The National Radio and Television Administration recently released its latest statistics for China's broadcasting and television sector in the first half of 2026.
Preliminary figures show that total industry revenue reached 751.389 billion yuan, up 9.15% year on year. Of this, operating revenue came in at 675.365 billion yuan, an increase of 11.05% from a year earlier.
Broken down by entity, broadcasting and TV institutions generated 324.760 billion yuan, while online audiovisual service providers brought in 426.629 billion yuan. Nationwide, total radio airtime amounted to 7.6445 million hours, and TV airtime totaled 9.1197 million hours. As of end‑June, there were 205 million cable TV subscribers and nearly 44 million 5G users in the broadcasting sector.
At the end of March, the number of such 5G users was nearly 43 million, compared with close to 42 million at the end of 2025. This implies that the sector added about 2 million 5G subscribers in the first half of 2026, including roughly 1 million in the second quarter alone.