Pearson, the owner of The Financial Times, the paper which has been itching to launch its India edition for the past decade but has been stopped from doing so, has managed to do so in China.

The country that has resisted overseas media influences for years, finally opened its doors to its first overseas alliance spanning television, broadband services and publishing this week. That should give some food for thought to Indian mandarins and politicians, considering the issue of foreign direct investment (FDI) in print media. Indian bureaucrats have often cited a 1956 Cabinet decision which had decided that FDI is a no-no.

The reason China decided to open up to Pearson: the 2008 Beijing Olympics. CTV Media, the multi media production arm of China Central Television (CCTV) has announced a joint venture with the London based media and education company. The alliance will centre on English language training as China prepares to greet the world in English at the Olympics, seven years from now.

The new Beijing-based company, Pearson CTV Media, will provide education and consumer content across television, broadband services and publishing for China’s 350 million television households. As part of the cross media effort, CCTV will provide Pearson CTV Media with unprecedented distribution across its television network, which reaches more than one billion viewers every day.

Considering the reach and scope of the 2008 global sports event scheduled in China, Pearson seems to have landed a winner for itself. An estimated $1 billion will be spent on sponsorship around the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. The country has more than 350 million television households and more than 400 million radio households. The total Chinese media market is worth an estimated $12 billion; the media industry is China’s fourth largest tax contributor. In the last ten years, the advertising market in China has grown to $7.5 bn.

Pearson CTV Media will produce a range of television programming to introduce conversational English in an entertaining setting on CCTV channels. Four television series are planned with two already in development and the first to be broadcast on CCTV’s Channel 10 (education and culture) and Channel 5 (sports) from early next year. Phrase of the Day, a series of more than 250 ninety-second vignettes, each introducing an English language phrase will introduce everyday English phrases set in real life situations such as shops, hotels and taxis. It will be broadcast throughout the day.

The Maze, the biggest contestant-based show to be screened in China’s television history. The Maze will feature teams of contestants who race through a multi-level maze and gather rewards each time they are able to read an English phrase.

A six-part series Eyewitness China, focusing on China's history, art and culture, is being made for distribution around the world. Based on the award winning Eyewitness format developed by Dorling Kindersley (DK), another Pearson company, the series will combine original production with exclusive access to over 10,000 hours of footage from CCTV's television archives. DK will publish new companion consumer titles alongside Eyewitness China.

According to an official release, the shows are likely to generate significant advertising and sponsorship opportunities for multinational corporations looking to promote their products in China. All television programming are to be supported with companion publishing from Pearson imprints including Longman, the world’s leading English Language Training company. Longman will publish print, online and audio courseware, and the joint venture will pilot broadband services, including self-study English language courseware. The pilots will run in Beijing housing complexes recently installed with high bandwidth internet connections.

Pearson Broadband, the broadband television division of Pearson plc, will own 50% of the venture, with CTV Media Ltd holding a 40% stake. Cyber Solutions, a broadband and telecommunications services company based in Beijing, will hold the remaining 10%. According to CCTV officials, talks for the joint venture have been on since August 2001.

Pearson already has a presence in India through Penguin India Publishing and Fremantle India, a production house which has been behind such TV series such as Kricket, Family Fortunes, Born Lucky, Let's Make a Deal and Small Talk in India