A: Over the past two decades, the publishing industry, including books, periodicals and video and audio production, has developed quickly, and a region-wide media network has taken shape. Tibet has four publishing houses and one audio-visual duplicating factory. Since its founding 30 years ago, the Tibet People's Publishing House has published 6,600 titles, with a distribution of 78.9 million copies, 80 percent of them in Tibetan. About 100 titles have won national and regional awards. Tibet now has 25 printing houses, including the Tibet Xinhua Printing House, that have gradually adopted new printing techniques, such as electronic type and photo setting, planographic offset printing, electronic color analysis, and multi-color printing. A region-wide book distribution network has basically been established, which has provided Tibetan readers with over 90 million copies in Tibetan under some 8,000 titles over the past two decades. Newspapers and periodicals have developed steadily. In 1956 the Tibet Daily began publication, and in 1977 Tibet Literature and Arts was issued. Today 52 newspapers and periodicals are in circulation in Tibet.
Radio, film and TV undertakings have also developed after the peaceful liberation. Today, Tibet has two radio stations, 36 medium-and short-wave radio transmission and relay stations, two TV stations, 354 TV relay stations and 1,475 satellite earth stations. Its radio and TV networks cover respectively 65 and 55 percent of the Tibetan population. The TV penetration rate around Lhasa is 75 percent. Film serves as a major cultural pastime in agricultural and pastoral areas. Tibet now has 436 cinemas, which provide over 130,000 film screenings a year and seat some 28.5 million patrons. Farmers and herders watch at least one film, in Tibetan, per person per month. In Tibet's large cities still more information is available at Internet bars.