Star TV, News Corp's Asian satellite TV unit, announced today China had given it approval for a Chinese-language entertainment channel in Guangdong province and would launch it early next year.
Star TV also said in a statement it had agreed to air programmes from China's state-run broadcaster in the United States through News Corp's Fox network.
"We are excited about this landmark agreement, which represents a milestone for Star's development in China," Mr James Murdoch, chairman and chief executive of the unlisted Star TV, said in the statement.
The deal marks the third time Beijing has given a foreign broadcaster access to cable viewers in Guangdong, China's richest province, making it a national test bed for otherwise banned foreign programming.
In October, China gave similar rights to AOL Time Warner's Chinese-language channel CETV and to Phoenix Satellite Television, which is 38 per cent-owned by News Corp.
In the rest of China, foreign channels are banned outside of luxury hotels and foreign residence compounds, and China launched a nationwide crackdown last week on widespread individual satellite dishes and cable operators carrying foreign channels.
The deal gives Star TV, the number one satellite broadcaster in India, a toehold in a region of China that is home to about 100 million cable households.