CCTV App for mobiles/tablets

[Luxi]

I'm very impressed with the latest version of the free CCTV App for IPad / iPhone.

 

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/cctv-china-central-television/id878031632?mt=8

 

It offers the full set (or near enough) of the International Central Television Channel programs in several languages, including Mandarin, as well as at least some of the Channel 9 documentaries. 

 

The news are split into individual items, most very short and therefore very suitable for repeated playing. It also includes some good programs for listening comprehension practice, like the excellent "Journey of Civilization" (文明之游）

 

(also available in You Tube)

 

Navigation and settings are very easy. 

 

The app is also available for Android but I was unable to make it work in my Nexus 7 tablet, and judging by the comments in Google Play, I'm not alone there. Perhaps it works with non-Google devices.

 

(not sure why this disappears when I try to post, I now deleted a link to cn.cctv's Journey of Civilization page in case that is the offending item)

[TheBigZaboon]

I don't know if this is the android version of the same app, but it is called 央视影音，and I use it on an old ainol 7. It's all in Chinese, so you will have to learn a little bit of tv vocabulary, but that's part of the fun. I don't know if it will display in English, as I haven't looked, but it might.

It is a bit unstable if you try to make it hurry up as if it were installed on the newest quad core dream machine, but if you are patient you can get a half hour or so of uninterrupted video after a few false starts. That's long enough for an episode of 大头儿子，小头爸爸， or a 15 minute interview with Zhang Ziyi in Chinese.

You have to take the time to learn how to find what is offered on a particular channel between scheduled programs, but there's plenty of short topics with Chinese subtitles, even for Chinese programs.

All the other cctv channels are there, too, including Russian, French, Spanish, Arabic, and English.

There is a Google app store installed on this machine, but no gmail and no Chrome, if that makes a difference.

Anyway, your mileage may vary, but it's worth a try.

Just my two kopecks...

TBZ