Shanghai Media Group (SMG)

Shanghai Media Group is the collective international identity of Shanghai Radio and Television Station and Shanghai Culture, Radio, Film and Television Group Co., Ltd., which operate as an integrated municipal broadcasting and cultural-media organisation. Its present structure traces to a series of consolidations beginning in 2001: Shanghai’s principal radio and television broadcasters were brought together as Shanghai Media Group that August; the broadcasting organisation became Shanghai Radio and Television Station in 2009; and in March 2014 the station and related cultural and commercial operations were reintegrated into the current station-and-corporate-group structure. It is among China’s largest municipal media conglomerates, reporting group operating revenue above RMB 11 billion.

Media assets

Television: eight broadcast channels, comprising Dragon Television, the News General Channel, the Oriental Shopping Channel, the Yicai Channel, Five-Star Sports, Haha Toonmax, the Oriental Movie Channel and the Metro Channel. Dragon Television launched its full 4K ultra-high-definition channel on 28 September 2025, with satellite transmission and distribution through cable, IPTV and the Kan Dongfang mobile platform

Pay television: eleven digital channels, comprising Oriental Finance-Pudong, Law World, Travel, Golden Classroom, 4K Comedy Theatre, Animation Show, Lifestyle, Extreme Sports, Urban Theatre, New Vision and Game Fengyun

Radio: eight frequencies, comprising Shanghai News Radio FM93.4, Voice of the Yangtze River Delta FM89.9, Shanghai Traffic Radio FM105.7, Yicai Radio FM90.9, Dynamic 101 FM101.7, Love Radio 103.7, Classical 947 FM94.7 and Shanghai Opera Radio FM97.2

Digital: Kan Dongfang, KNews, Archimedes and Yicai, alongside Yicai Global for international financial and business coverage

Financial media: Yicai, comprising the Yicai television channel, Yicai Daily, formerly China Business News, and Yicai Magazine

Listed arm: Oriental Pearl, which publishes audited accounts

The 2024 and 2025 reform programme reduced the traditional broadcast portfolio substantially, closing or integrating four television channels and four radio frequencies to reach the present eight-and-eight configuration.

Ownership and governance

SMG is an integrated municipal public broadcasting institution and wholly state-owned cultural-media group. The corporate arm, Shanghai Culture, Radio, Film and Television Group Co., Ltd., is a wholly state-owned company with registered capital of RMB 5 billion; its own 2024 financial company report identifies the Shanghai State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission as investor and records that the Shanghai Municipal Party Committee Publicity Department exercises investor supervision responsibilities on SASAC’s behalf. Shanghai Radio and Television Station is the municipal broadcasting institution, and the two operate together as the station and group.

Leadership changed during 2026. The Shanghai municipal government removed Fang Shizhong from the posts of station director and editor-in-chief in May 2026. On 1 July SMG announced that the Shanghai Municipal Committee had appointed Song Jiongming Party Committee Secretary and station director, and the municipal government formally appointed him station director on 6 July. At the group’s half-year meeting on 19 August 2026 Song was identified as Party Committee Secretary, station director and group president. The current leadership roster continues with Cheng Wei, Yin Xin, who is deputy station director and deputy editor-in-chief, Li Rong, Zhang Guoxin, Wang Leiqing, Wang Jian’er, Chen Sijie and Wu Qian.

The group’s direction is set through successive annual reform programmes. On 25 September 2024 SMG published a Reform Action Plan, merging the Dragon Television Centre, the Documentary Centre and the Media Convergence Centre into a single new Media Convergence Centre and introducing SMG in AI as its principal strategic direction, which by 2025 and 2026 the group had expanded into an ALL in AI strategy. It designated 2025 a Content Quality Year built around four reform priorities: streamlining, separation of production from broadcasting, technology iteration and workforce optimisation. It designated 2026 a Digital Intelligence Innovation Year organised around five reconstructions covering news production mechanisms, cultural content creation, the media technology base, the cultural media ecosystem and enterprise governance.

Source of funding and budget

SMG combines direct public support with a very large market-facing commercial operation.

Direct public financing is documented. Shanghai’s official report on its 2024 municipal final accounts states that municipal finances were used to support the reform of Shanghai United Media Group and Shanghai Radio and Television Station.

The commercial scale is substantial. The 2024 operating report of the corporate group’s finance company records consolidated operating revenue of RMB 11.9 billion for 2024, with non-listed businesses contributing 35 per cent of total revenue and the listed Oriental Pearl segment around 65 per cent; advertising and media revenue in the non-listed segment alone was approximately RMB 1.194 billion. Oriental Pearl’s April 2026 disclosure gives the parent group’s 2025 total operating revenue as RMB 11.584 billion, with a parent-attributable net loss of approximately RMB 705.5 million. Oriental Pearl itself generated RMB 7.489 billion in revenue and RMB 617 million in attributable profit in 2025.

That revenue spans advertising and media, broadcasting technology, content, cultural tourism, live entertainment and the listed businesses. No published breakdown identifies it by ultimate public or private source. State Media Monitor counts revenue by ultimate source rather than accounting form, so advertising, production, events and technology contracts purchased by municipal government departments or state-controlled companies would count toward the funding condition. No proportion is assumed.

Editorial independence

SMG operates commercially while identifying itself explicitly with Party media responsibilities.

Its 2025 social responsibility report defines maintaining the correct political direction and public opinion orientation as central institutional responsibilities, and at its half-year work meeting on 19 August 2026 the group stated that it continues to uphold its primary duty as Party media. Oriental Pearl’s 2025 report describes the listed company as a Party-media state-owned enterprise while emphasising its responsibility for mainstream public opinion.

Appointment evidence is equally direct. Song Jiongming’s Party position was conferred by decision of the Shanghai Municipal Committee, announced at a meeting attended by the municipal Party committee’s organisation and publicity leadership.

Programming is subject to the regulatory requirements of the National Radio and Television Administration, the State Council body responsible for licensing and content regulation in broadcasting. Earlier records referring to approval by the General Administration of Press and Publication describe a body that no longer exercises that function; press and publication regulation moved into the Central Publicity Department in the 2018 institutional reform.

No independent regulatory framework or oversight body exists to validate the group’s editorial independence.

AI and digital policy

SMG has an internal artificial intelligence governance framework, which distinguishes it from most Chinese outlets State Media Monitor maps. In June 2024 it disclosed that it had drafted an Artificial Intelligence Use Management Regulation and described its principal requirements: AI content production should use safe and trusted tools; generated material must comply with law, industry standards and ethical requirements; the ordinary three-stage editorial review remains applicable; AIGC material should be labelled appropriately so that audiences can identify it; and data collection, storage, processing and sharing must comply with data security requirements. Subsequent responsibility reporting states that the regulation has been formulated and implemented. State Media Monitor did not identify the complete regulation published for public inspection.

Adoption is extensive and runs across the full production chain. Current disclosures describe artificial intelligence applied across planning, gathering, editing, storage, publishing, broadcasting and evaluation. Systems include Scube, an integrated AIGC newsroom tool, the Xingyi financial large model used by Yicai, intelligent agents, and AI translation, writing, editing and multimedia production alongside 4K and AI production infrastructure. In July 2026 the group ran an organisation-wide AI skills competition intended to embed AI use in day-to-day work.

The finding for SMG is therefore not adoption without governance, but extensive adoption alongside an internal governance framework whose complete rules and implementation are not publicly transparent.

China’s regulatory framework applies to covered internet information services. The deep synthesis provisions, effective January 2023, require technical identifiers for generated or edited information and conspicuous labels for specified forms of synthesis where these may cause public confusion or misidentification. The Measures for Labelling Artificial Intelligence-Generated and Synthesised Content, effective 1 September 2025, established the explicit and implicit labelling framework more systematically.

Classification rationale

Shanghai Media Group remains classified Captured Public/State-Managed (CaPu).

It is state-owned and Party-governed. The broadcasting institution and the wholly state-owned corporate group are integrated; the corporate arm is owned by Shanghai SASAC with investor supervision exercised by the Shanghai Municipal Party Committee Publicity Department; and the municipal Party committee directly appoints the group’s senior Party leadership, as the July 2026 appointment of Song Jiongming demonstrates. State Media Monitor identified no independent governing board, charter, appointing mechanism or external oversight body.

Its editorial agenda is directed by the Party-state. SMG’s own 2025 responsibility report makes political direction and public opinion orientation central institutional responsibilities, the group restated its primary duty as Party media at its August 2026 work meeting, and its listed subsidiary describes itself as a Party-media state-owned enterprise.

Predominant state funding is not demonstrated. Direct fiscal support indisputably exists and is recorded in Shanghai’s 2024 municipal final accounts. The group simultaneously generates more than RMB 11.5 billion annually in operating revenue across media, technology, cultural tourism, live entertainment and its listed businesses. No published source disaggregates enough of that revenue by ultimate purchaser to establish state-derived financing above the fifty per cent threshold. That is a finding about the available evidence rather than a positive calculation that the state-derived share falls below half.

August 2026