Tibet Television Station will launch a 24-hour Mandarin Chinese channel on Thursday, the 60th National Day of New China.

The station, which started operation in 1985, launched a Tibetan-language channel on October 1, 1999, and started round-the-clock broadcasting on October 1, 2007.

The local TV station has three channels, including two satellite channels, broadcasting 61.5 hours of programs a day and reaching up to 89.94 percent of the region's population.

(Xinhua News Agency October 1, 2009)