Chinese TV's news and current affairs APP : 央视新闻

[Luxi]

Central TV's 央视新闻 APP is a multi-media news and current affairs app, combining text, videos and radio. The current version started well early this year, but soon run into trouble and became barely functional for several months - it may have been 'chastised' because it had published a few articles criticising some sectors of the establishment, the news became 'frozen' on a date in April and live streaming stopped working. 

 

It seems to have stabilised now and recovered full functionality. Of course, propaganda and 'journalistic restraint' rule paramount, there's a lot of Xi Jingping, the Party and the military, but there is enough variety of content to always have something interesting to offer. The app's structure makes it very easy to find one's type of articles.

 

The app has 3 main parts: a radio streaming news 24X7; a video and text part with several different topic-sections; and a video part, with live streaming of cctv's news channel  (cctv 13)  and archived videos from various current affairs TV programs, where one can select one's own favourites. Most of the videos have Chinese subtitles, a few from cctv 4 also have English subs. 
 
It's free and available for IOS and Android (can be downloaded from CCTV news web pages.  The Apple store has iPhone and iPad versions. 

[Shelley]

I have been using CGTN app for several months and find it interesting and I can learn some things. I also have it as a subscription account on We chat which gives a selected few items of news. They are both in English with some Chinese. I also have the China Daily on We chat , quite similar to CGTN but has some good culture articles too.

As you say it is Xi Jingping etc heavy, but readable and interesting for the most part.

[TheBigZaboon]

@Luxi,

Thanks for the heads-up. To verify, this app offers the news in Chinese, right? I went directly to the Googleplay store, but there were lots of similar apps with titles that didn't  quite match exactly, so I didn't know which one to choose. I don't feel quite right going through CCTV, but that may just be my natural paranoia.

 

@Shelley's app was right there, but I 'm assuming that app gives the news in English. I will investigate further to see if there's any Chinese news included.

 

Thanks again to both of you for sharing.

 

TBZ 

[Luxi]

 

44 minutes ago, Shelley said:

has some good culture articles too.

 

The news section in this app includes many of the topics in the CCTV/CGTN web pages, sometimes it helps to go to the website to find the text of the news,  since there are no English subs in the app.

 

One of the sections is titled Night Readings (夜读), it often carries articles on Chinese culture and also - my favourite - beautifully illustrated articles on the periods in the Chinese almanac . I prefer to read those articles on the web because of the bigger print (and the pop-up dictionaries)

[Luxi]

2 minutes ago, TheBigZaboon said:

To verify, this app offers the news in Chinese, right?

 Yes, only in Chinese.

I think you won't find it in the Google store. If you go to the link I gave to CCTV news above, it'll take you to the download page in the Apple store and a direct download for the Android app. Google will send you cautionary notices, but the app is quite safe and doesn't even have advertising.

[Publius]

Consider yourself lucky that you're not learning Japanese. Japanese people seem to have this ridiculous idea that if you can't pick up the terrestrial signal, you shouldn't be allow to watch/hear it over the internet. Radiko is the platform used by major radio stations. A mere Japan IP is not enough. You can't listen to Osaka stations using a Tokyo IP. Super annoying. And their android app is even better. A VPN won't fool it. It needs your GPS location. And it makes sure you're not using fake GPS or it refuses to launch. Sorry for the off-topic rant. You guys carry on.

[TheBigZaboon]

@Luxi, 

Thanks. I realize it is pointless to resist, but somehow, I can't  help myself.

I've downloaded CCTV stuff before, so my squeemishness is silly, but ...

 

TBZ 

[Luxi]

TBZ, you can always follow the same news in the web pages, in many ways it's easier to read.

Though I like the various functions in this app, I think it's very sophisticated.

 

[Shelley]

Yes I enjoy those articles about the periods in the chinese almanac, they also appear in China Daily almost exactly the same, not all the time but quite a lot. I like the advice of the foods to eat and of some of the activities that people do.

 

China Daily also has an article written by one of the foreign reporters on the China Daily, good insights into life for expats. 

 

I also subscribe in We chat to a channel called Learn Chinese, this has 3-4 articles about learning Chinese and life in China from a students point of view. Teaches vocab, grammar, etc and has some interesting items about the Chinese language and culture.

 

I enjoy using these as apps on my tablet so I can read them where I like. I wouldn't like to read them on my phone, but its ok on my tablet.