't think you can get any international channels through it.

Never tried with an arial . . .

Roddy

[Tsunku]

It probably depends on the setup your landlord has. Mine gives me free cable TV as part of my rent package. I get all of the CCTV channels and then a bunch of random local channels from different parts of China (like Tianjin TV, which is kinda strange to recieve in Kunming, but I have it nonetheless), which amount to about 30 channels all in all. Anyhow, like other parts of the world, there are basic network channels, and then cable, which I presume costs a bit more, although how much more I don't know.