Chinese Being Given Greater Remote Control : Asia: Shanghai leads the nation in television’s shift from a propaganda tool to a source of entertainment.

SHANGHAI, China — Billy Joel music videos, the Super Bowl, Hollywood hits, the latest financial reports and on-the-scene local news coverage. Channel surfing in China has never been so good.

Shanghai, China’s largest and most cosmopolitan city, is leading the nation in transforming television from a propaganda tool of the ruling Communist Party into an entertainment source that is offering viewers more choices than ever.

While the programming is still staid by Western standards, it represents a significant loosening of government controls on television, which is state-owned and -operated.

Most of China’s 600 million television viewers, about half the total population, content themselves with limited programming on two or three channels offering sappy, slow-moving Chinese soap operas, variety shows performed by the military and lectures on electrical engineering.

“Even we in the television industry had the same feeling as the masses: There just wasn’t much to watch on television,” said Wang Jianguo, vice director of the administrative office at Shanghai’s Oriental Television.

Shanghai’s Broadcasting and Television Bureau is trying to liven up local programming in an effort to keep viewers from abandoning television for other forms of entertainment, such as going to karaoke bars.

“As Shanghai becomes more affluent, the amount of television viewing has declined rather than increased,” said John Kaye, director of television services for the audience estimate company Nielsen SRG in Hong Kong.

Shanghai’s efforts in the last two years have resulted in 12 channels offering everything from ESPN to Carnegie Hall concerts to tips on where to get the best buys in town.

Things foreign and Western are no longer forbidden in China, and such programs give Chinese viewers the opportunity to be part of the international pop culture, introducing them to sports stars such as basketball player Michael Jordan and singing groups such as Sweden’s Roxette.

But Oriental’s Wang is quick to assert that the new programming poses no threat to Communist Party rule.

“China’s media organs are still the mouthpieces of the party and the government,” he said.

Shanghai’s ability to make such quick progress has been helped by the fact that it is one of only five cities in China with central government permission to import foreign movies and programming without higher approval.

In November, China’s first music television channel went on the air, part of Shanghai’s extensive cable network system.

But the real evidence of Shanghai’s leading role in China’s television revolution is the establishment of Oriental Television, the nation’s only non-government-financed TV station. Although the Shanghai government provided start-up money, the station has gotten no further government funds and is responsible for its own profits and losses.

Oriental was set up in late 1992 as an alternative to Shanghai Television, and its entertainment-oriented programming quickly captured 42% of the city’s viewership, compared to STV’s 31%.

Although both stations now have about an equal share of viewership, Oriental remains the trailblazer. For example, in 1993 it became the first station in China to offer live broadcasts of the Academy Awards and the Super Bowl from the United States.

Chinese government television already routinely shows programs from other countries, which generally are cheaper than U.S. programs. They include Latin American soap operas and Eastern European movies.

Oriental’s news shows have departed from the standard format of tedious reports on government decisions and production figures, accompanied by film of factory lines, tractors and rows of white-haired officials in meetings.

Its reporters have earned a reputation for being first with local news, offering on-the-scene reports of flooding caused by a water main break or an early-morning traffic accident.

Also breaking with tradition is the city’s extensive cable television system, which says it has signed up 1.1 million subscribers in just two years, about a third of the market. The service costs only 95 cents a month. Its 12 channels include four local cable channels: for features, economic news, sports and music videos. The latter is a far cry from MTV--airing politically or sexually provocative Western videos would be certain to elicit a government backlash.

“The channel does show some English-language videos, but they’re all fairly harmless and usually cover Top 40 pop music,” said Lily Tung, an American living in Shanghai.