Sky and Freesat pulled China’s English language channel within 90 minutes of Ofcom’s decision to revoke its licence.
Earlier, Ofcom said it is revoking CGTN’s licence because of the way it’s editorially controlled by the Chinese state.
CGTN was broadcast on Freesat channel 211 in HD and on Sky channel 509/891 in HD and SD.
The channel’s broadcasts on Astra 2G were suspended at 1700 GMT. This is because Astra 2G is primarily only used by Sky and Freesat viewers in the UK. While Sky and Freesat allow viewers to manually add free-to-air channels not on the main channel list, these options are not well publicised. Therefore, the removal from channel lists renders carriage on Astra 2G as pointless.
CGTN content can continue to be accessed online as well as via Astra 19.2E and Hotbird 13E, all falling outside of Ofcom’s control.
[Last updated: 17:13]