In 1956, Chen Haotian, deputy director of Shanghai People's Broadcasting Station, and some engineering and technical cadres planned to establish a TV station in Shanghai, focusing on the research of TV broadcasting technology. On August 2, Miao Lichen, director of Shanghai Radio Station, and Chen Haotian, deputy director, jointly reported to the
Shanghai Municipal Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, applying for the establishment of Shanghai TV Station. Later, on October 22, they wrote to the Central Broadcasting Bureau to apply for TV frequencies and proposed to design and manufacture TV transmission equipment by themselves. At 18:51 on March 15, 1979, Shanghai TV broadcast a Swiss Rado watch advertisement, which was the first foreign TV advertisement in mainland China. In 1981, Shanghai TV added Channel 20, which started broadcasting on April 22 (after Shanghai Oriental TV was established on January 18, 1993, Channel 20 was assigned to Oriental TV and is now a city channel). On July 1, 1986, Shanghai TV officially launched Channel 26, replacing Channel 20 to broadcast educational programs (after Shanghai Educational TV was established in 1994, the channel was assigned to Educational TV). On October 1, 1989, Shanghai TV launched Channel 14, initially broadcasting
China Central Television (CCTV)'s second educational program, and later changed to Shanghai TV's second self-produced program channel (later Xing Shang Channel). On February 16, 1996, Shanghai TV and Shanghai Animation Film Studio merged to implement the "one team, two brands" policy. In April 2000 and July 2001, Shanghai Satellite TV Center and Shanghai Cable TV were merged into Shanghai TV. Shanghai TV had seven channels with their own characteristics, broadcasting 137 hours of programs every day, including 27 hours of self-produced programs. ==See also==