In the current issue:

Chinese new media Olympics: the face of the future?
China has placed great emphasis on the Beijing Games being the 'hi-tech' Olympics with new media allocated a key role in realising that objective. For the first time new media rights were negotiated separately from the traditional broadcasting rights and new media from HDTV through to cellphone television are an important feature of the Beijing 2008 media landscape. Rights-holder CCTV is therefore hoping the Games will boost its position in China's new media sector and shape its future with the television station at its centre. Meanwhile China's top portals are engaged in a fierce battle for online Olympics viewers. In this Analysis, China Media Intelligence looks at what has been achieved in making these the new media Olympics and asks to what extent Olympics coverage offers an indication of the future of the country's new media sector

CNNIC statistics: interesting times for China's Internet?
The latest official statistics on Internet use in China come at an interesting time as the country celebrates the Olympics in Beijing on the one hand while having suffered a tough and tragic half year of natural and man-made disasters, international political protests and heightened media attention. The Internet has played a key role in each of these areas of contemporary Chinese experience and that is reflected in some areas of the CNNIC report. However, at the same time, Internet use continues to expand in China becoming faster, more widespread and more sophisticated. In this report China also celebrates becoming the country with the largest Internet-using population. In this Market Report, China Media Intelligence assesses the latest statistics for what they show and don't show about China's Internet development while keeping a critical eye on how the Chinese authorities want the statistics to be read

Film studio plans Q4 share offer
Beijing-based Huayi Brothers Group, one of the country's largest film studio operators is looking to launch an initial public offering (IPO) in the fourth quarter of this year

Cellphone television handsets distributed for Olympics
China Mobile and the Beijing Olympics organisers have distributed 40,000 dual-mode cellphone television handsets in the run up to the Olympics

Estimates conflict for opening ceremony audience
Various different estimates of the global audience for the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics have emerged in the media

QQ breaks record with Olympics coverage
Leading Chinese instant messaging provider and portal QQ.com has recorded the highest ever number of contemporaneous video users in China