China Media Group (中央广播电视总台) is China’s state-owned national broadcaster created in 2018 through the consolidation of China Central Television, China National Radio, and China Radio International, and it operates as a central actor in China’s broadcast and streaming ecosystem across television, radio, and digital platforms while also serving major national and live-event production needs. In the context of digital humans, China Media Group has positioned AI-generated presenters and virtual hosts as practical production infrastructure for news and event coverage, entertainment programming, and multi-platform distribution, using digital-human pipelines to standardize on-air delivery, accelerate turnaround for clips and short-form formats, support multi-language or cross-regional presentation, and integrate real-time graphics and interactive elements for large live broadcasts. Its deployments typically treat digital humans as brand-consistent on-screen interfaces that can be scheduled, localized, and reused across programs, and they sit alongside broader AI production systems for script assistance, voice synthesis, post-production, and multi-screen packaging, which together reflect a strategy of combining broadcast authority with scalable, software-defined “virtual talent” for contemporary media workflows.
China Media Group and China Central Television are not separate peer broadcasters; CCTV is the television component and flagship brand inside CMG’s consolidated structure. CMG (中央广播电视总台), also translated as the Central Radio and Television General Station and often branded as “Voice of China,” was created in 2018 as part of China’s Party-and-state institutional reforms by merging the legacy national broadcasters China National Radio, China Radio International, and CCTV into a single umbrella organization, with CCTV continuing to operate as CMG’s core domestic TV network while CMG provides the unified leadership, budgeting, and cross-platform strategy that spans television, radio, and international services such as China Global Television Network. In practice, the relationship is best understood as “CMG is the parent group; CCTV is its television division/brand,” which is why CCTV channels and the CCTV.com web properties remain prominent public-facing outlets even though their institutional ownership and governance sit within the broader CMG framework established by the 2018 consolidation.