Comcast Corporation is an American multinational telecommunications and media conglomerate founded in 1963 as American Cable Systems. The company was renamed Comcast Corporation in 1969 and is headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Comcast operates cable television, broadband internet, and wireless services across the United States. The company’s NBCUniversal division produces film and television content and operates theme parks, while its 2018 acquisition of Sky extended its reach into European media and telecommunications markets.
CNN, or Cable News Network, is an American multinational news media company owned by the entertainment conglomerate Warner Bros. Discovery. Founded on June 1, 1980, by media entrepreneurs Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld, the Atlanta-based network became the first 24-hour cable news channel and the first all-news television channel in the United States. CNN International, which launched on September 1, 1985, broadcasts CNN programming globally. The network also operates a Beijing Bureau to cover China and Greater Asia.
HTC Corporation is a Taoyuan-based company that specializes in consumer electronics. It was founded in 1997 and initially focused on manufacturing laptop computers as an original design manufacturer and provider. It later shifted its focus to smartphones and gained popularity for its HTC One series of mobile devices.
Purple Bridge Media is a UK-based media training and consulting company founded in November 2008 by Mark Egan, a former BBC journalist. The company provides journalism training, video production, and AI-focused media skills development, and has worked with organizations including the United Nations, the World Health Organization, and the European Broadcasting Union. Purple Bridge Media also provides consulting services in video strategy and social media content creation.
The Middle East Broadcasting Center, also known as MBC Group, is a state-controlled media company based in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, serving the Middle East and North Africa region. While the company identifies itself as “the largest and leading private multimedia company in the Middle East North Africa region,” it is 54 percent owned by the Public Investment Fund (PIF), a sovereign wealth fund chaired by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The company operates over 13 free-to-air television channels and three radio stations across the region. MBC Group also runs Shahid, an Arabic streaming platform offering series, movies, live television channels, sports, and international content. The company operates MBC Studios for content production and MBC Academy, a training platform for media professionals launched in 2020.
Warner Bros. Discovery is an American media conglomerate formed on April 8, 2022, through the merger of AT&T’s WarnerMedia and Discovery Inc. The company operates the original Warner Bros. studios — founded April 4, 1923, by four brothers from the Warner family (Harry, Albert, Sam, and Jack) — along with HBO, CNN, the Discovery Channel, and streaming services HBO Max and Discovery+. Discovery Networks Asia-Pacific, the company’s Singapore-based subsidiary, has engaged in numerous co-productions with Chinese state media since at least 2012, including a series about Xinjiang co-produced with CGTN called “World’s Ultimate Frontier” (走進新疆), and the 2017 three-part documentary “China: Time of Xi” (中国:习近平时代), which China Media Group chief described as serving “external communication” goals for building “a Chinese discourse and narrative system.”
SMG International (上海文广國際傳播中心) is an international communication center established on October 23, 2023, by the Shanghai Media Group (上海廣播電視台/上海文廣集團), the state-owned media conglomerate operating under the oversight of the Shanghai Municipal Committee of the Chinese Communist Party. The center’s mission is to position Shanghai as “the vanguard in shaping Chinese-style modernized urban civilization and international communication.” The center is apparently meant to function as the primary center for international propaganda emanating from the municipal-level financial center, presenting it as the exemplar of “Chinese-style modernization” to global audiences — this being a key propaganda concept introduced by Xi Jinping in early 2021. SMG International, which integrates resources from SMG’s television and radio operations, claims to maintain production capabilities in seven foreign languages through a network of five overseas correspondent bureaus. The center’s flagship product, ShanghaiEye (魔都眼), was launched on November 8, 2023, and operates as a 24-hour YouTube livestream, offering interviews, world news, and videos of foreign influencers visiting politically sensitive regions such as Xinjiang to counteract international allegations of human rights abuses. The center’s documentary productions have also included the three-part series “Chinese Puzzle: Learning Chinese in America,” which profiles Americans studying Chinese, framing language learning as a tool to eliminate biases and correct misunderstandings about China.
Bigwave Robotics is a South Korean tech company founded in 2020 and based in Seoul that operates Marosol, a platform where businesses can rent robots for their needs and which the company calls “the nation’s most extensive robot database.” The platform uses AI to help companies find the right robots for their work by matching them with robot suppliers. Bigwave Robotics also built SOLlink, a tool that lets businesses control different brands of robots all in one industrial or work setting.
Global Times (環球時報) is a tabloid newspaper founded on January 13, 1993, under the People’s Daily, the official newspaper of the Chinese Communist Party. Under its previous editor-in-chief, Hu Xijin (胡錫進), who led the tabloid from 2005 until December 2021, the Global Times became known for its often inflammatory commentaries on global affairs, which The Guardian at the time of Hu’s exit referred to as an “endless stream of quotable insults and invective.” Hu’s departure in December 2021 came amid speculation that the central leadership sought to impose stronger “political guidance” (政治導向) on the publication. The outlet remains more bellicose and nationalistic in its tone than most other “mainstream” CCP media, and sometimes seems to have more latitude to serve this attack dog role. Originally styled as a weekly titled Global Digest (環球文萃), the Global Times was given its present name in 1997, gradually increasing frequency until it became a daily in 2006. In 2009, itofficially launchedits English-language website. In its 2012 “About Us” page, the newspaper claimed to have over 500 correspondents in more than 120 countries and a circulation exceeding 2.4 million copies per issue.
